Prayer, conversation, and Scrabble bring healing to those behind bars

When Father Jijimon Vellakkada arrived in the Archdiocese of Vancouver from Kerala, India, he expected to serve as a parish priest and hospital chaplain. But God had other plans.

After a few years of parish ministry and preparation for what he hoped would be a fulfilling ministry of bringing sacraments to the ill and dying, Father Vellakkada found himself serving in prisons.

“I always believe that the will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us,” he told 140 volunteers, chaplains, and former inmates at a prison ministry event Nov. 16. “God wanted me in the prison, not in the hospital.”

In 2017, he entered Mountain Institution in Agassiz. As the doors locked behind him, his supervisor turned to Father Vellakkada and said: “Father, this is your new parish.”

For two years, Father Vellakkada has joined a group of volunteers going to prison to celebrate Mass and to offer Bible studies, various programs including an annual Christmas dinner, and a slice of friendship and normalcy to those behind bars. Since taking on the ministry, has seen the number of inmates coming for Mass increase to 10 per cent of the population from three per cent.

“It is a very satisfying, rewarding ministry,” he said. “Jesus said, ‘When I was in prison, you did not visit me.’ But we want to make a difference there. We want, when we meet Jesus, for him to tell us, ‘When I was in prison, you visited me.’”

People often ask Father Vellakkada what prison volunteers do. They say, “I’m not a counsellor. I’m not good at preaching. What am I going to do there?”

He responds: “We can go on with a long list of what we are not good at. What we need in the institution is your presence. They need to see an ordinary person. That’s all they need to see. They just want to talk to someone who can listen without judging.”

Listening without judging is part of what Father Mako Watanabe calls a ministry of presence and incarnation.

“Do we believe that in our faith, God is above and separate from our human journeys and his creation, or has he come among us?”

Serving at Mission Institution, Father Watanabe says many incarcerated men and women suffer alienation from their loved ones, the community, and a sense of their value as children of God. “A human presence and a witness that is encouraging their best selves, it is tremendously important.”

Another major part of prison ministry is the paschal mystery, which reveals “on the cross there is forgiveness,” he said. “There can be life, and new life,” even for people behind bars.

Take Ben*, who spent 25 years in and out of provincial institutions for shoplifting and drug-related crimes.

“I was tired of the loneliness and living in my car and breaking the law every day,” said Ben. When he was sentenced in 2015 and sent to Fraser Regional Correctional Centre, he realized after 25 years he was tired of that life. He started spending more time with prison ministry volunteers and befriended a few of them, including the archdiocese’s head of prison ministry, Bob Buckham.

“Something clicked with me,” he said. Now out of prison, he still hangs on to those meaningful relationships. “It’s people like that who helped me to where I am today.”

Michael* is someone else who benefited from prison ministry after spending “an extended period of time” in maximum security and segregation.

Michael found a safe place in conversations with prison volunteers. One of them “has been a counsellor for me and a trusted friend,” he said.

He soon found spending time with chaplains and volunteers in prayer, conversation, and a few rounds of Scrabble, a healing experience. “The chapel become like a sanctuary for me.”

One of the prison visitors even managed to offer him some pre-marital counselling behind bars, something his wife says she is still grateful for.

Prison ministry volunteers in various institutions have also offered Alpha events, faith study programs, RCIA classes, book clubs, viewings of the Catholicism DVD series, and even chances to put together a choir or play.

This Christmas, prison ministry is collecting blank cards for inmates who want to send letters to family members. Catholic school students have been invited to write cards (without using their names or identifying information) offering inmates a word of encouragement during the holidays.

“All chaplaincy, all pastoral stuff, is based on our relationship with people. It’s a fundamental beginning of everything,” said Deacon Tim Morris, who serves at Pacific Institution in Abbotsford.

“It’s an opportunity for them to get out of the unit, to come to a place where they are not talking about their drug use, they are not glorifying crime, they are not talking the typical talk that might go on in the unit. The opportunity for them to come to the chapel and have a normal conversation with a normal person is a breath of fresh air.”

* Names changed.