{"id":5145,"date":"2022-09-26T02:00:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T00:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=5145"},"modified":"2022-07-23T02:15:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T00:15:07","slug":"i-took-the-opportunity-to-boost-the-courage-of-these-poor-young-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=5145","title":{"rendered":"I TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY TO BOOST THE COURAGE OF THESE POOR YOUNG PRISONERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The message of Jesus is summed up partly in the Sermon on the Mount, and partly when he begins his ministry and quotes the passage from Isaiah: ‘I have come to set free the prisoners and restore sight to the blind.’ And certainly, his mission is also to bring hope. It was to heal people, to befriend the outcast.” (Dan Wakefield)<\/span><\/p>\n

A priest of the Diocese of Marseilles, Father Fissiaux. had focused his ministry on the youth of the city. With Bishop Eugene’s blessing and encouragement, he had founded the Society of St Peter in Chains for Brothers who dedicated themselves to serving delinquent youth (see https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=4554<\/a>). Among their works was the industrial penitentiary where young prisoners were spared the corrupting element of the adult prisons and were trained in industry and agriculture so as to return to the world with skills useful to society.<\/h3>\n

Bishop Eugene describes one of his visits to this penitentiary.<\/h3>\n

Visit to the prison. I was customarily received there to the sound of fanfare and by the whole community. I celebrated Holy Mass there at which I distributed Communion to about fifty prisoners and to all the brothers.<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

After Mass, I administered the sacrament of confirmation to the prisoners who had received Communion, among whom was the son of a Moslem. I took the opportunity of the occasion to boost the courage of these poor young people by remarking to them that divine justice was less rigorous than human justice and that, if they had obtained from God a sentence of absolution, they owe it to the religion which had descended with them into their prisons, etc.<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

I then went to the infirmary where I again confirmed 13 young men, among them two converted Moslems, one of them a Black man. On the whole, the morning was very consoling and well filled.<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

Eugene de Mazenod\u2019s Diary, 10 April 1845, EO XXI<\/em><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The message of Jesus is summed up partly in the Sermon on the Mount, and partly when he begins his ministry and quotes the passage from Isaiah: ‘I have come to set free the prisoners and restore sight to the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}