Bishop Earl Fernandes celebrated two Christmas Masses for male inmates on Friday, Dec. 23 at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.
The first Mass was offered for the general population in Sacred Heart Chapel and the second Mass was for Death Row inmates in the prison gym.
“We are about to celebrate the Nativity of the Lord and the true meaning of Christmas,” Bishop Fernandes said in his homily, “which is that God comes to save us from our sins and to give us eternal hope through Jesus Christ. …
“Christmas is a time when God draws close to us, wanting to embrace us with His joy and receive us in paradise, which to Him is in the human heart…
“Rejoice, rejoice! For Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, was sent by God the Father as an offering for us to prepare our return to Him in Heaven. Christ, who is the savior of all, was born for us. Rejoice, Rejoice!”
In Sacred Heart Chapel, approximately 75 inmates attended. Some of the men participated as lectors, altar servers and singers in the choir.
The Mass for death row inmates included six inmates.
The Chillicothe Correctional Institution is a minimum- to medium-security prison with a population of approximately 3,000. The majority of Ohio’s male death-row inmates were moved to the facility in late 2011 and early 2012.
A Mass that Bishop Fernandes was scheduled to celebrate Mass on Christmas Eve morning at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville had to be postponed because of a Level 3 weather advisory early Saturday in Union County.
