The Catholic Church in Australia marked Prison Sunday earlier this month, bringing attention to the plight of prisoners and highlighting the important work of prison chaplains, reports Melbourne Catholic.

CatholicCare Victoria’s (CCV) Prison Ministry supports thousands of vulnerable, isolated and marginalised people in every prison and correctional centre in Victoria – 15 in total.

*Sr Mary O’Shannassy SGS. PHOTO: Fiona Basile/Melbourne Catholic.*

In the Archdiocese of Melbourne, under the leadership of Sr Mary O’Shannassy SGS, the prison chaplaincy team listens, prays and brings hope and courage each day to more than 5000 people across 10 prisons within the region.

Sr Mary has been a prison chaplain for 30 years. Together with the chaplaincy team at CatholicCare Victoria (CCV), she visits the men and women in all 10 of the prisons located within the Archdiocese, particularly when they first arrive from the courts either into custody on remand or into prison to serve a jail term. She says 90 per cent of the time, they value the presence of a chaplain, and they remember that first contact.

“The majority of the people in our prisons are young and are caught up in the drug culture, and/or family violence. Others are professional people who have made a one-off wrong choice and got caught or have been involved in an accident where someone has died. Career criminals are a minority. For many, it is the worst time in their life, and so prison chaplains reach out to them, and show that they care,” she said.

Religious services, including Reconciliation and Mass, are regularly celebrated in prisons, and chaplains can help people in prison get access to Bibles, religious books and other religious items like rosaries.

Sr Mary points says it’s not just those in prison who need support: “There are the needs of the people in prison and the needs of the people who support them.”

However, she says, the role of chaplain is “essentially to build a relationship and to engender hope in the lives of these people”.

“God’s great love, care and forgiveness are eye-opening for many of the residents in prison. As messengers of hope, we help those in prison to feel accepted as people who have dignity. It’s really important that they understand that they have dignity as a person – a huge challenge for so many of them.”

This is an abridged form of an article by Fiona Basile, published in Melbourne Catholic (via CathNews)