Mass at Jail : Year Opens on Spiritual Note for Inmates

The nuns and priests outnumbered the inmates celebrating an early Mass at Orange County’s Women’s Jail Thursday, but it didn’t seem to matter to the inmates who decided to begin 1987 on a spiritually uplifting note.

“These walls and bars keep you in, but they do not keep Jesus out,” Bishop John T. Steinbock told the 11 inmates who gathered to pray in a small dining room deep inside the jail.

Steinbock, who fashioned an altar by covering a table with a lace cloth, said the New Year’s Day Mass at the jail marked the Feast of Mary, the mother of God.

Several inmates wept during the 8:30 a.m. service, which featured Christmas carols and hymns sung by a group of nuns belonging to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange.

“It’s easy for me to say ‘Happy New Year’ when here you are, away from your loved ones and families, but realize Jesus is with you,” Steinbock said.

“There’s a worse imprisonment; people who are imprisoned by greed and selfishness are in worse condition than you are,” Steinbock told the women. Jail officials did not permit the inmates to be interviewed, but it was obvious from their tears and sniffles that the bishop’s words had moved them. Several women held hands and comforted one another as deputies watched from the back of the windowless room.

Fifteen nuns, a deacon, Father John Urell, secretary to the bishop, and two other church members accompanied Steinbock to the jail. Steinbock will resume his status as auxiliary bishop when the Most Rev. Norman F. McFarland is installed as bishop of the Diocese of Orange next month.

This New Year’s Day was a special one for the sisters who celebrated Mass with the bishop. Sister Katherine Gray said that Thursday marked the 75th anniversary of their order, founded in Eureka, Calif. Gray said the community, which has about 300 members, moved to Orange County in 1922.