\nLetters from prison<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/en.radiovaticana.va\/global_images\/x.gif\")
\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/media01.radiovaticana.va\/imm\/1_0_677778.JPG\")
(Vatican Radio) Los Angeles County has one of the highest youth incarceration rates in the country. Up to 90% of the county\u2019s juvenile justice youth are Latino or African American, and up to 70% of incarcerated youth nationally are said to have some kind of disability.<\/p>\n
After witnessing the tragic lives of so many young people facing life without parole in a juvenile justice system where little rehabilitation takes place and with frighteningly high recidivism rates that continue into adulthood, Jesuit Father Mike Kennedy decided to set up the Jesuit Restorative Justice Initiative (JRJI) to provide support and hope to juveniles with life sentences.<\/p>\n
Through the Spiritual Exercise of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a series of meditative prayers helping people find God in their everyday experiences, the Jesuit Restorative Justice Initiative provides tools that allow prisoners to find healing and forgiveness and to recognize their lives have meaning and purpose.<\/p>\n
When the young boys at the juvenile detention facility in LA heard of Pope Francis\u2019 wish to celebrate the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord\u2019s Supper at Rome\u2019s Casal del Marmo prison with the young inmates there, many of them expressed their desire to participate from afar and in close solidarity to what the Pope was going to do in another juvenile hall.<\/p>\n
To do this they have written letters to Pope Francis, thanking him for his gesture of love and service, praying for him \u2013 as he has asked all of us to do, describing the sadness of their lives in detention, and asking for prayers to help them endure the darkness and hopelessness of their situations\u2026 As father Kennedy points out, some of these youngsters will spend the rest of their lives in prison.<\/p>\n
We welcome their voices and publish the letters that will be read at a service Thursday evening with the Director of Novices and 11 Jesuit novices, each one washing the feet of an inmate at the juvenile hall where kids are sentenced as adults.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nThank you for washing the feet of youth like us in Italy.
\nWe also are young and made mistakes.
\nSociety has given up on us, thank you
\nthat you have not given up on us.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nI think you are a humble man.
\nWhen you read this letter you will have washed the feet of other kids like.
\nI am writing this letter because you give me hope.
\nI know one day with people like you us kids
\nwon\u2019t be given sentences that will keep us in prison
\nfor the rest of our lives.
\nI pray for you. Dont forget us.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nI don\u2019t know if you have ever been to where I live.
\nI have grown up in a jungle of gangs and drugs and violence.
\nI have seen people killed. I have been hurt.
\nWe have been victims of violence.
\nIt is hard to be young and surrounded by darkness.
\nPray for me that one day I will be free
\nand be able to help other youth like you do.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nTonight we pray for all victims of violence.
\nThe families of people we have hurt need healing.
\nOur families need healing.
\nWe are all in pain.
\nLet us feel Jesus\u2019 healing tonight.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nI know the same youth feet that you wash
\nare like me.
\nDrugs have been part of me life for so long.
\nWe all struggle to be sober.
\nBut you inspire me and I promise to be sober
\nand help others with the cruel addiction of crystal meth.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nMy many friends are in two different maximum security
\nprisons in one of our states 33 state prisons.Calif. I am writing to tell you that I feel bad
\nthat more youth of color are in prison in our state
\nthan any other place in the world. I am inviting you to come
\nhere next year to wash our feet, many of who have been sentences to die in prison.
\nGod bless you.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nI read that the harshest sentence that a youth
\ncan receive in Italy is 20 years. I wish this was true here.
\nI hope I hear back from you. I have been catholic and glad I am catholic
\nbecause I have a pope like you.
\nI will pray for you every day because we need examples of God like you are
\nin this violent world.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nI am glad you picked the name Francis. When I was little I read about St.Francis. He is a cool saint. He was a man of peace and simplicity. I am praying to you that you pray that we have peace in our gang filled neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nWhen Jesus washed the feet of his friends he gave an example of humility. I have been raised to believe that it is only with respect in hurting your enemy that you are a man. Tonight you and Jesus show me something in this washing of the feet something very different. I hope we kids learn from this.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nI have never been to Rome. I do not know if it is near Los Angeles
\nbecause all my youth I have only known my neighborhood. I hope one
\nday I will be given a second chance and receive a blessing from you
\nand maybe even have my feet washed on Holy Thursday.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nI know you have a good family. I am writing this letter to you because I know
\nthat my family is suffering because of me. I know have done some bad things but I am not a bad kid and when last year in our big state we not a new law called SB9 this made me family happy because this is a beautiful message that we kids deserve a second chance.<\/p>\n
Dear Pope Francis,
\nFrom reading I know that us kids are capable of making decisions like older people do. I have seen pictures of brains of kids and adults. I am asking you as Pope to help us and
\nhelp other people understand we can change and want to change.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Preach Christ. If necessary, use words.\u00a0 From Vatican Radio: Letters from prison (Vatican Radio) Los Angeles County has one of the highest youth incarceration rates in the country. Up to 90% of the county\u2019s juvenile justice youth are Latino or African American, and up to 70% of incarcerated youth nationally are said to have some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,819,516,2996,726,1631,3007,1,46],"tags":[2947,3054,3085,3084,3083,2782],"class_list":["post-11459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic","category-conversion","category-culture","category-easter","category-following-christ","category-holy-father-2","category-holy-week","category-uncategorized","category-feminism","tag-holy-thursday","tag-holy-thursday-foot-washing","tag-juvenile-justice","tag-juvenile-justice-system","tag-juvenile-offenders","tag-pope-francis"],"yoast_head":"\n
Letters from Prison to Pope Francis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Preach Christ. If necessary, use words.\u00a0 From Vatican Radio: Letters from prison (Vatican Radio) Los Angeles County has one of the highest youth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Letters from Prison to Pope Francis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Preach Christ. If necessary, use words.\u00a0 From Vatican Radio: Letters from prison (Vatican Radio) Los Angeles County has one of the highest youth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-29T05:12:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-09T05:12:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/en.radiovaticana.va\/global_images\/x.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/\",\"name\":\"Letters from Prison to Pope Francis\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-29T05:12:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-09T05:12:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\"},\"description\":\"Preach Christ. If necessary, use words.\u00a0 From Vatican Radio: Letters from prison (Vatican Radio) Los Angeles County has one of the highest youth\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Letters from Prison to Pope Francis\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Public Catholic\",\"description\":\"Catholic in the Public Square\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\",\"name\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\"},\"description\":\"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Letters from Prison to Pope Francis","description":"Preach Christ. If necessary, use words.\u00a0 From Vatican Radio: Letters from prison (Vatican Radio) Los Angeles County has one of the highest youth","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Letters from Prison to Pope Francis","og_description":"Preach Christ. If necessary, use words.\u00a0 From Vatican Radio: Letters from prison (Vatican Radio) Los Angeles County has one of the highest youth","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/","og_site_name":"Public Catholic","article_published_time":"2013-03-29T05:12:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-02-09T05:12:56+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/en.radiovaticana.va\/global_images\/x.gif"}],"author":"Rebecca Hamilton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rebecca Hamilton","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/","name":"Letters from Prison to Pope Francis","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-03-29T05:12:04+00:00","dateModified":"2017-02-09T05:12:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d"},"description":"Preach Christ. If necessary, use words.\u00a0 From Vatican Radio: Letters from prison (Vatican Radio) Los Angeles County has one of the highest youth","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/03\/letters-from-prison-to-pope-francis\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Letters from Prison to Pope Francis"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/","name":"Public Catholic","description":"Catholic in the Public Square","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d","name":"Rebecca Hamilton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Rebecca Hamilton"},"description":"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11459"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27015,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11459\/revisions\/27015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}