The Ground Is Level at the Foot of the Cross

Prison & Reentry Ministry sees all people as created in God’s image and that no life is beyond God’s reach. Jesus offers hope, healing, and a new purpose for each life. He can make even the most broken people and situations whole again, replacing the cycles of crime with a cycle of renewal. It is our mission to facilitate that renewal.        -- Hil Evers

Prison & Reentry Ministry is one of the Church’s best-kept secrets. It’s the final item in Matthew 25, where Jesus clearly itemizes the criteria by which we will be judged. Somehow we hear him when there are needs to feed and clothe the needy, but we rarely get to the end of the list when asked if we saw you ill or in prison and visited you.

Pope Francis makes it clear in his message on Fraternity: “In the broad context of human social relations, when we look to crime and punishment, we cannot help but think of the inhumane conditions in so many prisons, where those in custody are often reduced to a sub-human status in violation of their human dignity and stunted in their hope and desire for rehabilitation. The Church does much in these environments, mostly in silence. We ask and encourage everyone to do more, in the hope that the efforts being made in this area by so many courageous men and women will be increasingly supported, fairly and honestly, by the civil authorities as well.”

The vision of Prison & Reentry Ministry is to see that Catholic prisoners are provided the ordinary sacramental, catechetical, and other ministries of the Church. It is an ongoing challenge to recruit and train ordained and lay ministers to meet these needs. We also put in to practice Catholic Social Teachings in terms of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Our challenge today is to envision a new parish based approach to provide full integration of formerly incarcerated persons (returning citizens) into our community.

The formation of Our Brothers’ Keepers of Southern Illinois as a Christian and ecumenical reentry center allowed us to build a foundation on Matthew 25:35-46 to see through the eyes of Christ a path to renewal in terms of forgiveness, hope, respect, for the human dignity of all God’s children. Our sisters and brothers who are coming back into the community from prison are not disqualified from salvation, nor are they undeserving of the mercy the rest of us so often enjoy. They are representative of all of us; the Zacchaeuses, prodigal sons and the adulterous widows of the world, who are the least worthy but most loved.

Christ came for the sinner, and it is the church’s imperative to give the sinner a second chance at salvation. “Reentry” is a Christian idea, and that means assisting returning persons to restore their lives to a healthy and virtuous life. 

"We must accept the lost and the sinner as our own and give them the aid they need to cleanse, heal and restore.”  ~ Pope Francis