The Prison Ministry of India (PMI) should go beyond  visits to the prisons, intercessions, and organizing events on feast days and festivals.

This was the thrust of views at a condolence event for Jesuit Human Rights Defender Stan Swamy organized by India’s foremost Catholic prison outreach programme with a presence in 27 States and union territories of India.

“We need to change how we look at the prison ministry in India, said Father Cedric Prakash, a Gujarat based Jesuit and Human Rights Activist who addressed the virtual gathering of some 100 PMI members, volunteers and invited guests.

Speaking about the ministry, Father Cedric focused on three words that summed up an impression of PMI: Incarceration, Involvement, and Incarnation. Drawing upon the gospel phrase, “When I am in prison you visited me,” he said that as added efforts are the need of the hour to go beyond prison visits and prayer sessions with the prisoners.

He urged  the clergy and religious who were office bearers in PMI to step out of the ‘church compound mentality’ and ‘to get involved the  men and women of our time’, joining hands with other organizations and human rights defenders.

As Christian people, we are highly committed to the idea of India, and need to be recognized as such, he said.

Earlier, Chairman and Cofounder of PMI, Bishop Allwyn D’Silva, Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay noted that most prisoners languishing in the jails are victims of injustice. Many of these under-trial prisoners are too poor to afford lawyers.

“Like Father Stan Swamy, they too die a criminal’s death, without having recourse to a trial,” he observed.

Veteran Catholic Journalist and Human rights activist John Dayal  stated that over the past few days, after having attended numerous ‘condolence events’ for Father Stan he was ‘coming away a cynic’.

“These meetings allow us to weep, and people join in the wailing without connecting Stan’s reality, his faith, or his conviction.  In tribal areas alone there are over 15,000 men in prison with fabricated cases against them , he said, asking “How can you pay tribute without getting involved?”

Father Cedric,  in response to a question, observed that  Stan Swamy was the catalyst that emboldened people to take on the mining mafia and the corporations, and that was the sole reason to get Father Stan Swamy out of the way.

“Stan Swamy lived a spirituality which is incarnational and contextual.  He lived the spirituality of the Crib and the Cross to the very end.

Addressing the fear that following Stan Swamy’s path might have more priests and nuns arrested, Father Cedric remarked, “The more priests, nuns, and Bishops are in prison, the more the prison system can be reformed.”

[Frank Krishner]

  Catholic Church, Cedric Prakash, Prison Ministry India, social justice, Stan Swany