Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich celebrates Christmas Mass with Cook County Jail detainees
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Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich spent Christmas morning with detainees at the Cook County Jail, telling them during Mass they were not alone, not forgotten.
“Any time that we, in our life, have felt, no matter our circumstances, as though we’ve been overlooked or told that we don’t matter or that we’re second-class citizens, this feast is for us,” he told the gathered men.
The Monday morning service was one of a dozen Christmas Masses at the jail this year organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago’s jail ministry, Kolbe House. It is an annual event for Cupich, who was scheduled afterward to eat lunch with jail detainees who are part of a job skills and mentoring program called “Recipe for Change.”
What comes after jail was also a focus for those who planned the Christmas Mass.
Mark McCombs, executive director of Kolbe House, said he hoped the Mass could help those who attend feel “dignified, worthwhile” and like they are not alone, which can be one step in helping prevent them from returning to jail or prison once they are released. It’s one measure to help address Illinois’ recidivism rate, he said.
“By saying Mass, we remind all of these gentlemen here that despite their surroundings, despite what they may have done, they’re not alone,” McCombs said.
Several dozen detainees trickled into a jail chapel Monday morning, where they sang with members of the Chicago Black Catholic Choir, listened to readings and Cupich’s sermon. They were joined by Kolbe House members and nuns with the Daughters of Charity.
Cupich told the attendees of the shepherds who were the first to hear of the birth of Jesus Christ. The shepherds were away from the city, often forgotten and sometimes viewed as second-class citizens or suspected of wrongdoing, he said.
“Today is a day for all of us, no matter where we are in life, to be in touch with the life of the shepherds. Be in touch with those experiences in which we feel left out, overlooked, ignored, discarded, as though our lives don’t matter,” he said, encouraging the men to see the goodness in one another that, perhaps, they had not seen before.
Cupich also offered prayers for the men’s families, from whom they were separated on Christmas, those who were suffering and those who passed away. He prayed for the places across the world mired in war, saying he was especially focusing on the Middle East and the city of Bethlehem.
The detainees, dressed in Department of Corrections khaki-colored uniforms and white Velcro sneakers, turned to wish each other and the jail visitors peace, before beginning to take Communion. They filed up to the front of the room, one row at a time, closely directed by jail guards.
Sister Angele, one of the Daughters of Charity, sat in the front row of the service, praying with the men in jail. Now 87, she has for years worked at the jail, mostly in the women’s division painting one-on-one with them. But she chose to attend the Christmas Day Mass to support the cardinal and the men in jail, she said, and read as part of the service.
“I just wanted to let them know that they are in my prayer,” she said. “And that somebody is thinking about them today.”
As the service ended, the men offered a rousing round of applause for the choir. Cupich wished them a “blessed Christmas,” to which some yelled back a loud “merry Christmas.”
Then they were dismissed, row by row, to shake hands with Cupich before they headed back into the heart of the building.
