Mission in Prison
Someone once said: “If you want to make God laugh, tell him what your plans are for tomorrow!” This thought came to me as I was blocking punches, wrestling someone to the ground and apologising after throwing a punch which knocked a colleague to the floor! And before you ask… no, it wasn’t a Xaverian Assembly, but it was the yearly Personal Protection Training mandatory when you work for the Scottish Prison Service as a Chaplain. I was 62 years old, all my friends were retired, looking after grandchildren taking life easier, and here I was being asked to work at HMP Shotts, Scotland’s main prison for those facing life or long-term sentences in captivity. Yeah…sometimes God’s sense of humour is rather on the dark side!
This request didn’t happen by chance. Over the last decade or so, we Xaverians in Scotland have invested some of our energy, time and resources into prison ministry. Both I, confrere John Convery and our lay director of programmes, Hugh Foy piloted a Prison Spirituality Course in various prisons around Scotland. A 12-week course of meditation, contextual Bible study, discussion, and conversations on pertinent themed topic saw men of faith and of no faith, come together in mutuality and respect opening their hearts. The Xaverians became known on the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) as a Catholic group who believed wholeheartedly in the SPS’s motto, “Unlocking Potential and Transforming Lives” and who were prepared to give of their time freely to journey alongside fellow human beings, many of them some of the most damaged and fragile in our society. We have piloted an Online Bereavement Counselling Service where a network of volunteer counsellors, under the auspices of the Xaverian Missionaries, are available to give of their time to counsel many of the men in various prisons who struggle with, loss, grief, bereavement, guilt …as there is a huge void in this area.
The discernment to move to Prison Ministry, was really the fruit of a Xaverian Region in a post –Christian culture, processing how our Charism could and should make sense today. Since the late 80’s and early 90’s, we in the UK Region recognised that our initial raison d’etre, of fundraising, mission animation and vocation promotion was no longer applicable nor relevant to 21st Century Scotland. The last census now confirms what we had ascertained back then, the United Kingdom is mission territory and Scotland is ripe to hear the Good News as more than 50% now consider themselves to have no faith at all. (1)
- The 2022 census in Scotland revealed a significant shift in the religious landscape, with 1%of the population identifying as "None," a term used to describe those without a religion. This figure represents a notable increase from the previous census in 2011, when only 36.7%identified as "None." (https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/census-results/)
For many years we have asked at various assemblies and chapters, “How do we make ourselves relevant? Where are we being called to be Xaverians here and now? What would Conforti do? And slowly, yet surely the answer came to us – “where no one else can be bothered or wants to go” i.e. to the margins.
You don’t get many more marginal places than a Prison.
Matthew 25 reminds us of the commands of Jesus to his followers where it emphasizes compassion and service to others, especially to, the least of these and one of the “these” is quite specifically named… prisoners. “When I was in prison did you visit me?”
I have now been in the role of prison chaplain for almost two years at HMP Shotts and every day I am learning, as they say, “every day is a school day”. As missionaries we are called to move ‘ad gentes, ad extra and ad vitam’ … and I can honestly say that a prison is indeed another culture, another people, another world and certainly another language! (Most of it is bad language!)
As Xaverians we all have experienced being transported to another country, immersed in another reality, faced with another language and lost in another culture. Prison is no different and where in the past Xaverian Missionaries went looking for the non-Christians, in prison, the non-Christians come looking for you! Or they are certainly at your door. The “lost sheep” are all around you and, literally you do have a captive audience!
Chaplaincy duties vary from moment to moment and day to day. Called to look after the spiritual, religious and pastoral needs of the prison population in general, activities can range from dealing with the tragic incidents to the more enjoyable – from being present at the discovery of a death in custody to being ridiculed at the Prisoners’ Family Christmas Pantomime, from visiting prisoners’ families or hospitals with bad news to being the laughing stalk as you attempt to do the humble warrior on a Yoga mat on a Tuesday morning. “All things to all people” as St Paul reminds us.(1Corinthians 9:22)
There is tangible respect and gratitude from the prisoners towards Chaplaincy. Each day I am there I feel humble, honoured and wholeheartedly grateful for this opportunity to walk with another, to be privileged at the unfolding of their often ‘painful’ stories and to be thankful for the blessings that I have had in my life, my upbringing, my circumstances and my choices. “There but the grace of God go I.”
On Fridays we celebrate the “Sunday” Eucharist with both the mainstream and protected prisoners. It is a joy to be with them. To meet Christ in the coming together, in the Scripture, in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and in their own lives so often broken, damaged, guilt ridden, ‘destroyed’, despaired filled yet hopeful. I feel no less ‘in mission’ among the men of HMP Shotts than I did among the riberinhos of Abaetetuba or the young people of Preston, England, where I spent, time as a missionary.
This year the Xaverians at a congregational level have been asked to discuss the “humanity of the Xaverian” – il volto umano del saveriano.
The face of the Xaverian should reflect the tenderness, compassion, empathy and love of Christ. Conforti’s missionary vocation came from the Cross. In today’s world where humanity is carrying many crosses, our mission, wherever we find ourselves, is to be Simon of Cyrene, helping carry the crosses of our forgotten or neglected brothers and sisters, but also condemning whatever and whomever forces crosses upon the shoulders of those most vulnerable. Prison is filled with crosses being borne!
Finally, there is the story of the little girl scribbling frantically on a piece of paper at the back of class. The curious teacher approaches and asks the girl, what she is doing. “I’m drawing a picture of God.” “Don’t be silly”, the teacher replies. “No one knows what God looks like.” To which the child responds, “They will do when I am finished drawing!”
Conforti wisely chose as his motto “Caritas Christi Urget Nos” – the love of Christ compels us. The love of Christ is the face of God, and we are called to draw that face, with our lives, wherever we are. (Fr. Jim Clarke sx)
