While rain fell in Manhattan, areas north and west of the city prepared for a white Christmas as inches of new snow fell on the Upper Counties of the archdiocese on December 23. 

Undeterred, Cardinal Timothy Dolan traveled north to Ulster Correctional Facility in the Ulster County hamlet of Napanoch to see the incarcerated and staff in a pre-Christmas pastoral visit.

In his homily, Cardinal Dolan recalled watching a Christmas play, put on by the Catholic school associated with his parish while still in Missouri. The boy who portrayed the innkeeper, who tells Mary and Joseph there is no room for them, didn’t like being the bad guy. In the play, when the couple appears at his door, the innkeeper said, “C’mon in!” 

“Jesus was born in a manger, a stable, so that he could be reborn in our hearts,” Cardinal Dolan said during his homily. “If Our Savior can be born in a stinky, messy place like that, He can certainly be reborn within us,” he said. 

Throughout the Mass, which took place in the correctional facility’s visitation area, decorated for Christmas with lights, pine fronds, and surfaces covered in wrapping paper, it continued to snow outside, piling up visibly on various outdoor structures. 

Ulster Correctional Facility is a medium-security prison for males.

About 40 members of the facility’s incarcerated population attended the Mass, along with a similar number of administrators and staff. Concelebrating along with Cardinal Dolan were Monsignor Marc Filacchione and Father Ryan Muldoon. Assisting the Mass were Deacon John Carr, a full-time chaplain at the facility, and other deacons from the area. Also attending was Father Zachariah F. Presutti, SJ, founder and executive director of the Thrive for Life Prison Project, which assists the transition of incarcerated men and women back into society.

Daniel F. Martuscello, commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), Staci Bennett, superintendent of the Ulster Correctional Facility, and other members of the facility’s staff attended the Mass and reception that followed.

As his custom, after Mass, Cardinal Dolan spent time with each man and presented each with a rosary. He reminded them that Jesus is always with them, even at times when they cannot be with their family and friends. 

“If only one man comes away from this event with a lasting impression, then it’s worthwhile,” Superintendent Bennett told The Good Newsroom after the Mass.

Father Presutti described the impact of Cardinal Dolan’s visits to the incarcerated as “huge. It lets them know they are not forgotten,” he said, along with visits from organizations such as Thrive for Life and local chaplains.