By Thomas Scaria
Mangaluru, April 5, 2023: A Kerala police circular banning Church groups and NGOs from jails has shocked the Prison Ministry India officials in the state.
The Catholic Church has for decades conducted in jails Holy Week rituals and Easter Mass.
The March 31 circular from Kerala Jail Director General of Police bans the entry of the Church groups as well as other NGOs into prisons for religious or psychological counseling services. It was issued just two days before Christians observed Palm Sunday that commemorated Jesus Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
“This is a shocking order from the DGP, when we actually have permission till July 4,” Father Martin Thattil, the coordinator of the Prison Ministry in Kerala, told Matters India on April 5.
Jail authorities annually renew the Prison Ministry India’s permission to visit jails.
Father Francis Kodiyan, national director of the Prison Ministry India, said the order surprised them as it was issued without assigning any reasons. However, it is applicable only to Kerala, he explained.
Prisons come under the state jurisdiction and they can take such decisions. “Even last month, brothers and sisters from several seminaries and convents had visited prisons in Kerala, and there was no hint about a sudden ban,” Father Kodiyan told Matters India March 5.
He, however, said the order will have no negative impacts on the ministry’s national operation. Jails in Bengaluru, where the Prison Ministry India is based, have recently permitted the PMI activities.
The Prison Ministry of India, which began as the Jesus Fraternity in Kerala five decades ago, has become a national organization with units in several states. It has also gained pontifical recognition.
Father Thattil says they have appealed to the federal government to revoke the order and allow prisoners to access spiritual and psychological services.
According to him, Archbishop Andrews Thazhath and Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, head of the Syro-Malankara Church, have contacted Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is also the state Home Minister in charge of Police, but no favorable response has been received so far.
The chief minister told the prelates that the order was issued without his knowledge and an explanation will be sought in this regard.
The circular, without assigning any particular reasons, has banned not only religious services, but also counseling, classes, and legal assistance from outside by voluntary agencies.
Claretian Father George Kannanthanam, who has served in the Prison Ministry of India for several years in Bengaluru, observed that the purpose of convicting a prisoner is for bringing a reformation in him or her, and the religious groups and voluntary agencies are doing what jails and prisons could not achieve.
“We were in fact complementing to the reformation mission of the judiciary system rather than imposing any of our agendas there,” Father Kannanthanam explained.
The priest wondered if the government had done any studies on the negative impacts of such services in jails before issuing the ban order. They may say “security reasons,” but it should have explained some instances of such lapses because of the voluntary services in prisons.
The priest also pointed out that it is not only the Church who is involved in the prisoners’ reformation mission. Even other groups like Vivekananda youths, and Art of Living serve in prisons.
The Jesus Fraternity groups were preparing for the Mass and other Holy week ceremonies in various prisons in Kerala when the DGP’s order came.
Father Alexander Kureekattil, the director of Snehashram (abode of love), a prisoner’s rehabilitation center owned by the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council in Trichur, told Matters India that they would be grateful to the prison authorities who have patronized them these years.
“Most of the police heads in Kerala are from northern India and they may not know what the Church is doing in prisons towards the reformation of prisoners irrespective of their religious backgrounds,” observed the priest, another Claretian who served the Jesus Fraternity for 36 years.
Recently, the Kerala bishops handed over Snehashram to Claretians.
Kerala has some 55 jails, including six federal prisons. The Prison Ministry of India’s Kerala services are coordinated by the directors of its units in 32 dioceses and 8 regions.