{"id":127166,"date":"2024-03-12T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T12:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=127166"},"modified":"2024-04-15T16:19:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T20:19:42","slug":"with-jesus-i-feel-free-in-prison-the-construction-of-a-chapel-in-an-american-prison-transformed-the-lives-of-its-inmates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/with-jesus-i-feel-free-in-prison-the-construction-of-a-chapel-in-an-american-prison-transformed-the-lives-of-its-inmates\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWith Jesus I Feel Free\u2026 In Prison\u201d \u2014 How a Chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe at Angola Prison is Transforming the Lives of its Inmates"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Originally published in Spanish here<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

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On December 12, 2013, a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe was dedicated in a maximum-security prison in Louisiana. Ten years have passed now, and the blessings have poured forth generously, as could be expected in a \u201ccommunity\u201d with a devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe.<\/p>\n

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The place: Louisiana State Penitentiary<\/a>, known as \u201cAlcatraz of the South,\u201d or as its inmates refer to it, the \u201cAngola Plantation,” because in the 1800s black slaves from the country of Angola worked on a plantation in this place, and even at that time, it was already used for holding prisoners. For a long time, this prison was considered the bloodiest and cruelest in the United States.<\/p>\n

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Our Lady of Guadalupe Goes to the Prison<\/b><\/p>\n

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It all started with two families from Pinecrest Academy<\/a>, a Regnum Christi school in the suburbs of Atlanta, where Regnum Christi member Roberto S\u00e1nchez Mejorada, who had children at the school, met Jorge Vald\u00e9s<\/a>, a businessman and philanthropist who had made some bad decisions when he was younger. Jorge is an ex-convict who made a radical life change. While he was behind bars, he completed Biblical studies that allowed him to finish his bachelor\u2019s, master\u2019s, and doctorate in theology, validated by Loyola University in Chicago.<\/p>\n

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In 2011, Jorge invited Burl Cain, who was then warden of the Angola prison, to give a conference at Pinecrest Academy. His objective was to shake up the young people so that they understood that a bad friendship, an indecent job, a dream of easy success, or a moment of debauchery could ruin their lives.<\/p>\n

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After that talk, Roberto S\u00e1nchez Mejorada took on the commitment to organize a father\/son mission trip to visit the Angola prison. On that trip he said, \u201cBurl Cain made an impact on me. Jorge did too. Seeing the way he spoke to the inmates, knowing that he could have been condemned there for life along with them, allowed me to believe and understand him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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In the same year of 2011, Roberto bought an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with the intention of bringing it to the prison. He invited several businesspeople to accompany him and to give the image to the jail. The prison warden, Burl, was seeking to generate a \u201cmoral renewal\u201d in the jail. Angola has a branch of the Baptist Theological Seminary of New Orleans and biblical seminars of Loyola University, from which around 300 inmates have graduated after four years of studies, and are now teachers and ministers inside the prison. \u201cThis has allowed us to change the culture and decrase violence. When someone is living a moral life, they don\u2019t steal or commit atrocities,\u201d Cain affirms.<\/p>\n

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There are nine chapels of different faiths at Angola, built by private donations. \u201cGod lives in this prison,\u201d Cain affirmed. But a Catholic chapel was missing. Only in 2013 was it possible to build the chapel, thanks to the support of a group of Mexican businessmen. 300 Hispanic inmates worked on its construction and even painted murals on its walls. The chapel was finished in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.<\/p>\n

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A Second Chance<\/b><\/p>\n

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That December 12th<\/sup><\/span>, 2013, a dinner was held to thank so many benefactors who supported the chapel. The cook was Chris, an obliging and well-mannered man. When Chris was 23, he killed his wife following a marital dispute one night when he was drunk and fired a shot from his pistol. Every day he laments that moment in which he left his two young daughters orphans, whom he barely knows.<\/p>\n

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Another one of the inmates, called \u201cBig Lou,\u201d arrived at the jail when he was 22. One fateful day, he had tried drugs with his girlfriend, and she had suffered an overdose and died. He didn\u2019t know what to do, so he had thrown her into the river and fled by car. He was charged with murder and robbery. Her family has not forgiven him.<\/p>\n

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Burl Cain implemented programs in the prison that give the inmates the possibility to remake their lives with dignity, becoming honest and renewed individuals who are thankful to God and enjoy a second chance to be free; free behind bars.<\/p>\n

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Almost all the inmates, even those waiting for death by lethal injection, admit their responsibility: bad friendships, alcohol, drugs, a bad moment. They make sure that this jail with its clear rules, impeccably ordered and clean, in which yelling and swear words are prohibited, has been radically transformed under Cain’s leadership.<\/p>\n

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In Cain\u2019s office, next to a newspaper clipping of President Kennedy\u2019s assassination, was his wife\u2019s picture. And there he kept some of his most precious mementos: a jar of Jif peanut butter and a jar of strawberry jelly, which the last man executed in the prison requested for his final meal in 2010. He held onto it as a constant reminder that this jail \u201cshould be human.\u201d He entrusted the salvation of the convicts to God, as his mother had once told him, and he strove to complete this to the end of his time there.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou see huge men crying here, sorry for what they have done. Now no one dies alone. Everyone has the opportunity to live and die in peace and with dignity,\u201d says Tonia Faust, a nurse who has worked there since 1998.<\/p>\n

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An older man who has been incarcerated since 1984 shares, \u201cWe don\u2019t have horns or a tail, as some people see us. I was trying to be accepted, and I made wrong decisions, which led me to kill a man and victimize my whole family.\u201d Having accepted his guilt, he now awaits his death in prison hospice, not having seen his children in 30 years.<\/p>\n

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The Blessing<\/b><\/p>\n

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The bishop, with his white chasuble, blessed the chapel. A number of the inmates cried and took the opportunity to go to Confession, among them Miguel, who had painted the chapel\u2019s walls. Words that were overheard from among those present included, \u201cFaith keeps us alive.\u201d \u201cThe guilt is too heavy; every day that passes I regret having made bad decisions.\u201d \u201cWith Jesus, I feel free in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The highlight of the chapel\u2019s inauguration was when a letter from Pope Francis was read, in which he congratulated the prison and the chapel\u2019s benefactors. \u201cIt\u2019s so amazing that broken men like me can come to this shelter to learn how to love and to realize our potential as human beings,\u201d said Andrew.<\/p>\n

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December 12, 2023: The Prison and its Inmates are Consecrated to the Sacred Heart<\/b><\/p>\n

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On the 10th<\/sup><\/span> anniversary of the chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe, they held a consecration ceremony to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On this occasion, a Eucharistic celebration was presided by Fr. Edouard Marot, who travelled from Belgium to give his testimony about the apparition of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, along with the missionary Alicia Beauvisage,.<\/p>\n

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\u201cRealize that you can do nothing without Me; I will never cease coming to your aid, as long as you always have your nothingness and your weakness gripped by my strength.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

(Words of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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