Catholic prison ministry is part of an ecumenical team who go into the Capricornia Correctional Centre under the auspices of the State Chaplaincy Board (SCB). The prison ministry provides spiritual and pastoral care to prisoners by chaplains from a multi-denominational background. The primary purpose of the prison chaplain’s role is to provide spiritual and pastoral care to people who are serving a custodial sentence in Queensland’s correctional centres.

The role is to reach out to prisoners, offering consolation and encouragement, irrespective of their condition, their faith background, or their crimes, and without prejudice, judgement, or proselytising. The aim is to support prisoners through their own faith journey, regardless of what that faith is. Each chaplain is an active member of a multi-denominational team and is rostered to attend the prison on a weekly basis and conduct an ecumenical Chapel Service every six weeks.

When Jesus came into the world: Hope entered. Chaplains are the custodians of that hope and have the task of maintaining the gift of Jesus through person to person conversations.

This is an expanding opportunity the Lord provides for chaplains to bring “Hope” to a place where there can be a sense of hopelessness. The concept of “Hope” can keep us going when everything around us seems to be crumbling and falling apart. Hope is the expectations that even though life might be a real challenge right now, somehow, somewhere, down the track, everything will just be fine again. When hope is lost, everything else seems too hard to handle and we feel caught up in the grip of an unending nightmare. The practice of bringing hope to people who are incarcerated in prison is the role of the prison ministry.

The chaplain needs to reflect the teachings and person of Christ in the Correctional Centre through listening without interrupting, praying with the prisoner if they seek and/or agree to this, loving unconditionally and without judgement, and respecting the right of others to hold different views and beliefs.

There as been recent changes in prison ministry around the role of welfare. The chaplain is not able to arrange housing or contact outside of the prison nor follow up with prisoner’s family on the outside because of the changes in the domestic violence laws. Overall, this outreach ministry is complex and rewarding as the inmates are often seeking an excuse to validate their idea of reconciling their past behaviour. They are seeking someone to have a conversation about their emotional experience and how to go about accepting a change in their behaviour and outlook.

Chris Delaney