Book Launch of "Catholic Social Thought and Prison Ministry" by The Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology

On Monday, 29 April, I have joined to Book Launch of "Catholic Social Thought and Prison Ministry" by The Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology. 

I'd like to express my thankfulness for the invitation to presentation of the long-awaited book Catholic Social Thought and Prison Ministry. Resourcing Theory and Practice, edited by Elizabeth Phillips, Férdia J. Stone-Davis! 

It is an important development on the field of the theology in practice. As a representative of Ukraine in the International Catholic Commission of Prison Pastoral Care I have attended the event with assistance of chief representative of the ICCPCC-Europe Doris Schäfer. Many Christian denominations in my country in the Pastoral Council of Religious Assistance in Prison under the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine find great support in the Social doctrine of the Catholic Church. 

I’d like to express my gratitude and respect to all the speakers, co-authors and researchers, who have contributed significantly to this publication. Thanks for the words of introduction to His Excellency Bishop Richard Moth (Lead Bishop for Prisons for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales)! With great interest I listened to Most Reverend Fr. Dr Patrick Riordan’s (SJ) comments on his chapter 2 Common Good and Prison. Many Thanks for the presentations of Dr. Alice Ievins on Chapter 5 Hope, Despair, and Desistance and Dr. Keith Adams on Chapter 9 Catholic Social Thought and Prisons. All these topics are of great importance to prison chaplains and voluntary assistants. 

Social teaching of the Church is very helpful especially in time of tribulation which we have in our country now. At least 18,000 prisoners find themselves on the occupied parts of Donbas and Crimea in the first phase of the war since 2014 and more than 3,000 prisoners after the full-scale invasion. They were immediately deprived of all rights and some were tortured to death, some were forcibly transported to the territory of the aggressor country. During a full-scale war that is genocidal in nature, we faced huge challenges, such as the need to evacuate prisoners of various categories. Such evacuation affected more than 11,000 prisoners in Ukraine. 

We faced new challenges when the aggressor country attracted the most dangerous criminals to private military companies, using the imitation of amnesty. Dozens thousands of such former prisoners were thrown into the so-called ‘meat assaults’ and died. The Social doctrine of the Church has all the points related to this kind of events, but they need even more detailed verbalization as a response to the dangers and abuses that are recognized as war crimes. But at the same time we need a pastoral response! Another problem is also the pastoral care of prisoners of war.

Constantin Panteley

Address of His Eminence Michael Koltun, Bishop of Sokal and Zhovkva, on the occasion of the Day of Special Attention to Prison Ministry

 

(Sunday of the Prodigal Son, March 3, 2024)

To Their Eminences and Most Reverend Bishops, reverend brothers and sisters in monasticism, to priests and faithful of the UGCC

Beloved in Christ!

On this Day of prison pastoral care, which the Synod of Bishops of the Kyiv and Halych Supreme Archdiocese of the UGCC has appointed for Ministry in prison, I would like to reflect on what the appeal of the Apostle Paul means: to remember prisoners, as if we ourselves were together with them in chains (Hebrews 13.3). First of all, I repeat this request, so that we remember our brothers and sisters, the thousands of prisoners of war who have fallen into the fetters of the criminal ruzzian ivaders and who are daily exposed to tortures, humiliation and death, but also who survive in hope. They need daily struggles for their salvation, and above all, prayers.

In the world, we often become prisoners of sin until our Lord Jesus breaks our bonds by cost of His great suffering and blood shed for us on the Cross. Along with such prisons of sin, many are physically imprisoned, locked up in actual prisons, behind bars and barbed wire fences. Whether a prisoner has committed a crime or has been unjustly punished, he is often the victim of bitterness and anger, loneliness, fear and despair, among other devastating emotions. And those who condone evil also attack and demoralize them, leaving them with no hope of salvation or even survival. This is a population that is easy to forget about. But even a criminal does not lose his dignity as a person, as a member of the human family, because he committed a crime. God is looking for and waiting for him, like a father for the return of his prodigal son.

Some prisoners are forced to live in extreme conditions of violence, indifference, selfishness, alienation and oblivion. This reality causes the fragility of our society. God's Light has great power to shine even in their darkness. And they are not forgotten by the Lord! God views those in prison as His beloved sons and daughters, made in God's image and likeness, who have eternal life, who can be saved and exalted through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. For Him, each person is unique, like a son who was dead and came to life (Lk. 15.24).

Dear brothers and sisters, even if you do not feel personally vocation to carry out such a difficult ministry of visiting or corresponding with prisoners, or supporting their liufe needs, you can still do something very important: voluntarily undertake to pray for those, who is in prison and who needs Christ so much. According to the testimony of our chaplains, many hardened, unattainable criminals experienced a supernatural change, knowing the light and love of Christ. The prisoners themselves admit that the miracle of conversion happened in their lives thanks to Christians who interceded for them in prayer. What motivates evil people to change? According to the testimony of once-convicted criminals, this change is the power of God's Word and the fellowship of truly godly people. Let us often ask for the intercession of the Mother of God and all the saints for them.

†Mikhail

*According to the resolution of the fifty-first session of the Synod of Bishops of the Kyiv-Halych Supreme Archdiocese of the UGCC (Chortkiv, July 13-14, 2010, God's year), a decision was made to devote special attention to the pastoral care of prisoners on Prodigal Son Sunday.

Art looks beyond

A permanent exhibition to be held in Favignana from june 2023

06 May 2023

On June 23, 2023, the Berlin-based Art and Prison e.V. association, coordinated by Deacon Heinz-Peter Echtermeyer, will open a permanent exhibition of prison art entitled, Scoprire la luce della libertà. Immagini dalla prigionia [Discovering the Light of Freedom] in the Ex Stabilimento Florio delle Tonnare in Favignana, Sicily. The exhibition includes images of imprisonment, and for the occasion, the location will host Massimo Osanna, the director general of the Museums of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. The exhibition has received the patronage of Crown Princess Sophie von und zu Liechtenstein. The works of art to be exhibited were selected from those already submitted as part of an international art competition that Art and Prison e.V. organizes for prisoners. In fact, many of the pieces on show from an entire collection consisting of 2,500 paintings from five continents have already been shown in more than 30 exhibitions throughout Europe.

The idea of giving these works a home on the beautiful island of Sicily, while giving voice and visibility to the people who created them, was supported by the mayor of Favignana, Francesco Forgione and Monica Modica. At the heart of Art and Prison e.V.'s project, which won a “Justice and Peace” award from the San Matteo Foundation, is human dignity. This organisation has believed in and supported the direct involvement of prisoners in solidarity and charity projects since its inception in 2009. Deacon Echtermeyer has been involved in supporting prisoners for 30 years and works with curator Cornelia Schmidt-Harmel together with Ingrid Reimold, Gabriela Lademacher and Francesco Casale. The Severino Onlus Foundation and the Centro di Formazione alla Meditazione Cristiana [Christian Meditation Training Center], CFMC Rome, have offered a significant contribution to the initiative.

Thanks to the mediation of the Severino Foundation, Italy participated in the Art and Prison e.V. competition with works created by inmates at the Rebibbia Prison. Among the Foundation's most recent activities is a memorandum of understanding with Manpower for the social and labor reintegration of prisoners and inmates with a view to contributing to the reduction of the recidivism rate. In addition, there is the activation in various prisons in Lazio of counselling desks that offer support to inmates on social and welfare matters.

The Christian Meditation Training Centre, founded by Sister Marisa Bisi F.D.C. as a School of Silence inspired by Ignatian spirituality, is a service for the integral formation of the person through Christian meditation. The Centre offers meetings in silence with works of contemporary art sometimes created by prisoners. Eight years ago the Formation Centre started silence courses in prisons. University students also attend the Training Centre to train their gaze on the whole. Romano Guardini’s Weltanschauung, inspired by Michelangelo’s gaze, this Triple Gaze and its transdisciplinary nature was the theme of the five days of online studies in 2022 at the Alberto Hurtado Centre for Faith and Culture of the Gregorian, which was carried out each day at a different university. Guardini studies are considered a valid perspective for understanding contemporary crises, the theme of the three-year Understanding the Signs of the Times project conducted by the McLean Center at the Catholic University of Washington in collaboration with the University of Erfurt and the Gregorian.

Second, the School of Weltanschauung, which belongs to the newly-established Guardini Centre in Bagnoregio, has started a cycle on the Threefold Seeing of Prison Art founded after a meeting with prisoner-artists at the prison, designed to educate the way of seeing the world on the margins of society. Mind-Heart-Hands, says Pope Francis, a Trinity Learning. The Favignana event will conclude on 24 June with a seminar designed by the students and doctoral students participating in the cycle.

Art thus becomes a form of social responsibility while becoming a common denominator between the different projects. The main concern with the challenges posed by the human condition remains the development of an art-knowledge centered on the possibility of an authentic encounter of the people behind the works and beyond the prejudices that still prevail in society.

by YVONNE DOHNA SCHLOBITTEN 

"L'Osservatore Romano"