The CSP has a small presence in La Picota, the largest prison in Bogota (Colombia)
On the last Thursday of every month, the members of the Community of Saint Paul that live in Colombia know that we will have a different day: we leave aside our projects in La Resurrección, the parish where we work, and go to La Picota, the largest prison in Bogota, to accompany for a few hours the inmates who are there. We talk with them, we celebrate the Eucharist and we try to comfort them with our visit.
La Picota houses an average of 9,000 men and is a complex world—like all prisons—, sometimes difficult to understand, and undoubtedly very much in need. It is obvious that our work, there, is minimal, a mere witness: we simply join many other volunteers from various parishes in the capital that every Thursday, without exception, go to La Picota to put in practice Jesus’s words: «I was in the jail and you went to see me». It is a great satisfaction to be part of this happy and dedicated group of volunteers.
Something interesting happens with jail ministry: those who do not know it, look at it with misgivings; on the other hand, those who have the opportunity to get involved with it, fall in love with it. It is true that suspicions and even fears are common at first, and that for the person who has never entered a prison, the first day entails a natural nervousness. However, the common experience of the vast majority of those who decide to visit the prisoners is extraordinarily positive. The human contact with the inmates helps to make prejudices go away, and we discover the lively presence of God in a place where perhaps we did not think we were going to find it. The members of the CSP that have the privilege of going to La Picota would not hesitate to affirm that some of the deepest human and spiritual experiences we have lived here in Colombia have taken place precisely behind the bars of this prison. And we are sure that the same would be affirmed by all the volunteers who, with an admirable generosity, show up at the gates of La Picota every Thursday of the year. It is a different ministry, and it is very worthwhile: it never disappoints.
