By Jim Davis - Florida Catholic
Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Archbishop Thomas Wenski poses for a photo after the Mass with Yraida Guanipa, a former inmate who founded the Yraida Guanipa Institute to keep a connection between inmates and their children, and Deacon Edgardo Farias, director of the archdiocesan Detention Ministry.
MIAMI | A hidden congregation in the archdiocese — families of people who are incarcerated, and volunteers who minister to them — got something they’ve long wanted: their first-ever Mass for them and their loved ones.
"I cried — it was wonderful to see the power of God, and feel the peace and fire of the Holy Spirit," said a tearful Imelda Medina, one of many associates in the archdiocesan Detention Ministry. "It showed that we are not alone."
More than 300 people attended the Oct. 4 Mass celebrated by Archbishop Thomas Wenski, from regular volunteers to organized groups.
Plumed Knights of Columbus, who donate rosaries to the Detention Ministry, formed a color guard. The procession included 16 Knights of Malta in their black robes emblazoned with Maltese crosses. One of them, Andy Vissicchio, said the order donated 9,500 Bibles and prayer books to inmates around Florida last year.
Also attending were two sisters from the Missionaries of Charity, their sari-like habits designed by their founder, Mother Teresa. The order this year began an outreach to the Homestead Correctional Institution, a prison for women.
Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Alejandra Saucedo, of Dreamer's Moms, addresses Mass-goers at the reception that followed the Mass. The group works for justice and dignity for immigrants.
"People mainly see us feeding the poor, but visiting those in prison is also part of our apostolate," said Sister Lima, one of the Missionaries.
Still another side of outreach to the incarcerated was represented by Zully Mar Vidal, who coordinates all the events of the archdiocesan detention ministry. She cohosts a program about the ministry over Radio Paz 830 AM from 9 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays.
"We pray for the detainees,” said Mar Vidal, who also works with an Emmaus prayer group at St. Mark the Evangelist Church in Southwest Ranches. "As Pope Francis said, they could be your next-door neighbor. Sometimes you may not be in a physical prison, but in a prison of the heart. That's why Christ died for us."
Deacon Edgardo Farias, director of the archdiocesan Detention Ministry and organizer of the Mass, said he was overjoyed at the results.
"For me, it was a historical moment," Deacon Farias said. He added that he intended to make it an annual event.
Archbishop Wenski's homily was by turns educational, encouraging and strident.
“The incarcerated are not only brothers and sisters of Jesus; they are your fathers, your mothers; your sons and your daughters, your brothers and sisters," he said. "And, while it may be true to say that those who are in prison are there to pay a debt to society, it is also true — and painfully so — that the families of the incarcerated are also forced to pay a debt that they did not incur themselves."
The archbishop said that more than 2.2 million Americans are in prison on any given day, and 13.5 million spend time there any given year — more than any other western nation, and more than the Soviet Union ever held.
He denounced "penal systems that warehouse inmates," often hundreds of miles from their families. He even said that conditions at U.S. prisons — with disease and sexual violence — amount to "cruel and unusual punishment," a violation of constitutional rights.
"Today, at this Mass, Jesus through his Body that lives today — that is, through his Church — wishes to embrace all of you, families of the incarcerated, and through you, Jesus wishes to embrace your loved ones who are in prison," Archbishop Wenski said. "This evening, even though they are far away, and walls keep you from embracing them, may your prayers help them feel that Jesus is close to them and that he accepts them."
That last part resonated with Tania and Alejandro Garcia, whose son, Marlon, has been moved to prisons in Texas and Minnesota. Charged with conspiracy for drug trafficking, Marlon has been awaiting a trial for four years, they say.
"We are afraid — we don't know when he's going to come back," said Tania Garcia, who attends St. Kevin Church in Miami. But she said she was "very enriched" by the Oct. 4 Mass, and said she would tell her son that "God has put all his angels in his way."
A dinner reception afterward took almost the color of a festive rally, with songs and speeches. Seven "Dreamers' Moms," who work for immigration reform, posed for photos with the archbishop in their bright blue T-shirts.
The event got a visit from Colleen McGuire, who had worked with the archbishop in detainee ministry when he was bishop of Orlando. She praised his homily as "so on point." "It's something you can't understand until it happens to you," McGuire said. "This work is close to my heart."
The idea of a Mass for the incarcerated was itself born behind bars, said Yraida Guanipa, herself a former inmate. About a decade ago, she said, then-Bishop Wenski of Orlando said Mass at a prison camp in central Florida. After her release, she founded her own outreach to those in prison: Yraida Guanipa Institute, dedicated to keeping a connection between inmates and their children. She also urged now-Archbishop Wenski to say a Mass for families of the incarcerated in South Florida.
"When people go to prison, they're rejected by everyone — and their children are rejected, too," Guanipa said in an interview. "We want to create an awareness for society to have compassion toward them."
Among those working with her is Betty Gorman of Deerfield Beach. Imprisoned for three and a half years on a charge of selling "misbranded" prescription drugs online, she now sends gifts to inmates' children in the name of their parents.
"The Mass was so beautiful," said Gorman, who is
Jewish. "It was an encouragement. But it was so small compared to what's
going on in this country."
Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Knights of Malta take part in the Mass for families of the incarcerated. The Knights donated 9,500 Bibles and prayer books to inmates around Florida last year.
FYI
The archdiocesan Detention Ministry has a sweeping job: ministering to 1,500 people at federal and state prisons — and county jails and immigration and juvenile detention centers — in Monroe, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. But Deacon Edgardo Farias can call on 250 volunteers, seven priests and seven deacons.
Buoyed by the success of the Mass, he's starting plans for a 2015 conference of lawyers, chaplains and volunteers on how to serve inmates better. To be called the San Dimas Conference, for the repentant thief who was crucified with Christ, it will likely be held in September, he said.
Topics will include difficulties in the prison system and expenses of legal representation. Most importantly, the deacon said, the conference will seek ways to prevent young people from getting into trouble — especially from 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays, when many of them are home from school unsupervised.
