CRANSTON — As the diocese approaches the close of the Jubilee Year of Mercy in November, a special Year of Mercy celebration took place at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections High Security Center in Cranston on Thursday, October 6. Father Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., who was designated a “missionary of mercy” by Pope Francis earlier this year, visited the inmates to hear confessions and celebrate Mass, offering a homily about the power of God’s mercy.
Antonio Andreu Galván, chaplain at the High Security Center, arranged the event, which included two Masses attended by a total of 14 inmates. As chaplain, Galván arranges religious services and makes weekly visits with the inmates, including those of other faiths.
“As soon as I heard that we have a missionary of mercy in the diocese, I couldn’t waste that opportunity,” he said. “People like inmates are separated from the rest of society, so this is for them. It was something God was asking us to do for them.”
On Ash Wednesday, Father Austriaco was one of more than 1,000 priests commissioned by Pope Francis to go out and serve as “missionaries of mercy” during the jubilee year. According to Father Austriaco, his work as a missionary of mercy focuses on two areas, including assisting women struggling with past abortions by helping to conduct an informal study on abortion regret. His other area of focus, prison ministry, is one he has served in for several years as a chaplain at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk.
“I realized how little I knew about the suffering of so many people and that once you hear their stories, your heart opens up to them in a way,” Father Austriaco said during an interview with Rhode Island Catholic. “It’s great to think about these things in theory and in principal, and it’s another to talk to a person who’s been touched by sorrow. There’s a lot of sorrow going around in the prison, both for the victim as well as the person.”
During his homily, Father Austriaco spoke to the inmates about God’s mercy, sharing with them the challenges but also blessings of recognizing God’s love for all individuals.
“It is not very easy to understand God’s mercy, especially in a prison,” he said. “We ask God to send his Holy Spirit so that we understand better the mercy and love that we cannot always understand.”
Father Austriaco recounted the story of the criminal who was crucified beside Jesus and how even this man, whom he described as a terrorist, was not beyond the reach of God’s mercy.
“The first person to enter heaven is a terrorist,” said Father Austriaco. “One of the last things Jesus does is he looks at him and he says, ‘Today’ — notice he doesn’t say tomorrow, or the next day, or life without parole — ‘today, you will be with me in paradise.’”
Following both Masses, inmates had the opportunity to receive the sacrament of reconciliation and speak privately with Father Austriaco. Galván said he was happy to see that though some of the men who attended Mass are not baptized Catholics, many of them still chose to meet with Father Austriaco and later shared how they felt impacted by the visit.
“It was such a merciful moment that they were still talking about that today,” Galván said during a phone interview the following week. “How they experienced the mercy of God through the whole service, including that time when they went to speak with Father Austriaco.”
Two of the inmates who attended Mass, who will be identified only by first name, spoke with Rhode Island Catholic about their experiences participating in prison ministry at the High Security Center. Michael, who was raised Catholic but fell away from his faith as a teenager, said he rediscovered his faith when his brother and mother became ill several years ago. After their deaths, however, he returned to a path that led to his incarceration.
“When they passed, I started to accept that they weren’t there. I used that as an excuse and I turned right back from God,” he said.
Michael credits his sister and the chaplains at the High Security Center with helping bring him back to the Catholic faith once more. He attends Mass regularly and tries to serve as a witness of faith within the prison, speaking with other inmates about his experiences. Many of them, he said, are receptive.
“We have conversations about life and about God and about what we want for our future. I believe it’s the Holy Spirit that allows me to hear what they’re saying and them to hear what I’m saying.”
For Joshua, an inmate who discovered the Catholic faith during his incarceration, the opportunity to participate in Mass, especially during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, sends a powerful message of God’s love to the inmates.
“It shows that God’s mercy is not for select individuals. It’s for everyone, especially us,” he said.
Like Michael, Joshua tries to fulfill his purpose as a witness of faith by speaking with other inmates about God’s mercy. For him, the call to witness to others is personal, as he is currently preparing to join the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic, the lay branch of the Dominican order. As a lay Dominican, he will be expected to live a life of prayer and study, following the charism of the Dominican order as best he can within the confines of the prison.
“I can preach. I can bring the Gospel to everyone around me here. Remind them that God loves everybody no matter what you do in life,” he said.
Though Joshua’s situation is unusual, it is not unheard of. A community of lay Dominican inmates has existed for several years at Norfolk prison, where Father Austriaco serves as chaplain. According to Father Austriaco, their ministry includes a lifestyle of prayer and witness similar to that of cloistered religious.
“In a very intriguing way, my guys who are at the third order chapter of Bethany in Norfolk see themselves as a contemplative branch of the Dominican laity,” he said. “They’re cloistered, they never get to come out. They just have to live their lives as Dominican laity in the prison witnessing to people in the prison and outside the prison.”
The chapter of Bethany and Father Austriaco’s ministry at Norfolk and Cranston serve as reminders of his message to the inmates: that even in prison, individuals are not beyond the reach of God’s mercy.
“You have to look and say Father, I’m sorry, I messed up and I can’t do it on my own,” he told the inmates. “And the great promise is that is enough.”
