Loyola program certifies Angola’s inmate-ministers

Except for having to drop everything to attend “The Count,” the 11 Angola inmates enrolled in Loyola Institute for Ministry’s 36-credit program progress through their coursework like typical college students – discussing their assignments, asking their professor questions and taking careful notes.

“The Count means that once an hour the inmates are called out of the classroom and literally everybody gets counted – they have to get together according to what cell block they’re from,” explained Rick Beben, facilitator of the Loyola extension program that enables Angola’s incarcerated to work toward certificates in pastoral studies or religious education in their quest to become more capable leaders of Angola’s many inmate-run ministries.

“I’ve facilitated several (non-prison based) groups over the years, and they’re as hard working a group as any I’ve ever worked with,” Beben said. “Even though they are doing it just for certificate credit, they’re writing the papers just like the graduate students, and they are doing nearly all the readings someone at graduate level would be doing.”

LIM, with the cooperation of prison administrators and the Diocese of Baton Rouge, began offering the three-year certificate program in August 2010 at the suggestion of Linda Fjeldsjo, a 20-year veteran of prison ministry with Catholic Charities Baton Rouge.

Beben, a LIM graduate and resident of Baton Rouge who works for Loyola on an adjunct basis, drives to Angola on Monday afternoons to facilitate the three-hour sessions.

Students lead discussions

Classes take place in Angola’s Education Building and usually begin with a shared reflection on two passages from Scripture that are assigned the previous week. Having limited access to the Internet, the student-inmates come to class laden with their handwritten essays and reading selections.

“You won’t see any laptops,” Beben said. “They are in an adult learning group sitting around tables with their books, papers and notes, either talking to one another in a large group setting or in smaller group discussions.” Halfway through the session, the students view a video on the week’s reading.

“I am the facilitator for the group; I am not their teacher,” Beben stressed. “The instruction comes from what they are given to read and their interaction in small or large group settings. With any LIM group, by the time you get to the fourth or fifth course, if you would just drop in to be an observer you should have a little bit of trouble deciding who the facilitator is. A facilitator’s job is to keep things moving, to watch the time and keep things focused. They really teach themselves and teach one another through their interaction.”

Inmates lead many ministries

The certificate program consists of 12 courses of 10 sessions each. For example, the course entitled “Introduction to the Old Testament” had students discussing the prophets of the Babylonian Exile – Ezekiel and the Second Isaiah.

During class, Beben said several of the inmates observed that they, like the prophets, were often labeled as “oddballs” by their fellow prisoners because of the various ministries they are involved in, which range from peer counseling men in their cells, to working in Angola’s hospice program.

“If word comes that a relative has died, there are one or two (of our students) who have the role of delivering that message to the bereaved inmate,” Beben adds. “And a couple of them are very active in music ministry. One man used to be a band director, and there’s one very talented guy who leads music at Angola’s worship services who would make a marvelous music minister at any church,” he said of his students.

The students, who range in age from their 30s to their 60s, are mostly Catholic; however “there is a healthy-sized minority that are not,” Beben said.

“It makes for lots of interesting discussions,” he said, noting that most of the students “come in on the same level because even lifetime Catholics struggle to understand Catholic reading of the sacred Scripture.”

Beben, who also received his undergraduate degree at Loyola, also has ministered to Catholic groups in Natchitoches, Our Lady of the Lake in Mandeville and the Catholic Center in Baton Rouge.

“I had never set foot in a jail or penitentiary before this program, and I didn’t quite know what to expect,” he said. “Driving to the facility the first session, I remember thinking to myself, ‘What in the world am I getting myself into?’” he said.

“These men have been incarcerated for decades – most of them will die at Angola,” Beben said. “Yet it is amazing. They don’t have any pretensions. They have a sense of commitment to personal growth and service to one another, and there’s a spirituality in them, individually and collectively, that I think surprises people.”

A Catholic library grows

LIM uses the teaching approach of Practical Theology, which places the academic study of Catholic theology “in conversation with people’s lived realities,” said Dr. Tom Ryan, the institute’s director.

“It pays attention not only to Catholic tradition but also to the cultural context of where people minister,” Ryan said. “The way you do ministry in Angola is going to be different from the way you do ministry at Loyola, or the streets of New Orleans or Belize.

“The question constantly to students is, ‘What does this (church teaching) say to the people of the early church, and at Angola in 2011?’”

A library of Catholic theology has been built at Angola as a result of the LIM collaboration, with titles including “The Catechism of the Catholic Church”; Terry Veling’s “Practical Theology: On Earth as It Is in Heaven”; and Jesuit Father Gerald Fagin’s “Putting on the Heart of Christ.”

Making the most of their time

Beben said the favorite part of his job as facilitator is interacting with the men.

“I don’t have a romanticized view of these guys,” he said, noting that many of the participants have been involved in ministry for years through the Diocese of Baton Rouge and have earned degrees through the Baptist Theological Seminary. Some are involved in the unique ministry that brings high school juniors preparing for their confirmation to Angola for inmate-led retreats.

“I’m so impressed by their sense of themselves, their taking responsibility for their own growth and development, their working with other people,” Beben said. “Their commitment to ministry blows me away.

“I’ve told them that if I were in the situation they were in, I would just roll up in a fetal position and stay there,” he adds. “It’s amazing what they’re doing in their own corner of the world.”

Originally funded by the Diocese of Baton Rouge, the LIM-Angola collaboration is seeking additional funding to continue the program. “Students earn under 25 cents an hour, so they can’t pay (program costs) themselves,” Ryan said, asking church parishes that have prison ministries to consider partial sponsorships in return for inmate-run pastoral workshops for their parishioners.

Beth Donze can be reached at [email protected].

LIM trains ministers around the world

The Loyola Institute for Ministry (LIM) prepares men and women for religious education and ministerial leadership through professional graduate and continuing education. Founded in 1978, it is one of the largest ministry formation programs in the country, with more than 3,000 graduates. It offers instruction in three formats: on campus; at satellite locations, such as Angola; and online.

“Our program is for lay people who want to explore their vocation of evangelizing the world, and also for people whose vocation involves working within the particular context of a church,” said Dr. Tom Ryan, LIM director.

LIM has programs underway in 40 Catholic dioceses in the United States, as well as in Belize, Scotland, England and Nigeria.

Visit www.lim.loyno.edu or call 865-2069.