Diocesan office designs program to educate Catholics in prison

By KATE BLAIN- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Thanks to the combined efforts of the diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis (OEC) and a prison chaplain, inmates all over New York State now have a religious education program tailored to their needs.

"I'm excited," said Joyce Solimini, who worked on the project. She is associate director of children, youth and family catechesis for the OEC.

"Last year was the Jubilee, and one of the tenets was, `The spirit of the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to set captives free.' This [project] made us reflect on the power of the Lord to set the captives free," she explained.

Priest's impetus

Rev. James Hayes, a priest of the Albany Diocese who is chief of chaplains for the State Department of Corrections, brought his concerns about religious education for prisoners to the OEC in 1999. (Father Hayes was out of town as The Evangelist prepared this story.)

"He had a particular concern with Catholics in the prison system," Mrs. Solimini explained. Since prisoners are often transferred to different facilities, those in a faith-formation program in one prison often left abruptly to go to another that had an entirely different program.

With no consistency among programs for inmates, "he had a sense that Catholics were going to other faith traditions," Mrs. Solimini recalled. "He was also concerned that there wasn't enough time for faith formation and worship in their days."

One for all

Father Hayes formed a task force of nine prison chaplains from across the state and asked the OEC to help them create one program for all New York's inmates. They wanted to emphasize the idea of conversion.

The group decided to base the program on the Lectionary, the Church's book of readings used at Mass. That way, said Mrs. Solimini, "it's going to be the fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, whether you're in Albany or Plattsburgh."

"This is what these guys are hungering for," said chaplains when they heard of the idea.

Readings and questions

Within a year, the program (which runs on a three-year cycle) was complete and had been approved by both the state's bishops and the State Department of Corrections. The program includes the Scripture readings for each week and questions about them for inmates to ponder, including, "What Catholic doctrine flows from this?" Suggestions are provided for priest-chaplains to explain Catholicism.

"It's meant for everybody, whether they're confirmed or baptized or not," said Mrs. Solimini. "It seems to meet the need they expressed."

In Advent of 2000, the new program was instituted in New York's prisons. "It's been a wonderful ride," Mrs. Solimini said with a smile. "Each prison will have resources to help flesh this out; that's taken care of by the State of New York."

In creating the program, she added, the OEC also learned something: "It's brought to our awareness the need to connect prisons with parishes in their areas. We have respect for the men and women who work in very dire circumstances in prisons and have such passion."

(02-22-01) [[In-content Ad]]