THE
P RTAL
January 2016
Visiting the
imprisoned
For the first in a series, Joanna Bogle
shares some of her experiences
The reaction
Auntie Jo a n
The Seven Corporal
Works of Mercy
Page 4
na
wri tes
of friends and family when it emerged that I was
doing some prison visiting was one of sympathy for the prisoners, rather
along the lines of “As if their sufferings were not already enough!” Perhaps it is fairly ghastly to imagine sitting in
a cell and having Auntie Joanna breeze in with words of good cheer. So please be reassured it is not like that.
Working as a volunteer with a Catholic chaplain in
a prison means operating under his guidance and at
the service of the prisoners and of the Church. To be
entrusted with the Christian message in this way is a
privilege. You have to accept both your own limitations
and the realities of the situation. It is not a matter of
wafting into prisoners’ lives with joyful messages and
hope and goodwill and then hurrying home to tea
with a smug feeling of good deeds accomplished.
I work with an Ordinariate priest who is chaplain
in a large London men’s prison. As it happens, I am
also currently doing a catechist course at the School
of the Annunciation (based at Buckfast Abbey) and so
as I tackle different aspects of how to teach the Faith,
I am able to pass these on to the young prisoners I am
helping to prepare for Baptism or Confirmation.
Many of the young men have been baptised but know
little or nothing about the Christian faith.
Many feel a need for some identity especially as
the Muslim presence is strong. Many simply want
to reconnect with God after a long absence. I have
come to understand that it helps enormously for them
to know that they are not forgotten – that people
on the outside of the prison know about them, care
about them, pray for them. The Chaplain emphasises
that the prison walls do not cut anyone off from the
Church. He shows a truly fatherly approach and there
is a sense in which people recognise that he represents
something stable, truthful and trustworthy on which
an authentic way of life can be built.
A useful training-day established some of the
basic rules for all of us who volunteer: it was mostly
Much good work is done by Catholic chaplains in common-sense advice about the way we should behave
prisons: I have been hugely impressed by the trust to prisoners, avoiding giving personal information, not
that the prisoners show in the Chaplain and the way accepting requests from prisoners to post letters etc.
in which they respond to him. They attend Catholic
I’ve learned a lot: political-correctness and slogans
Study courses, they flock to Mass and the Sacraments.
Prison is a place where priorities are reassessed and don’t make prisoners’ lives better; many social workers
ideas are challenged. Of course it can be a grim place – who are young and female have a complete inability
although the prison where I visit is modern, clean, and to connect with the prisoners who really need older,
well equipped with sports facilities and opportunities male mentors; and old-fashioned devotional aids such
for all sorts of education and training in things from as rosaries and holy pictures give Catholics a sense of
languages to cookery. It can also be a place where identity which can mean a lot. I’ve learned that there is
people can easily feel intimidated – often not so much a lot about prison life that a visitor cannot really know,
by staff as by the fellow-prisoners – although again I and that human sympathy, friendliness and warmth
have not sensed that this is an everyday reality in the are rarely wasted.
prison with which I am now familiar.
People in what one might politely call advanced
It helps that Father has a structure around which he middle age can be useful in a prison: you don’t feel
bases his ministry: Mass, opportunities for confession, vulnerable and you don’t feel a need to prove anything.
study courses leading to reception of the sacraments. We need more prison visitors.
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