prison ministry Tag

Fr. Pedro Kühlcke, Prison Ministry, Paraguay • Sometime ago, Pepito was finally able to tell me his life story:  “I was eleven years old when my parents separated.  My father is an alcoholic; he abused my mother until she could no longer take it.  I decided to go live with him, because I knew that he would not place limits on me.  I began with cigarettes and alcohol, and then the drugs came.  I even did drugs in front of him, but he never told me anything-he was usually tooRead More
PARAGUAY, by María Fischer • “Holy Father, do you remember Orlando?” Fr. Tommy Nin Mitchell, the director for the Schoenstatt Movement in Paraguay asked the Holy Father during the audience with the General Chapter of the Schoenstatt Fathers in September 2015. “Yes, I remember Orlando,” said Pope Francis. Orlando is the young boy – interned at the minor penitentiary in Itaguá – who greeted the Pope in Asunción during his meeting with the youth, which resulted in the Holy Father changing his speech. “After having read the Gospel, Orlando cameRead More
PARAGUAY, by Maria Fischer • “Lord, bless this house and fill it with your earthly goods. Protect your servants from all negative situations…” I have heard this blessing so many times in the homes of my friends and family. It never touched me as deeply as it did on that sunny morning on 5 May, on the outskirts of Luque, during the blessing of the humble home of my 18-year old friend Ángel (name changed), a single storey house with a small kitchen for this four-person family, who struggle toRead More
PARAGUAY, Maria Fischer • “The schoenstatt.org article about your visit to the prison for minors brought me to the Prison Ministry,” a young member of the Mother’s branch told me. For some time, she knows where she is every Saturday afternoon: The Visitation of Mary, visiting the youngsters at the Itauguá Children’s Penitentiary, the largest in Paraguay, with almost 220 prisoners aged between 14 and 18. “This visit touched me so much.” “Me too,” I thought, because even though I’m only able to visit these youngsters once a year, havingRead More
PARAGUAY, by Ana María Acha, president of FundaProva (Foundation for the promotion of values and the prevention of violence) • Since my beginning as a legislator in 2003 until having fulfilled the term of office in 2013, and as President of the Human Rights Commission for the Chamber of Senators, I felt I should prioritize a special concern for the country’s prisoners. This because I could never visualize another place where a human being could be more degraded than in the Republic’s prisons. Prisoners should only be deprived of theRead More
PARAGUAY, Fr. Pedro Kühlcke • – Hello, Pepito! Are you in jail again? Too bad! Why? –Yes, Fr. forgive me! I was out for four months. However, I did not find work anywhere, I did not have support from anyone; you know my family chaos. Temptation was stronger, and I failed again. The sorrow: A short time after his release, he is in jail again Almost two years ago when we became aware that the Blessed Mother wanted to send us to such an existential periphery like a jail forRead More
Editorial • “Finally Marciana was seen. The municipality intervened. The Blessed Mother blesses her,” Rafael Vera from the Youth Ministry of the Pilgrim Mother Campaign in Paraguay relates with emotion. But long before she received medical attention, this old, blind, sick woman who lived in abject poverty and complete abandonment, received a visit from one of the young people who brought her clothes, food, the Pilgrim Mother for the blind and her presence, their songs, their love, their time. A work of mercy, making it visible and tangible in theRead More
PARAGUAY, Fr. Pedro Kühlcke, Maria Fischer • Christmas in jail: the Itauguá juvenile detention center, a few kilometers from the Schoenstatt Shrine at Tupãrenda. For a little more than a year, ‘mercy’ has a face here, mercy that has to do with being and doing, just as Fr. Juan Pablo Catoggio said during the opening of the Holy Door at the Original Shrine. During preparation for World Youth Day in Kraków during the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis asked youths to select and carry out a physical and spiritual actRead More
PARAGUAY, by Maria Fischer • When Fr. Juan Pablo Catoggio opened the “Holy Door” of the Original Shrine on 13 December, he showed the two dimensions of mercy: “The first and basic dimension is the mercy of God the Father, ‘…a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness..’ (Exodus 34:6), which is repeatedly given to us, and which we repeatedly experience. The second dimension is our attitude of mercy to everyone, and in particular those who suffer. Two parables of Luke’s Gospel –Read More
VIS/ schoenstatt.org editorial team• “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” is the theme the Holy Father has chosen for the Message of the 31st World Youth Day that will take place in July 2016 in Krakow, Poland; the text of which can be found below. Once again, Pope Francis is very practical: he calls on the youth to make an act of mercy each month during the Jubilee of Mercy. “I would suggest that for the first seven months of 2016 you choose a corporal and aRead More