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God never gives us a cross without the grace to carry it and we can always find reasons to be thankful, Cardinal Timothy Dolan told inmates and staff during a Thanksgiving week visit to the Otisville Federal Correctional Facility in Orange County.
“You can give in to discouragement or depression and think, ‘This is lousy, this is hell,’ but whatever predicament we find ourselves in, God will give us the grace and help to make the most of it,” he said.
Cardinal Dolan was the principal celebrant of a reverent Nov. 23 Mass in the prison chapel. He was joined at the altar by Auxiliary Bishop Dominick Lagonegro, two prison chaplains, two priests from local parishes and a deacon. Inmates were altar servers, readers, gift bearers and musicians.
The facility at Otisville includes a medium security prison for 780 men and a minimum security satellite camp for 120. Chris Entzel, executive assistant, said offenders range from 20 to 83 years old and many are serving sentences for drug-related crimes. Approximately 20 percent of the prison population is Catholic.
The cardinal said he begins each day with a prayer to “St. Dismas, the thief who stole paradise.” Jesus promised Dismas a place in heaven as they hung side-by-side on Calvary.
Cardinal Dolan said he asked Jesus to give the inmates the consolation of heaven and the promise of the afterlife.
During Mass, Cardinal Dolan administered the sacrament of confirmation to Guy Lotz of Stanton, Va. He completed the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program with chaplain Father Nogozi Osuji and James Dennedy, a 21-year volunteer with the Catholic chaplaincy.
Lotz, who was raised as a Protestant, told Catholic New York he became interested in Catholicism when he attended a Confirmation Mass celebrated at the prison by Bishop Lagonegro. “I liked what I saw,” he said.
Lotz chose Barnabas as his confirmation name. He was inspired by Barnabas’ preaching to the Gentiles. “He’s known for trying to bring unity to the Levites and Gentiles. I feel there’s a lot of miscommunication” that could be overcome with the saint’s help, he said.
Lotz fashioned his own confirmation stole from white cloth and decorated it with his patron saint’s name and an image of the Holy Sprit as a dove. His sponsor was Gregory Marcinski, from Brick, N.J., who also served at Mass.
Cardinal Dolan told Lotz the sacrament would “strengthen the gift of the Holy Spirit God gave you in baptism.” Clapping Lotz on the shoulder and shaking his hand, he added, “We need all the help we can get!”
At the end of Mass, master of ceremonies Timothy Androit thanked the congregation for supporting Lotz’s decision to become a Catholic. He said faith in God helped the inmates get through the “crazy situation” of incarceration, where “negative emotions try to crush the positive.”
He said Noah was a good model for them. “Noah was in a crazy situation, but he kept a smile on his face because he trusted in God to get him through it. And that’s how we have get through this,” he said.
Noting that Pope Francis visited prisoners in Philadelphia, Androit asked Cardinal Dolan to hand-deliver the inmates’ letter of invitation to the pope the next time he is in Rome. Cardinal Dolan accepted gifts of religious artwork from the inmates and a basket of snack food from the administrators.
The cardinal greeted each of the men after Mass, sharing a laugh or a quiet word.
He stopped at the minimum security camp to greet inmates assembled in the day room. One prisoner told the cardinal, “You are here as a good person to give us hope that we are good people.” He said the men are apprehensive when they arrive at the facility and when they leave, because it’s hard to know which family, friends and community members will stick by them.
Cardinal Dolan said, “The one you can always count on is the Lord.”
He invited the men to visit him at St. Patrick’s Cathedral after they are released.
