| April 27
Pope
Francis and future of
the Vatican Bank
1931
description of Curia
has relevance for 2013
Bangladesh
building tragedy
Link between poor building standards and demand for cheap goods
No
2013 papal visit to Argentina
(but maybe before or after WYD? jw)
Boston marathon bombings:
Cardinal
O'Malley's reflections
Church
to run prisons?
John W
As a full-time prison chaplain I was particularly interested in the
article by Joseph Girzone on yesterday's menu:
An alternative to
present prisons
Such thinking reminds me of a hope I've
had for some time: that the Church would run prisons! In
the US and other places there are private prisons, and the Church does a
pretty good job at running schools, hospitals and other services....so,
why not prisons?
I just checked Google and found this
excellent article Should
the Church run a prison? which disagrees with
the idea of a church-run prison, with words like these:
There is direct
contradiction between the most basic, central goals of the church, and the
purposes the NSW Government has for
prisons.
The
basic purpose of the prison system, punishment, is contrary to the goals
of the church.
It
is not appropriate for the church to
have power over people in the way required by the prison system, whether
it be confining people within prison walls, or administering security
procedures such as preventing escapes, dealing with confrontation,
limiting property, and searching people and cells.
The role of the prison system within the social, economic, political
and legal context means that the church, in taking on the role of prison
management, would be taking responsibility for confining many people whom
it believes should not be in prison. That is, the church would be
participating in an unjust system.
Rather
than incarcerating people under an unjust system, it would be more
appropriate for the church to support initiatives to reduce the prison
population, to develop innovative alternatives to prison, and to advocate
justice in the definition and prosecution of crime, and in sentencing
practices.
That
is, the church has to choose between
becoming part of the system and participating in injustice, or working for
radical change.
What
do readers think? Comments welcome
here
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"There's not a pit so deep
where God is not deeper still"
"You never know Christ is all you need , until Christ is all you have"