Blessed

Bishop Mulvey confirms Michael Gonzales at the Garza West Unit in Beeville. Father James Stembler, Vicar General, and Deacon Rosenbaum assists. 

Mary Cottingham, South Texas Catholic
 

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As Bishop Michael Mulvey looked out across a sea of white uniforms, he told prisoners at the Garza West Unit just what he saw, “good people, who may have made some terrible mistakes.” 

Bishop Mulvey concelebrated Christmas Mass with Father James Stembler, Vicar General for the Diocese of Corpus Christi, in the prison gymnasium on Dec. 16.  Six of the men in Garza West were baptized and confirmed.  Newly baptized and confirmed Catholics are Ardy Rodriguez, Emiliano Munoz, Michael Gonzales, Juan Ramon Cervantes, Jose Ponce and Federico Melendez Jr.

“When we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate the fact that God loved us so much that He sent His only Son. He sent His most precious gift, Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ looks at us and says, ‘you’re good,’” Bishop Mulvey said. 

“The dynamic of Christian life is doing God’s will, not my will,” he explained.

After Mass, prisoners from Garza West Unit raised their heads as they sang, “I am redeemed,” written by Jessy Dixon. The tears in the eyes of some prisoners may have touched the hearts and minds of some of the volunteers, ministers, chaplains, Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus and Catholic Daughters in attendance.

On that same day, Bishop Mulvey celebrated Mass at two other units in Beeville and several more prisoners were baptized and confirmed. The same had been done earlier in the week at the McConnell Unit.

Assisting him to bring the Word of God to the incarcerated were members of the Diocesan Prison Ministry program. Throughout the year they provide Mass, three-day retreats, and religious education classes inside the four state prisons in Beeville, other federal prisons in San Diego and Three Rivers as well as county jails throughout south Texas.

According to Deacon Roger Rosenbaum, Prison Ministry Coordinator for the Diocese, and Jaime Reyna, who heads the Prison Ministry under the Office of Multicultural and Social Ministry for the Diocese of Corpus Christi, there are many ways to volunteer, but the need for volunteers in the prisons and jails is a matter of paramount importance. Reyna explained, “this is a call to action.” 

Reyna, who has been doing prison and jail ministry directly for the past four years and indirectly for 12 years, recently received a letter from an inmate, part of it read, 

“…I understand, some people are afraid to go to a prison and others simply do not care for a bunch of criminals. But it does no service to the Corpus Christi community to ignore the people who are in prison because eventually most of them are going to go back to society and it is in the community's best interest to try to prepare these men for reintegration. This is not just about Matthew 25:36 or the Church's history of helping those in prison. This deals with the issue of all of us being "co-responsible and co-essential with each other.”

Deacon Rosenbaum, who has served 14 years in prison ministry, said, “The blessings for ministers are overwhelming and there are numerous opportunities throughout the diocese. I serve in this ministry because I am a witness to the way offenders are treated and I want to instill hope and dignity in every man I encounter in the system, and I hope to bring a little bit of light to these places of darkness.”

According to Deacon Rosenbaum, one out of every seven people are negatively impacted by our current justice system, either by someone who is currently incarcerated, on parole, or waiting to be sentenced. “We all make poor decisions in our life and for some, bad decisions result in incarceration. The whole family suffers from someone who has been incarcerated. There are trips and visits to make, letters to write, and many prayer petitions for the safety and welfare of our loved one,” he said.

Master Fourth Degree Knight Edward Cantu has been ministering to prisoners at Garza West every Thursday for three years now. He says that working in prison ministry was not his first choice, God called him to serve in this way. He thanked God for giving him a grandson and asked God to direct him to do some sort of ministry. “I was thinking hospitals or something like that, but God had other plans.”

Cantu says he enjoys working in prison ministry, “I work in the office for a couple of hours in the morning, visit inmates who have death announcements and men in segregation; then I teach RCIA from 1-3 p.m.,” he said. 

Cantu is very involved in his church, Most Precious Blood; loves to see his grandson; and works full time at his family business in Corpus Christi, working on Saturday to make up his time away on Thursday. 

In November of last year, an incarcerated inmate at the McConnell Unit wrote the following letter to the South Texas Catholic. Part of it read, 

“Five years ago, I was doing all the same things that I was doing to get me incarcerated. A friend of mine invited me to a Kolbe retreat (similar to ACTS retreat). I went to spend time with my friend and to eat, and during part of the ceremony, God changed my life forever. My family had given up on me and were not very much involved in my life. God set me free that day and has given me a peace I have not had since I was a child. 

Deacon Roger Rosenbaum was part of that retreat and has witnessed my growth. Thank God for him and the volunteers we have here. This letter is really to reach out to priests and laity to let people know that God moves in prison also. 

I have been blessed to be a part of the growth of around 30 to 40 people to over 150 people. I know people hear so much of the bad stuff that happens, but I have witnessed God completely flip this unit from a bad, bad place to what prisoner’s call ‘friendly.’

One of the things I have seen is that even the hardest criminals respect God even if they choose not to live for Him. We are praying for volunteers and also a new priest. Father Paul (Kottackal) has been a great blessing in all our lives here at this prison. We love him, and he will be greatly missed, and I can say that I speak for our whole community… 

Sincerely, your brother in Christ”

The prisons and jails have some basic requirements to enter into their facility. According to Deacon Rosenbaum, some of the basic requirements are a picture identification and an orientation class to become a regular volunteer. Then there are basic requirements just working in the diocese: a letter of support from your parish priest; attend Creating and Maintaining a Safe Environment class; signed the code of conduct; and a completed volunteer application form.

“Then you can teach a class on a regular basis or as often as is established for your particular interest,” Deacon Rosenbaum said. “And you can become involved indirectly by providing clerical duties, prayer offerings, or raising funds for the ministry, etc.” 

For more information call Deacon Roger Rosenbaum at (361) 542-9336 or Jaime Reyna at (361) 693-6737 or email [email protected] or go to the diocese prison ministry web page at diocesecc.org/prisonministry.