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Cardinal Dolan celebrated Mass for 300 people, including 120 inmates, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Chapel of St. Paul at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville Nov. 20.
Following Mass, Cardinal Dolan met with the inmates. “Cardinal Dolan took time to say hello to every single inmate there,” Deacon Robert Buckner, who is a Catholic chaplain at Green Haven, told CNY.
Father Gamini Fernando also serves as a Catholic chaplain at Green Haven, a maximum-security state prison for men in Dutchess County, which houses about 1,960 inmates. Catholic inmates number 347, or 18 percent.
The chapel was constructed under the direction of professional contractors with assistance from inmates. The late Msgr. Edward J. Donovan, a chaplain at Green Haven for 38 years and a major force in the building of the chapel, organized fund-raisers to raise the money for construction of the chapel, including collecting and redeeming trading stamps.
