[Gocamino] Convicted ones on the Camino

[blaroli at aol.com]

Hello you all,
A week ago the Correo Gallego contained an article about 18 prisoners from the Torredondo penitentiary in Segovia. They had arrived in Santiago on May 31st. after walking the Camino accompanied by volunteers from the "Father Garralda Open Horizons Foundation" and by special guard/social workers  from the penitentiary.
The volunteers are young people who go to prisons and jails in Spain, several times a week,  to give whatever practical information and humane support may help convicts rejoin society after paying for their punishable transgressions

The Open Horizons Association's vice president, Maria Matos, explained to the Correo reporters that the Association works closely with the General Directorship of Prisons in Spain.

Pursuant to their efforts, the 18 Segovia prisoners began the Santiago pilgrimage in Samos where they were attended by the Mercedario (?) monks.  Walking about 25 kilometers a day they were just pilgrims... conviving with others, sleeping outdoors, talking, or being silent, and helping other pilgrims in need. In other words.....being pilgrims.  Maria Matos said that  "they have never lost their dignity or humanity, and deserve an opportunity to demonstrate their rehabilitation"
(You can read the entire article on the June 1st., edition of the Correo.)

Not entirely coincidentally, (Spain has been following this practice with its first-time offenders for some years), the last edition of the magazine Compostela contains the following testimonial, which was read aloud at the Pilgrims' Mass by one of the nine female pilgrims from the Avila penitentiary who had just completed the pilgrimage:
"Apostle Santiago, we are nine (female) prisoners from the Avila Penitentiary that have walked from Sarria and would like to make the following plea in the name of all who are imprisoned anywhere in the world: May the Lord give us strength and enlightment to complete our sentence, and may we  have the support of society to commence a new Camino of our lives. Let us pray".

(Amen! Amen! Amen!}

When I was in Seville for Holy Week last April I read in the newspapers that prisoners were let out to watch the processions from their  neighborhoods, and that a fair number of them to even marched in them.  Since those in the processions must wear their confraternity  habit which includes an all-covering hood (-infamously adapted by the Ku Klux Kan to hide nefarious deeds, its original purpose was to comply with the Gospel's admonition that during devotions the "left hand should not know what the right one is doing".... in other words, total anonymity-). Well, being that tens and tens of thousands converge in Seville from all over the world in Holy Week and that the consequential "Bulla", (anything goes.... almost), would be an ideal setting for absconding I should have been flabbergasted to learn that every single one of the temporarily released prisoners reported back to prison right on time.
But then.... I've known for a while that extraordinary, indeed mind boggling, happenings and events are everyday life in Spain.

By the way, a few  members of this list have asked information about Holy Week in Seville; being that the place is, to me, like catnip to a feline  and that, work wise, my office is in slow-time, I would like to reply. Because the answers may not be strictly related to the Camino, perhaps it is best to send them only to those of you who are interested in the subject.  Please let me know.

Hugs!

Rosina


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