'This ministry is my purpose in life'

By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | Zully Mar Vidal felt God calling her to prison ministry.

“The women that we visit in prison are glad to see us,” she said after this year’s School of Ministry graduation Mass, celebrated June 8 at St. Mary Cathedral. “They see that people care about them. I know it’s my calling because I’m not afraid. The good thing is I feel that I’m not meeting with a prisoner, but with Jesus Christ. In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus said, you visited me in prison. This ministry is my purpose in life.”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski commissioned Vidal in 2014 for a five-year term. She was re-commissioned at the Mass for another five years. The archbishop gave completion certificates to 127 graduates of the School of Ministry and commissioned or re-commissioned another 47 for various ministries.

Originally from Colombia, Vidal coordinates about 200 archdiocesan volunteers. She said she visits prisoners at the Paul Rein Detention Facility and the North Broward Detention Center in Pompano Beach.

“We train the volunteers for prison ministry and the Broward County Sheriff’s office also trains the volunteers. Only female volunteers can visit female prisoners and only male volunteers can visit male prisoners,” she said.

Vidal, who works as a church secretary by day, said that volunteers are given “GPS” training.

“That is, guidance, purpose of prayer and scripture,” she said. “When we visit prisoners, we go in pairs and read Bible scriptures to the women.” They are only allowed to bring paper-bound Bibles into the prison.

Vidal recalled a time when a prisoner she knew looked very sad. “We’re not allowed to ask what’s wrong, that would violate their privacy,” she said. “The woman told me that she received news that her son had died. She couldn’t be with him.”

Prisoners need compassion and guidance. Many were abused as children, lack an education, had parents that were drugs addicts or prisoners themselves, said Vidal. Incarceration only adds to their resentment and anger. Prisoners need programs to address those issues and train them for work.

Deacon Edgardo Farias, director of prison ministry in the Archdiocese of Miami, has said that society should invest more in the prevention of crime: more prevention, less crime, fewer imprisoned, and fewer prisons.

“People have forgotten about family,” Vidal said. “They forgot what it is to be in a community. Many prisoners don’t have the resources to live in society. There’s a lot of unfairness in the corrections system. We try to bring inmates love and respect, so that they can learn to love God and themselves.”

It costs about $120 a day to house a prisoner, said Vidal. The United States has the highest number of prisoners per capita of all the countries in the world: 724 per 100,000 people.

“As lay ministers we perform corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Corporal works include visiting prisoners, spiritual works include praying for and with prisoners,” Vidal said. A Radio Paz 830AM program, Fe y Esperanza (Faith and Hope), is dedicated to prison ministry.

In his homily, Archbishop Wenski used the celebration of Pentecost that weekend as an example for the graduates.

“Jesus stands up and exclaims that he is the source of spiritual water and that it is he who satisfies all that we thirst for,” the archbishop said. “Those of you who are completing your formation in our school of lay ministry, or are renewing your lay ministry certification, have – hopefully – drunk deeply of this living water of grace that flows from Jesus. Refreshed by the Water of his Spirit you are commissioned to proclaim Christ to the world.”

He noted that, since the Second Vatican Council, the Church has been blessed by an explosion of lay ministries. These are the result of the movement of the Holy Spirit within the Church and their purpose is to build up the Church so that “Jesus Christ may be known, loved, adored, announced and communicated to all.

“There may be many ministries in a parish, but they are all about helping the Church to more effectively evangelize,” the archbishop said, thanking the lay ministers for their generosity and commitment.

“You become my co-workers in the vineyard of the Lord,” he told the graduates. “I pray that your commitment to lay ministry will be for you — and for the people you will serve — a joy, a grace, a treasure received and shared.” 

FIND OUT MORE

• Candidates for the Catholic Studies Certificate must be recommended by their pastor, have received all the sacraments of initiation (baptism, confirmation, Communion) and be willing to serve a sponsoring parish and commit to ongoing faith formation.

• Tuition for the two-year online or classroom program is $660 per person or $1,220 per couple. For more information visit, www.miamiarch.org/layministry then click on the School of Ministry tab; or call 305-762-1184. Registration forms for the next two-year class cycle are due by August 31.