Franciscans in Prison Ministry: Fr. Christian Reuter, OFM

During this Year of Mercy, we remember that one of the Corporal Works of Mercy is to "visit the imprisoned."  I received a recent e-mail from a long-time friend, Martin A. Berg, which provided links to a wide spectrum of information on prison ministry.  Marty went on to say that he felt that prisoners were population most underserved by the Church.

Fr. Christian Reuter (whom I live with in East St. Louis) is the coordinator of prison ministry for the Diocese of Belleville.  On March 9, he and his associates were in Joliet, IL, to give a presentation to about 70 people interested in prison ministry.  The presentation was based on the dynamics of the Easter Vigil and was so named: "This Is the Night When Christ Broke the Prison Bars of Death."

Here is Chris' summary of the presentation:

The program was entitled: "This Is the Night When Christ Broke the Prison Bars of Death", a quote taken directly from the Easter Proclamation. It was loosely modeled on the liturgical structure of the Holy Saturday Vigil. I did the oral presentation from notes while the Power Point slides were projected on a large screen. We also used a Paschal candle, water sprinkling, and a number of musical selections.

In the first half ("Light the Fire" and "Tell the Story"), the goal was to get the participants to understand how criminal justice, which the U.S. bishops have labeled "a broken system", got into such a dark night. This entailed a look at incarceration through long ages of civil and church history. The second half ("Sign Me Up" and "Open the Door"), invited participants to renew their baptismal promises in a creative way and to consider how they might offer themselves in some form of criminal justice ministry--either in Justice Advocacy or in Pastoral Care.

I was assisted in the oral presentation by two eloquent "witnesses". In the first half, a former prisoner who had spent twelve years in solitary confinement gave a riveting description of what that does to an incarcerated person. In the second half Lou Slapshak, who is my "Co-Coordinator" of Prison Ministry in the Belleville Diocese, spoke of his calling to lay ministry and how that has radically changed his life. The program ended with "Open the Door of Mercy," an original composition from Immaculate Conception Parish in Columbia IL. The song's composers (Karen Lundy and Marybeth Babcock) journeyed all the way to Joliet to teach and conduct the commissioning song that concluded the evening.

Anyone seeking more information can contact me by email (cnreuter@yahoo.com). Also, the website of our developing reentry house (www.obkministry.org) contains a wealth of content and links on Catholic prison ministries.


Fr. Chris and his committee are actively working to found a "reentry" house to help ex-convicts to transition back into the larger society.  Chris has given the website above; donations are welcomed.