Touched by God

Is this Notre Dame Cathedral? No. It is Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. Now it is a National Historic Landmark and “visiting site” in the city, especially at Halloween! At its founding (1829), it became a part of a controversial movement to change the behavior of inmates through “confinement in solitude with labor.” It was a model for the world’s prisons. It closed in 1970. In Fr. Paul’s chaplaincy ministry, he was most moved by the sacraments he participated in with the inmates. Their devotion was often so simple and real. It was while he was touching them in the sacraments or prayer that Jesus Christ’s presence became most evident.