Cardinal Dolan Brings Palm Sunday Mass to Rockland County Correctional Facility
By: Steven Schwankert
“We’re all prisoners to sin and death,” cardinal tells incarcerated men
Cardinal Timothy Dolan brought palm fronds and prayer cards featuring a crucified prisoner during a pastoral visit to Rockland County’s Eugene J. Grogan Correctional Facility on Sunday.
The visit continues Cardinal Dolan’s custom of visiting correctional facilities close to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.
“I’m a prisoner too,” Cardinal Dolan told The Good Newsroom. “We’re all prisoners to sin and death. And Jesus told me to hang around with prisoners, and I always do what he tells me.”
The resplendent red vestments for Palm Sunday worn by Cardinal Dolan and his concelebrants brightened the drab multi-function room in which they celebrated Mass. At the beginning of the celebration, Cardinal Dolan blessed palm fronds and distributed them to the administrators, officers, and incarcerated persons in attendance.
WATCH: Jubilee for Prisoners: Thrive for Life Helps New Yorkers Rebuild After Prison
Cardinal Dolan focused on the lessons of the day’s gospel and Holy Week. On Palm Sunday, Jesus enters Jerusalem with the crowd waving palm fronds to welcome Him. But, Cardinal Dolan said, five days later, the same people called for Him to be crucified.
“We all have Palm Sundays, and we all have Good Fridays. But we also all have Easter Sunday,” Cardinal Dolan said, reminding those in attendance of the hope of the resurrection.
Following Mass, a personal touch
After Mass, Cardinal Dolan greeted each of the seven incarcerated men who attended, talking with some in their native Spanish, and presented each with prayer cards featuring St. Dismas, the thief who was crucified next to Jesus, saying, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). He then spent time greeting and talking with administrators and staff. Cardinal Dolan also touched his crucifix to the rosaries two of the men were wearing or carrying.
Monsignor Emmet Nevin, dean of Rockland County and pastor of Saint Aedan Catholic Church in Pearl River, and Father Ryan Muldoon concelebrated, assisted by Deacon Samir Mobarek of the Church of Saint Augustine in New City.
“[Cardinal Dolan] has always been emblematic of not leaving people behind,” said Louis Falco III, sheriff of Rockland County. “We teach the people in our care that they are not bad people just because they did a bad thing, just like our Catholic faith,” he said.
The Eugene J. Grogan Correctional Facility is the only such detention center in Rockland County. It is considered maximum security, as it holds incarcerated men, women, and minors until they are tried and sentenced. Only incarcerated persons serving sentences of one year or shorter will do their full term at Grogan. Although the facility has a capacity of over 300, currently only 140, mostly male, inmates are in residence, Falco said.