Diocese jail ministry organizes procession and Mass of Supplication for local prisoners

IC photo/Laura Vallejo

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Dozens of people from various cultures gathered on Dec. 10 at the West Valley City library to walk in a procession dedicated to supplication for prisoners in local jails.

WEST VALLEY CITY — Dozens of people from various cultures gathered on Dec. 10 at the West Valley City library to walk in a procession dedicated to supplication for prisoners in local jails.

The event was organized by the diocese’s jail ministry, which is coordinated by Fr. Eleazar Silva, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

Among those in the procession were Fr. Francisco Pires and Fr. Jorge Roldan, respectively pastor and parochial vicar of Saints Peter and Paul Parish; Deacon Joaquin Mixco; Deacon Tino Campos and Deacon Armando Solorzano. As they walked in the cold weather that was below freezing, from the library to Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, the people prayed the rosary and sang. At the church, a bilingual Mass for supplication was celebrated.

Before the Mass, Deacon Mixco explained that earlier that day, ministers carrying three images of Our Lady of Guadalupe visited the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department's Metro and Oxbow jails. There, inmates filled three notebooks with their intentions for the Mass.

“We are all daughters and sons of God. … We all pray for each other when we have a need. … In the good and in the bad we have to stay together,” said Fabiola Trujillo, a Sts. Peter and Paul parishioner who participates in the jail ministry and who visited the inmates that day.

Before starting the Mass, Fr. Silva welcomed those present. “Thanks to all our brothers and sisters that participated since the morning, taking the images of Our Lady of Guadalupe to visit our inmates of our jails,” he said, adding that sometimes those who are incarcerated feel as though they are defined by the word ‘inmate’ and with that incomplete self-image, “that is the way that we have to present them to our Lord,” he said.

The three images of Our Lady of Guadalupe are considered a Class 3 relic because they have touched the original at the Basilica in Mexico City.

“We came with this idea of having these images of the Virgin of Guadalupe today visiting the inmates of our county jails. We knew that this was going to be something unique and almost impossible to get, but it happened,” Fr. Silva said, adding that the Mass was being offered for the inmates’ intentions and for the families of those who have inmates in the facilities, “because when someone goes into jail, the whole family goes into jail with them.”

In his homily, Fr. Silva told a story about when he was in the seminary in Mexico, he went to a small shop for paper, and while there he saw a television reality show about two men who seek out criminals in the midst of committing crimes. The episode Fr. Silva watched showed the arrest of an accused rapist in a very poor part of Mexico City.

“In the middle of the whole thing, there was a lady that told one of the reporters that she knew where the rapist’s mother lived, and asked them if they wanted to go there,” Fr. Silva said. “They arrived at a very humble and tiny home – just four walls and old lady very poorly dressed, with no shoes.  … very, very sad looking.”

The reporter asked the woman how it felt to be the mother of a rapist, and the woman responded that the reporter must have been mistaken, because ‘My son is innocent, my son is good,’ Fr. Silva said, adding that the reporter kept repeating the accusation and the woman kept insisting that “you are mistaken. My son is innocent, my son is good, because he is my son.”

In the same way, “when Mary appeared in the Americas, she came here to display the love of God for us,” Fr. Silva said. “That doesn’t mean that we haven’t done what we have done, that doesn’t mean that we are not who we really are, it means that we have been reassured in the presence of Mary that the way God sees us is very different from the way the world would look at us.”

He added that when someone is arrested or goes to trial or has to serve time in jail, people tend to set that person aside, pretending like they never existed in the society because “they are evil, they are bad, they are rapists, and murderers, they are thieves, and drug dealers – so many, many things. … But you know, if you were to ask God, if you were to ask Our Mother in heaven, ‘What do you think about your children that are incarcerated?’ she would said the exact same thing that the mother on the TV show said, ‘These are my children and because of that they are good.’ … Let us love our inmates once again and remember that God makes no distinction – all of us in His eyes are good, because we are His children,” Fr. Silva concluded.