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Catholics
Incarcerated
Serving
Time with Jesus Christ in the Catholic Faith
Post
Office Box 102 -
Alma, Michigan 48801 - 989 463-2126
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About
Catholics Incarcerated |
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Catholics Incarcerated is an independent association of Catholic
prison inmates and their families seeking a fresh start in life
through living the gospel message of Jesus Christ, according to
the counsel of our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, to "Do
whatever he tells you" (John 2:5).
For those incarcerated to achieve success in
transforming their lives in such a way as to be honest and productive
citizens, it is necessary to submit to the will of God through an
unswerving and uncompromising faith in salvation through Jesus Christ
at the Cross, by His Most Holy and Precious Blood, shed for us for the
remission
of sins. It is through acceptance of Christ and His will that
everyone who comes to Him may be healed and made whole. In this
way, souls given over to the gratification of the flesh and the
subjection of the spirit to sin are renewed, families are reunited and
re-bonded in the love of God, and the damage done to victims,
perpetrators, their loved ones, and society is healed with the mandate
of our Lord to, "Go and sin no more."
This divine healing is accomplished only when the
Church, bound to Christ through the sacraments, is able to make this
possible by providing the same open and ready access to these
sacraments as enjoyed by those in the outside world. Given the
numerous obstacles, both natural and man made, that must be overcome to
achieve this end within the prisons is a challenging and daunting task,
but one that must be undertaken if we are to truly fulfill the Great
Commission to proclaim the gospel to the farthest and least
accessible
corners of the earth, and provide those who have received this gospel
with the sacramental ministry that is their God given right.
To this end, Catholics Incarcerated seeks to
minister to the edification and spiritual support of
incarcerated Catholic individuals who, having heard and received the
gospel, are, in turn, charged with the task of proclaiming the message
of Christ to those with whom they share incarceration, including fellow
inmates, corrections staff, prison personnel, prison administrators,
and all persons
encountered in the course of day to day activity. Addressing this
need to see the prison environment as a field for evangelization in
which the harvest is indeed great, and the laborers indeed few,
requires a reassessment of, and rededication to, the goals and
objectives of Catholic prison ministry.
To achieve and sustain the needed consistency
and quality
in Catholic Teaching, and to provide for the sacramental requirements
of inmates in the nurturing and meaningful way necessary to achieve the
goals Christ has set for us in the prisons, it is imperative that
Catholic Christians, from the hierarchy to the laity, be involved in
the
discussion as to how this may be best accomplished. It is the
goal of Catholics Incarcerated to inspire, inform, mediate, and provide
a forum for this vital and ongoing dialog.
Beyond this, it is our desire to foster
communication and goodwill between all parties involved in the recovery
from criminal acivity. It is our firm conviction that the
"restorative justice" model provides the best mechanism for achieving
the
goal of the ministry, which is healing through acceptance of
criminal wrongdoing as the sin that it is, and that true repentence
from this
sin is the foundation upon which forgiveness is built. This
forgiveness is the catalyst necessary to bring healing to all.
We,
therefore, encourage and support all efforts towards the sacramental
reconciliation that makes the reunification of human souls in the love
of Christ possible. An extension of this outreach towards a
real restorative justice must also include all families and loved ones
of
both perpetrators and victims, and this also, by necessity and divine
mandate, must extend to, and include, the Body of Christ, His Church.
The role of the Church is to provide the
resources necessary to achieve God's will through the provision of
persons and materials as needed to educate, assist and support the work
of Catholic inmates in their evangelization of their fellows, to
provide initiation into the faith for those who God beckons to His
throne, and to defend the faith against those who would thwart this
effort through their own misguided prejudices and efforts contrary to
the True Gospel of Christ, whether the motivation for this be secular
or religious. Further, this requires a clergy dedicated to the
sacramental needs of our incarcerated brethren, and a laity willing to
accept and welcome returning inmates and their families into bonds of
love, both divine and human, within the parish communiy. And, of
course, all of this requires a hierarchy dedicated to courageously
pursuing all courses of action, both ecclesial and political, that may
be
required to
accomplish the will of Christ in His Church. It is our goal, and
herein stated desire, to support and serve the Church in any way needed
to secure these holy objectives.
Catholics Incarcerated also recognizes the need for
comprehensive nurturing and support for ex-offenders, theirs families,
and the community as a whole, during the post incarceration
readjustment period. Since the scope of any prison ministry must
be limited to the stated goals, and since these stated goals for
Catholics Incarcertaed center around ministry to Catholic individuals
during incarceration, we aknowledge the need for a post incarceration
ministry that addresses these needs and does so as an extension of the
work begun by Catholics Incarcerated and other ministries dedicated to
similar goals. To this end, we embrace the mission of the Faith Alliance Initiative for Transisitional
Healing (F.A.I.T.H.) as an extension of our own, and as a sister
ministry united in mission to the Holy Church of Christ. Our
vision is of a ministry begun in prison by Catholics Incarcerated which
is finished and brought to full fruition by F.A.I.T.H. after
incarceration ends. In light of this, it is our intention to work
with F.A.I.T.H. as a ministry of goodwill and similar intention, and
share those burdens which are common to both. Both ministries
will succeed only when it is fully understood that the work begun in
the prisons must be finished in the parishes.
As proclaimed at the outset, it is our
philosophy and teaching that the
only
true path to healing the wounds of sin, crime, and incarceration
follows
the way of Jesus Christ to the Cross. Our counsel teaches, and
demonstrates, that a successful homecoming is based upon the
transformation of the broken soul through total acceptance of, and
commitment to, the eternal truth of salvation through Christ, as
preserved in the deposit of faith through Sacred Scripture and Sacred
Tradition, and as taught in union with the Holy Magisterium
of the Roman Catholic Church. While we accept and teach the
Catholic
Faith as the true model for a life in this world that is preparatory
for
life in the next, it is our purpose and privilege to
serve, and serve with, all persons of goodwill, as God would have us
do.
So, in
conclusion, let it be stated that we believe in the utter
catholicity and unity of all Christians and other persons of goodwill,
and we seek to serve God by honoring the words of Pope John Paul II in
his 1987 encyclical, Sollicitudo
Rei Socialis.
In this document, the Holy Father declares that, "...we are all
really responsible for
all." In light of this, Catholics Incarcerated recognizes the
inherent dignity and
respects the individual rights of all persons regardless of
religion, race, gender, age, sexual orientation or any other
discriminatory factor.
However, in the end we believe that this goal of
healing the damage of sin, and finding the unity with all that God
intends, will only truly be achieved when we find ourselves on our
knees together before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. It is to
this end we strive and do so knowing that our posterity, and His
Greater
Glory, will be served by nothing less.
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Catholics Incarcerated
- Post
Office Box 102 -
Alma, Michigan 48801 - 989 463-2126
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