A few days before Dec. 25, inmates at Los Angeles County’s largest women’s jail got news that a special guest was coming for Christmas.
The Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, they were told, would be celebrating Mass in Century Regional Detention Facility’s (CRDF) module 3600, a space enclosed by two levels of jail cells and used by low-security inmates for training and recreation programs.
For the inmates, it was the perfect occasion for a holiday makeover.
They got to work with markers and scissors to craft Christmas lights, stockings, and Grinch cut-outs from recycled cardboard to decorate the block’s second-story fence. Tampons and pads were repurposed to create a three-dimensional Christmas tree. Hanging below was a festive hand-made banner reading “ARCHBISHOP JOSE H. GOMEZ.”
Many of the women had their hair braided for the occasion, or curled with the help of toilet paper rolls. Others had used ingredients like ground coffee and Kool-Aid powder as face makeup.
“There’s a lot of talent in these walls,” explained Dr. Melissa Kelley, who oversees rehabilitation programs at the jail.
There was also plenty of excitement inside those walls on Christmas morning. Many of the mixed group of 200 general population and mental health inmates at the Mass were mothers serving short sentences for drug-related or domestic offenses. Many were not Catholic. But for all, it seemed, the Christmas guest brought some of the closeness they were missing from their families that day.
“It felt like Santa Claus was about to show up!” remarked one inmate afterward, a 36-year-old mother of four serving time for drug abuse.
In his nearly 15 years in LA, Archbishop Gomez has spent most Christmas mornings celebrating Mass with inmates at Men’s Central Jail. But after the success of an emotional visit from a traveling relic of St. Carlo Acutis to the men’s jail in October, chaplains floated the idea of an additional Christmas jail Mass at the women’s facility.
“The response from the Sheriff’s was way beyond even what I expected,” said Gonzalo De Vivero, who oversees the LA Archdiocese’s Office of Restorative Justice. “When we put our heads together, good things happen.”
The Mass began with a choir of some 30 mental health inmates in yellow scrubs welcoming Archbishop Gomez with a rendition of “Silent Night.” After the morning’s Scripture readings were proclaimed by a pair of inmates, Archbishop Gomez told the women in his homily that Christmas is the “very normal and human story of a family,” one that could continue in their lives, even while behind bars.
“The child in the manger, this is who God is,” said the archbishop. “Jesus comes this way because he wants us to take him into our hearts, just like a mother holds her child close.”
Amid the handshakes and hugs at the sign of peace, one inmate mustered the courage to approach the archbishop to shake his hand. When he obliged, more women started to approach.
“Whatever you need in your personal life, whether you’re happy or sad, just talk to Jesus and you’ll have a lot of peace,” the archbishop told the women after holy Communion.
According to chaplains, CRDF has seen an alarming rise in inmates serving time for drug-related offenses in recent years. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of inmates diagnosed with mental illness has doubled to around 70% of the jail’s population.
But in their conversations with the women, the chaplains have noticed another pattern.
“Not being able to forgive,” said Faith Jimenez, who works for the archdiocesan Restorative Justice office. “Themselves, their family, everybody that is close to them.”
De Vivero’s office tries to ensure that Communion services are held weekly in nine jails across the archdiocese, and Mass whenever a priest is available. Multiple inmates told Angelus after the Mass that they’ve begun to rediscover their faith thanks to incarceration by reading the Bible and praying with chaplains. But to help inmates confront their difficulties and traumas, Jimenez and fellow chaplain Karina Luis said that listening, rather than lecturing, is the most effective way of conveying God’s love.
“We’re not here to provide them answers or a way out of a situation,” said Luis. “It’s really just walking beside them, listening to them. Because just giving somebody your time speaks more than anything else.”
A few miles away that morning, Auxiliary Bishop Matt Elshoff celebrated Mass with a group of 80 inmates at Men’s Central Jail, where the only decoration was a simple manger scene, or “pesebre” in Spanish, set up in front of the altar of the jail chapel. The birth of Jesus Christ depicted in the Christmas scene, Elshoff told inmates, is a guarantee of hope even for those behind bars.
“Hope is not wishful thinking, hope is the confidence that God is not done with you,” said Elshoff in his homily. “Hope is knowing that your story is not defined by your worst moment, that even if the world has given up on you, this is the freedom that you possess.”
Afterward, Elshoff walked through block 3100 to greet some of the jail’s most serious offenders through the bars of their cells. As a Christmas gift, he handed out copies of the children’s book “3 Days to Eucharistic Fire with St. Carlo Acutis,” now a familiar saint in the jail since the October relic visit.
At the end of the Mass in Lynwood, the women lined up for their Christmas presents: gift bags with a prayer card, notebook, and chocolate. But before the final blessing and a slow-clap rendition of “Go Tell it on The Mountain” from inmates, Sheriff Robert Luna stood up to tell the women that “when I come back, I don’t want to see any of you here.”
Then he had a final announcement.
“Today is the most important birthday, of course. But tomorrow there’s an important one, too,” he said, turning to Archbishop Gomez, before leading the mostly female congregation in singing “Happy Birthday.”
Before the archbishop left the makeshift chapel, one last shout was heard from a woman in the crowd.
“We hope you come back!”
