"We take care of all kinds of situations no matter what the person has done." says Mariola Ballester Siruela, director of the Prison Ministry of the diocese of Orihuela-Alicante. Mariola has been part of the pastoral for 24 years and this is her fourth year in charge of it. Ballester tells Palabra that once she enters through the prison door "what I have in front of me are people and not criminals, because if I saw them like that, we would be labeling them and that's not fair"..
The work of Prison Pastoral Care in Spain "is the action of the Church in the prison world which is divided into three areas: religious, social and juridical", Florencio Roselló, a Mercedarian and Director of the Department of Prison Pastoral Care of the EEC: "The religious one as the presence of the Church; the social one because there are many realities that affect the person who is in prison: family, work, food...; and the legal one that orients and helps prisoners in their judicial processes, and works so that the laws are increasingly fairer and more humane."explains the director.
"We also work on prevention, going to high schools and colleges to tell about experiences with people who have been released from prison as a way to sensitize young people to this reality."continues Roselló.
Volunteering and workshops
Volunteering is the foundation on which this work is based, since it is nourished by people who offer their time altruistically to dedicate themselves to the workshops in the prison. Roselló explains that "Inside, we work in the religious area with workshops on catechesis, formation, the Bible... and in the social area with programs on conflict resolution, values, self-esteem, etc. But the end is not the subject that is treated, but the workshop is the means to reach the person."Florencio tells us.
There are also reading workshops or film forums in which the inmates meet at the established time and day, watch a film and then discuss it with the volunteer in charge. "These workshops foster another type of relationship and, in many cases, the inmates open up in a different way because they know they are talking to people on the street, it's not the same as with their peers in the yard or with officials." explains Mariola, who is responsible, together with another volunteer, for a mediation workshop. "They are spaces of rapprochement, it is a freer relationship because they know that there is no one there to judge them." continues.
Every two years, each diocese's pastoral ministry draws up a program establishing the workshops to be carried out. These are presented in the penitentiary centers, directed by the Treatment Board and it is the deputy director of treatment, once approved by the Board, who sends them to the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions of the Ministry of the Interior in Madrid where they are approved to be carried out.
The offer to inmates in the different prisons distributed throughout Spain is made both through the prison social workers and through the prison social workers, "with whom we have a close collaboration"The prison is also a place where the prison is located, as well as by advertisements in the different prison modules.
Accompaniment
"The most constant presence is that of the chaplain."says Father Florencio. "He visits the different modules and there are those who come to talk, others to confess and others do not come, but the presence of the priest is there, the accompaniment is present.". Also, thanks to this approach, inmates are offered participation in various workshops.
"Being in prison entails deprivation of liberty but not of living the creed of their faith." explains Roselló, "The prison ministry makes the Church and the liberating message of Jesus present in prison. To visit the prison is to visit Christ himself who is imprisoned"..
Shelter homes
Another concern of the Prison Ministry is the situation of prisoners who are released from prison, either on furlough or on third degree, when the inmate goes on to serve his sentence in an open regime center, in semi-liberty. For this purpose, they have prepared shelters in each diocese.
"In many cases, when the prisoner's family is far away or the family ties are deteriorated, during the furlough he has nowhere to go. This is why there are shelters available".explains Mariola.
In the diocese of Orihuela-Alicante there are two of them, one for men, from the Obra Mercedaria Foundation (of the Mercedarians of the province of Aragon), and another for women, provided by the Daughters of Charity.
These houses, in the case of the Orihuela-Alicante diocese, are supported by donations. Therefore, every Christmas the diocese launches a campaign to raise funds to keep them open. The funds raised are also used to provide scholarships to the families of the prisoners for food, school meals, books, medicines and other urgent needs, to facilitate telephone communication with the family so that they can visit the prisoners in prison and to help them to find employment to help them build their lives based on the values of work, effort and social responsibility.
Responses
In some cases, pastoral care has the role of helping to assess whether prison is the place for certain people with very complicated situations. This was the case of Ana (not her real name). A foreigner, young, university student, painter and Christian, she had to flee her country because of persecution. Her family paid a mafia to obtain false passports to allow her to leave the country. Precisely for this reason she was detained upon her arrival in Spain and, ill-advised by the mafia, did not ask for asylum when she arrived in our country. After trying to leave our borders several times, she was arrested again and sent to Fontcalent prison. From there Mariola was notified to visit her.
Ana spoke almost no Spanish and it was difficult for them to understand each other. The penitentiary center asked the Pastoral Delegation to sign her reception in the women's house and Ana was classified in third grade. She left the prison module and went to the social insertion center. The prison requested her political asylum, which was granted. Ana spends her weekends at the Orihuela-Alicante diocese's women's shelter, and will be able to study Spanish and look for a job.
The work of the Prison Pastoral Care Ministry throughout Spain is "enormously good and I believe that we are indeed responding to many situations that would otherwise be much more painful for people and their families." summarizes Mariola.
Why worry?
"Because we want a better functioning society." says Father Florencio. We know that the inmates in prison are there for their crimes, but we do not know everything that surrounds them and what has led them to commit that offense, be it more or less serious. Pope Francis' question when he goes to visit a prison is very revealing: "Why them and not me, am I better than them? The Pope makes a reflection, if he had been born in the family of many who are in prison, possibly he would also be in prison." says the director of the Pastoral. "As Concepción Arenal, a 19th century penalist, used to say, 'hate the crime and pity the delinquent'. Whoever is in prison is the son of the same Father as I am, he is my brother and deserves respect and help to get out of the situation in which he finds himself."Roselló assures Father Roselló.
Fruits
"I start from the sower", says Father Florencio. "We often don't see the fruits because when they are released from prison we lose contact with them. It is logical because it would be to make them remember a story that normally we want to forget. But we do understand that what the Church sows then gives us pleasant and positive surprises.".
