Prison Ministry Volunteer Stresses Forgiveness

By Linda Busetti
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 8/2/01)

"I was told to go into prison ministry 12 years ago by a minister," said Hope Shaw of All Saints Parish in Manassas. "At that time I was a Protestant. I’ve just been a Catholic for two years. It only took me 12 years to listen to him."

Twelve years ago Shaw picked up a mentally ill woman who had started to undress in the street. "I had no idea where to take someone who needs help." Shaw spent the day with a minister who tried to help the woman who had been in jail. He told Shaw, "You should be in prison ministry."

She answered, "Fat chance."

After her conversion to Catholicism, Shaw saw notices about jail ministry in her parish bulletin. She went for orientation, but delayed getting involved in prison ministry. When she did go to the Prince William County Jail in Manassas, Shaw was asked to teach a weekly Bible class, Applied Scriptures.

Shaw works with women who are in jail for a few weeks to two years. There is a "real mix of backgrounds," said Shaw. She explained that about 80 percent have been molested or abused at some time in their lives. Most of the inmates have children and the separation is "pretty heart-wrenching," said Shaw, a mother of three daughters.

Shaw talks to the women about forgiveness and "how unforgiveness is a bondage. You hold the memory [of the wrong] and bind that person to you. God…commands us to do things that set us free and that’s very hard to see when you’ve been hurt so badly."

Recently an inmate was unable to attend her mother’s funeral. Shaw arranged a memorial Mass at the jail for the mother. Father Bob Cilinski of All Saints celebrated the Mass, which was attended by Catholics and Protestants. Shaw explained the Mass to them line by line using, "The Mass: A Scriptural Biblical Prayer" by Father Peter Stravinskas.

At the memorial, one woman suggested, "Let’s say something about her mother." "They all said beautiful things about motherhood. It was beautiful to see these women love each other like that. That takes time to develop. That’s where the evangelization comes in. The love of Christ is where you can draw these women in a common ground together," said Shaw.

Shaw, an assistant physical therapist by profession, coaches 170 children in a swimming league. She uses many of the same teaching concepts with her swimming students as she does in prison ministry, setting goals and rewarding success.

Shaw is only allowed to bring religious items to the inmates. Father Joseph Kenna of All Saints supplies bibles. She gives the women beautiful copies of Catholic Women’s Devotional Bible, which includes daily meditations. "You should see their countenance when you hand them something like that. ‘This is for me?’ They can’t believe it. That someone would invest this much in them is incredible to them," Shaw said.

Shaw tells the women a story from With Open Hands, by Henri Nouwen about an old woman brought to a mental institution who clenched an old coin in her hand as if she would lose her very soul if it were taken away. Shaw explains, "We hang onto whatever we know in life, good or bad. With open hands, you let God see what it is that you are clutching so tightly." Shaw tells the women to think of things they are holding onto — anger, being lied to, being molested, separation from their children or taking drugs — and to squeeze their hands tighter with each thing they add. One woman’s hand was clenched so tightly, she could not open it. Three weeks later, the woman said she had finally opened her hand and "let the Holy Spirit blow away what she had been holding onto."

There is no halfway house for women who leave the jail. Shaw has started a mentoring program for these women. She tells them, "You are who God says you are" and to remember this in the face of adversity, knowing that they will at times get angry or depressed, but that "although God inspires us on the mountaintops, He does His best work in the valley." 

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