THE
P RTAL
May 2017
Page 9
Faith behind those
“high forbidding walls”
Fr Julian Green meditates on the some of the issues
involved in celebrating Mass in prison
T
he first time I ever set foot in a prison was when I was still a young priest and I had been called by
some religious sisters who assisted at Winson Green in Birmingham to come and celebrate a Mass in the
chapel. I have to say that, approaching those high forbidding walls, I was rather nervous.
Having had quite a conservative upbringing in a
very law abiding and respectable family, I had grown
up with the idea of criminals being people that I didn’t
know and should seek not to mix with. Entering a
category B Victorian prison felt like I was going into a
very alien environment.
which reveals an upbringing which one would not
wish on a child.
When I began to visit the YOI, and celebrate the
Mass there, I remembered the words which Cardinal
Nichols said to me when he appointed me Chaplain of
the University of Birmingham.
There are two reflections that I had during that Mass
which remain with me. The first was that the prisoners
He said that he was sending me there because he
were quite engaged in the Mass and behaved well, and believed I had a direct approach to young people. And
that the prison officers remained at a distance.
so that was exactly the approach I took with the boys
in youth prison.
This contrasted with my experience as a secondary
It was a challenge to present the Liturgy of the Word
school chaplain, where, at school Masses, the
containment and oversight were much more intense every week with a direct approach which these young
men could understand and relate to. My message very
and hands on!
often came down to this: it does not matter why you came
The second insight that I had was how Jesus himself, here and what you have done; focus on Jesus, ask him for
by making himself present in the Holy Eucharist, came the inner strength to believe in him, and to overcome
to be a prisoner too. I was struck, at the elevation of the your weakness. Individually, I would ask them how they
host, how Jesus Christ had made himself a prisoner in would like their lives to be in five or ten years.
order to draw close to these men who were in prison.
Every one gave the same answer: a wife, a family,
More recently, I have given over my Saturday work and the respect of others. I would urge them to
mornings to visiting the Young Offenders’ Institute keep that aspiration at the front of their minds as they
at Werrington in the Stafforshire Moorlands, and were in prison, and to make achieving that goal the
celebrating Mass there. Although many of the inmates focus of their lives when they were released.
tower over me, it is shocking to realise that these are,
It was sad to see how these great aspirations were so
in reality, only boys, many of whom were only 14 or
15. To be incarcerated at such a young age requires often crushed by a lack of self-worth, self-belief, and
the inevitable peer pressure from others who wanted
either quite persistent offending or real violence.
to drag them back down into the dust.
Alongside those almost addicted to car theft or petty
In this season of Easter, please remember to pray for
crime, are those who have been accused or convicted
of more serious crimes, including murder. And yet prisoners, some of them very young, very damaged,
when they come into the chapel it was difficult to think and very afraid. To have the hope to pray for them is a
real application of our faith that he who rested in the
of them as criminals.
grave, rose to glory.
They were young people, similar to those I would
see every day in secondary school. Some would come
May those who are in many ways dead to the world -
into chapel with a cocksure swagger. Others look their reputation, their prospects for the future - rise to
crushed and isolated, with that look of victimhood the glory of new life!