January 23, 2009
Why Catholic
Adult faith formation program introduced in Carlisle prison
Steve Barron listens during a Why Catholic meeting at Wabash Valley Correction Facility in Carlisle. Barron, a parishioner at St. Anthony Church, Evansville, is doing prison ministry at the facility. Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Steve Barron says there is a well-known joke in corrections circles that begins with the question, “Where do you find Jesus?” The answer is “in prison — because everyone finds Jesus there.”
That’s no longer funny to Steve who does prison ministry at Wabash Valley Correction Facility in Carlisle.
He has come to realize, while volunteering at the high security prison, that “God is there. It’s no longer a joke. They take their faith very seriously.”
Recently he has been involved with the Why Catholic program there; it’s a four-year adult faith formation program that is currently being used in parishes throughout the Diocese of Evansville.
Steve was first involved in the Why Catholic program at his own parish, St. Anthony in Evansville. “They decided to try the program at the prison, and since I was already involved in doing prison ministry I was asked to help out. I said yes.”
Prisoners were invited to join the program, and they started with a book which focused on prayer, both how to pray and examining types of prayer.
“One session was held during a lockdown at the prison,” Steve said, “and there were only four people there. One was Catholic, one was American Indian, one was Baptist, and one was Catholic with a Central American background.
“It was one of the best sharing groups that I had. Everyone had the opportunity to speak and talk about their tradition, and we found we had more in common than differences.”
Of course there are differences between parishioners and prisoners, he acknowledges. One is the restriction on inmates’ free time. “They have a limited time out of their cells,” Steve explained, and if someone does something in their cellblock, inmates lose their privileges and can’t attend the Why Catholic meetings.
He has found that “they are in the group because they want to be.” Sometimes inmates can earn time off of their sentences by attending programs, “but there are no benefits given” for attending Why Catholic.
“If they attend this program, they are using their recreation time. They are giving up something just to be there.” He has found that “they are eager to learn. They are eager to share, and they are sincere about developing their faith.”
There are seven Why Catholic groups in the prison, and each group has seven or eight people in it. Benedictine Sister Geraldine Hedinger is the diocesan director of the Office of Adult Formation. She trained Barron and Ron Shafer, Dick Canon, Zoe Canon and Tim Hill, all of Vincennes, to help facilitate the program in the prison.
She also trained prisoners to serve as facilitators, and she recently led a retreat for all participants. “Since my experience at the prison I have gotten a whole different perspective,” she said. “The guys want to be in [Why Catholic]. They are polite and friendly, and none of them ever speaks about the past.
“They have a joy that surprised me. They share, and they are humble in their sharing. They are extremely honest.”
She said that the “offenders who are facilitators are accepted by their peers” because “there is a recognition that they are all in this together.”
Barron agrees. He found that the facilitators “did not dominate the conversation. They knew they were there to draw people in, to get them to contribute. Some participants are reading on a second grade level. One guy would stumble over words and the facilitator would help him.
“For me, it was a privilege to be in that group, to be allowed to sit with a group as they talked about their faith journey.”
Their daily lives in the prison are very structured, Sister Geraldine said, with a “high level of accountability. They all know they did something hideous or pretty bad or they wouldn’t be there. At the retreat there was a high level of respect for what each guy shared. It was a very holy sacred time because there was a high level of respect for each guy’s experience.”
Barron agreed. “No one was criticized because their experience was different.”
The Why Catholic groups at Carlisle are preparing to study the Apostles Creed, Sister Geraldine said. “They are so excited. They can’t wait to get started.”
She said the groups, which are filled with Buddhists, Baptists, Catholics and American Indians, probably offer one of the most diverse and ecumenical experiences in southern Indiana.
Of the men she has met, she says, “Drugs played such a role in their lives, and once they are detoxed” they start to think differently.
Not everyone in prison is interested in what the program has to offer, she says. “We got the ones who are working hard at making an attitudinal life change.
Barron agrees. “In those cases, God is there.”