Greg DalyCatholics should remember their duty to visit prisoners, Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin has said.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic following the Jubilee for Prisoners, during which Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St Peter’s Basilica with over 1,000 prisoners from 12 countries, while he himself had celebrated Mass in Portlaoise and Midlands prisons, Dr Nulty said: “I believe in this Year of Mercy it would seem
strange if we don’t try as people of faith to visit prisons”.
Visiting prisoners has long been among the ‘corporal works of mercy’ the Church expects of Catholics. Prison visits, Dr Nulty said, show solidarity with staff and the wider prison community while showing prisoners that “there is another way”.
Second chance
Such visits, he said, help show prisoners there is “light at the end of the tunnel”, reminding them they can finish their sentences changed for the better. Prisoners who have served their sentences “deserve that second chance”, he added, with this worth emphasising “because Pope Francis did ask us very strongly to honour the particular time of mercy for prisoners in this year of mercy”.
Acknowledging that victims of crime sometimes feel prisoners are cared for more than they are, the bishop added: “You have to be very careful you don’t over-inflate this issue, because some people could be hurt and if we don’t walk with the wounded we walk with nobody.”