Free to Believe

Prisoner Manuel Gonzalez Palma believes he’s a religious man, but he said he didn’t plan to go to Mass Sunday morning until he heard God calling his name.

The voice brought him to the yard at Santa Ana Jail, a gray cinder-block room where he and about 50 federal inmates heard a special Mass for prisoners. And when he did arrive, Palma felt compelled to take the microphone and lead his fellow prisoners in spontaneous song.

“If you come to Jesus Christ, he will forgive you,” sang the prisoner, who was arrested for re-entering the country illegally. “Because finding your faith, that’s what will save the sinner.”

For the first time in an Orange County jail, inmates in Santa Ana’s city jail were allowed Sunday to celebrate the Catholic Jubilee Year. The thought of a prisoners’ celebration might seem a contradiction in terms, but this Mass, conducted every 25 years, calls inmates across the globe to repentance, forgiveness, conversion and commitment to justice, according to the local Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which conducted the event. Because federal inmates must be kept separate from state inmates, a second, smaller service was held on a separate floor.

With spiritual messages of healing and forgiveness, Roman Catholic bishops across the continents celebrated Sunday Mass for the incarcerated as part of “Jubilee in the Prisons of the World.”

Pope John Paul II designated July 9 as a Jubilee day to draw attention to the world’s 8 million prisoners and called for a worldwide reduction of jail sentences as a sign of good will during the millennial Holy Year.

In Southern California, Archbishop of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony and about 20 other U.S. bishops held services in the more than 54 prisons, jails, juvenile halls and INS detention centers in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Orange.

The Mass in Orange County capped off a week of Bible studies, vigils and concerts that had more than 400 county prisoners in city and county jails focused on religious observance.

A few, like Palma, came because they felt called, while others said going to Mass was better than staying in lockup. But all at the Sunday morning men’s service were felons convicted of federal crimes ranging from kidnapping across state lines to narcotics offenses, according to jailers. Many were waiting to be sentenced or sent off to other prisons.

Orange County Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto conducted the service, praying for the prisoners and their victims and using a passage from the Bible to illustrate his message of strength against adversity.

“Saint Paul tells us that when I am weak, then I am strong,” Soto said. “Not with my own strength, but the strength God gives us.”

While he believed prisoners should consider changing their ways, he said society should try to reform as well by reconsidering policies like the death penalty and the expansion of the prison system.

“Is this the way for us to build a safe society? Are we safer by letting everyone go to jail?” Soto asked in an interview.

“As we’re building more jails, we’re building more gated communities,” Soto said. “When does this stop? When can we have the common life again, a sense of society and trust in one another?”

At the close of Mass, prisoners shouted the name of Christ in unison, and Palma leaped to the microphone to sing a religious song.

He didn’t want to stop. “I felt chills,” he said. “I was singing a song for the Lord.”

Life inside prison is sometimes difficult, he said, but Palma believes he needs to celebrate. He misses life on the outside, and singing made him feel like he has left jail. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in here. I want to change. I want to be something different.”

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Palma said that some days he has thanked God for jail because it gave him a chance to begin a different life.

“It’s not hard to change. With God helping, nothing’s hard. I can feel it. I am changing. I act different. I don’t say bad words any more,” he said. “Now I tell my mother I love her. I never told her I loved her before.”

In Los Angeles, Mahony spoke to about 230 inmates inside the chapel of Men’s Central Jail.

“Please, open your hearts so that Christ may enter,” Mahony urged the inmates. “Some people think: ‘Because I’m a sinner and maybe committed some crimes, the Lord cannot love me.’ Well, that’s not true.” At Central Juvenile Hall, more than 400 young men and women--ages 8 to 18--gathered on the facility courtyard for an outdoor service celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala. The theme echoed throughout the service was one of forgiveness and reconciliation by crime victims, family members of prisoners, and inmates themselves. In one of the more moving testimonies, a blond, freckle-faced 18-year-old named Liz recounted how being sexually abused by her stepfather when she was 9 led her to a life of crime. The day everyone found out, she said, he killed himself.

“Today . . . I realize that my stepfather was not a monster. He was a man. A sick man, but a man nonetheless, and I have forgiven him,” she said through tears. “The hate that was inside me led me to do many things I regret today. If only I had found a way to forgive him earlier, I could have gone on with my life.”

Inside Men’s Central Jail, Mahony was joined by Bishop Tod Brown, of the Diocese of Orange, and Bishop George Niederauer, of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Niederauer was in Los Angeles to attend the national Catholic multicultural convention, Encuentro 2000, which ended Sunday.

In their emerald green vestments, the church officials stood in contrast to the prisoners, a sea of navy blue, lime green and white in their county-issued uniforms. While accepting communion, most of the inmates kept their hands inside their pockets, a county policy meant to guard against sudden outbreaks of violence.

During the homily to the prisoners, Mahony called on the men to take responsibility for their wrongs and seek redemption from God.

“No one can force Jesus Christ into your life,” Mahony said. “We have to allow him in our hearts so he can change us.”

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Times staff writers Margaret Ramirez and Antonio Olivo contributed to this report.