Rome, Italy, Mar 31, 2018 / 01:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis’ Holy Thursday Mass at a prison in Rome was more than just another event for the inmates who participated – it was a sign that while invisible to the world outside, they had not been forgotten.
“Yesterday is a moment that I think is going to resonate through the prison for at least the whole next entire year. I think it’s a moment that touched every single guard and every single prisoner who was there,” seminarian Alex Nevitt told CNA March 30.
A seminarian in his third year of theology studying at the Pontifical North American College, Nevitt does prison ministry at Rome’s Regina Coeli prison, where Pope Francis celebrated yesterday’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper for Holy Thursday.
The pope washed the feet of 12 inmates and visited the infirmary, as well as “Section VIII” of the facility, where prisoners who have committed serious crimes or who have certain mental illness live.
After the pope’s Mass, which commemorated the night Jesus himself was arrested, Nevitt said many of the inmates were moved, because “this is their lived experience that they know.”
“These are men that are easily forgotten,” he said, noting that at one point a representative from the prison spoke to the pope and thanked him “for making sure we’re not forgotten.”
“Sometimes it’s very easy to forget those who are in prison because we don’t see them,” Nevitt said, explaining that as seminarians, “it’s a privilege” to serve the inmates because it helps them to better understand “where the fringes of society are.”
Nevitt, who is from the Diocese of Patterson, NJ, has been working in the prison apostolate for two and a half years. He is in charge of the other eight seminarians who are involved in the ministry, five of whom are currently working inside the prison, and three of whom will start in September when they finish training.
As part of their ministry, the seminarians lead bible studies and catechesis. They work most directly with English-speaking inmates, the majority of whom are migrants from Africa. Since the prison does not provide a list of English-speakers, the seminarians will often walk around looking for people.
The people they work with, Nevitt said, are there for a variety of reasons – anything from illegal immigration to petty street crimes, such as selling merchandise like toys or purses on the street illegally.
Although there are not many life sentences, they actual time a person has to spend in prison is not well-defined, Nevitt said, explaining that some people are from Europe or have gained Italian citizenship legally, but have no family, making it harder to access bail or be released without a support system.
“You hear some backstories of prisoners who don’t want to write back home because they’re ashamed of being in prison,” he said. “So I think the pope’s message of forgiveness probably spoke very much to those types of prisoners, to not be ashamed, and they can be forgiven and move forward.”
A total of three popes have visited Regina Coeli, the most recent being St. John Paul II in 2000. Pope Francis’ visit meant a lot, Nevitt said.
When people heard that the pope was coming, they “were extremely excited…Regardless of whatever religion they were from, [they] were excited that the pope was coming, so there was a huge amount of energy in the prison for it.”
During the Mass, the pope washed the feet of 12 prisoners from different religions – including Catholics, Muslims, an Orthodox Christian and a Buddhist. The inmates were from various countries, including the Philippines, Nigeria, Colombia, Sierra Leone, Morocco, Moldova, and Italy.
Nevitt said they work with a many non-Catholics, Protestants and Muslims, in their bible studies. At one point they had prepared a man for baptism, and after being transferred to another prison, he came into the Catholic Church.
Another of these non-Catholics is a Nigerian man named Oladipupo, who has been in their bible study for two years and whose feet the pope washed on Holy Thursday.
Oladipupo is a Pentecostal Christian, but has come to the bible study regularly, and even wrote a letter to Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Liturgy and the Discipline of the Sacraments, after reading Sarah’s recent book “God or Nothing.” And he got a response back.
“We’re hoping that Oladipupo will soon be called to the Catholic faith once he’s ready for it,” Nevitt said, explaining that after yesterday’s liturgy, he spoke to Oladipupo, who was amazed to see “the humanity of the pope, to see this man who is the leader of the Catholic Church in such a human way.”
Similarly, Nevitt said he also spoke with a Muslim man after the Holy Thursday Mass, though he didn’t know the man was a Muslim at the time. The man had been so moved by the liturgy that he had wanted to receive communion, and is now going to start coming to the bible study led by the seminarians.
Many people were moved by the pope’s homily Mass, Nevitt said, during which Francis emphasized forgiveness, condemned the death penalty, and told prisoners that Jesus would never abandon them, but would “take a chance” on them.
“Throughout the whole homily everyone was quite captivated at every word the pope was saying, and you could see even from a couple of the guards who were standing around me, there were a lot of head nods,” Nevitt said.
The space itself was very intimate, he said, noting that the rotunda where the Mass took place was small and only a limited number of guards and prisoners were able to sit inside the area, while the rest watched from different wings.
“There were certain moments, especially when the pope was kneeling down to wash the prisoners’ feet, you could see people crying,” Nevitt said. “There was a very humanness to seeing the pope kneeling down at his age, sometimes he would have difficulty…getting back up, and people [were] just crying at his example of humble leadership.”
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Which “homosexuality” are they referring to? The sanitized for Western consumption, post-AIDS homosexuality where “gay marriage” is still largely “open marriage?” Or the inherently self-injurious “gay lifestyle” due to psychological and physical challenges to immunity (including substance abuse)even in the most accepting of cities, communities?
In the spirit of Aristotle will “gay awareness” include the actual facts/statistics?
Which one is a “misread” of Scripture?
Every single one of them should be pitched out of whatever offices they hold, and laicized, perhaps even excommunicated. And if I were the civil police I would be carefully investigating to see what crimes they have been committing that makes them want this evil legitimized.
Here is more evidence of the spread of the influence of Satan through sexuality. Homosexuality is a deviant sexual behavior along with Pedophilia and TransGenderism. We have already seen liberals calling for an “understanding” and acceptance of Pedophiles as simply another sexual orientation. They want to open the doors to public acceptance of child abuse. So far they have begun to make legal infanticide so it’s not that far a leap to child sexual abuse given the ease at which they have reduced a living human being to nothing more than a clump of cells even after birth. The evil of the past is showing it’s face and the destruction of the human soul starting with the most innocent has begun.
A synodal church to be.
In short, “We make these demands! Have a nice trip to Rome and say hi to the pope for us.”
What is Holy Mother Church in America doing about punishment for convicted child molesters? Celibacy is one of the vows a priest makes when receiving the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Obviously when a priest breaks his vow of celibacy he needs to speak with not only his bishop, to find out if he would be better suited as a married man; but, he also needs to speak with a licensed trained psychiatrist to help discover why he should remain a priest or live the rest of his life as a married Roman Catholic husband and future father of children. I’ve seen priests who were almost forced into the priesthood by parents who simply had to have one son who would be the priest of the family. Child molestation is another matter altogether. Convicted pedophiles should never be shuffled from parish to parish. These men are preditors and not merely men who made poor career choices. The Roman Catholic Church should never try to hide these men. Of course pedophiles require intensive therapy by trained psychiatrists. As an almost 68 year old Roman Catholic woman, I am ashamed that my beloved church has covered up for these men. I truly believe that the pedophilic priest must be defrocked and never, even as a Roman Catholic layman, be permitted to work with children as long as he lives. Permitting the pedophile to continue as a priest is wrong. He is a mentally disturbed person who needs help, of course. He is not a man to be trusted with the innocent child, ever again. The priest should always be able to be trusted by children and adults, especially those who have no one else to comfort them in their day to day life. I’ve always put my priests upon a pedistal because I realized, especially as I became an adult, they gave up married life, a wife and family, to deserve me calling him, with the greatest of love, “Father.” When I go to Confession and hear a priest encouraging me to empty my heart of troubles, as I say, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”, I know that the holy and celibate priest, who deserves all my respect for all his sacrifices, knows how to help me make peace with God and he will absolve me of my transgressions. There is no room for convicted pedophiles in the priesthood of Holy Mother Church. He has stolen the innocence of a trusting and helpless child. He has murdered Innocense itself, as surely as those Roman soldiers tried to murder Baby Jesus while killing the Holy Innocents.
“Obviously when a priest breaks his vow of celibacy”
If I’m understanding correctly, “celibacy” means not marrying. So the problem with most of those priests is that they are not being chaste, as we are all called to be according to our states in life.
“he needs to speak with not only his bishop, to find out if he would be better suited as a married man;”
That should have been done before he was ordained. Added to which, something like 80% of the “pedophilia” cases were actually cases of homosexual assault on post-pubescent boys, which isn’t actually pedophilia.
“he also needs to speak with a licensed trained psychiatrist”
I wouldn’t trust a psychiatrist. Listening to psychiatrists’ advice was part of what led to moving abusers around; and the psychiatrists’ association also decided that homosexuality is not a mental disorder anymore, and that “transgenderism” is just fine.
“I’ve seen priests who were almost forced into the priesthood by parents who simply had to have one son who would be the priest of the family.”
Somehting which, again, should have been discovered during the discernment process, during their time in seminary – in short, *before* they were ordained. Why wasn’t it? How many priests was this that you’ve seen? When? How did you know that was why they became priests?
“poor career choices.” The priesthood isn’t a career, it’s a calling. Any man who thinks of it as a career shouldn’t be one.
The only absolute Dogma Cardinal Marx believes in is the Church Tax he and his cohorts extort from the Catholic Faithful in Germany.
More probing than spearhead. Prominent Catholic Black Ops Led by Fr Wucherpfennig openly homosexual rector mission to test enemy assets Cardinal Marx their Quisling [since it’s so ludicrously obvious I’m compelled to resort to humor however true]. As prev acknowledged the true enemy are advocates of normalizing the abomination of homosexuality posturing heroic aware as devious cowards they have Vatican and majority societal support. Quislings abound among German Hierarchy very few comparable to 1941 Hierarchy led by Augustus Cardinal von Galen. Although there are a few good men among them. With faith and God’s arm they can win the day. Even if vanquished by the morally disabled their strong resistance is in itself victory.
Open Letter to a group of Nine prominent German Catholics who want a new morality, women priests, etc. Your demands are not exactly a news bombshell. The Catholic faithful worldwide have been hearing this rubbish on and off for over 50 years. Your heretical gripes are getting old and boring. And there exists a fast solution to your unjust gripes: Leave the Roman Catholic Church and start your own church. It’s that simple. No sense sticking with the Church with over 2,000 years of constant teachings about morality and doctrinal beliefs when you Nine prominent German Catholics can start your own new-wave type of church. Frankly, I have more respect for the 16th century Protestant Reformers who left the Church instituted by Christ rather than sticking with it when they no longer believed in its core teachings. You have the full freedom to leave because no one is pointing a gun to your prominent heads, demanding your life or your consent. Parting advice: It is not psychologically sound to with an institution which you find abhorrent.