The lunch this Saturday will be very simple, even "frugal," because the pontiff wants to take time to meet each prisoner individually, Anna Maria Esposito, head of a prison ministry, told Vatican Radio.
The prison ministry, for example, hosts church services behind bars and counsels prisoners.
Prison ministry also appeals to me.
The prison ministry keeps three large chests containing toys, games and puzzles there.
One favorite: the prison ministry of Charles Colson, the former Watergate felon turned Christian prison evangelist.
Jack Cowley, the national director of operations for an Oklahoma City prison ministry, on his program.
As governor he has promoted hostels for welfare mothers and legislation that encouraged religion-based drug treatment centers and prison ministries.
It took him three decades to convince the world that his conversion was sincere: three decades in which, building on his sobering seven months in jail, he set up a network of prison ministries in 115 countries, established a programme of restorative justice, and took over units of prisons to run them on Christian principles, with Scripture classes and prayer-meetings.
He speaks of creating a society where "the strong are just and the weak are valued," and making sure "no child is left behind," and offering "practical help to women and children in crisis," and giving money to charitable and religious groups for "after-school programs, maternity group homes, drug treatment, prison ministries".
A list of the government interventions that Santorum endorses includes national service, promotion of prison ministries, "individual development accounts," publicly financed trust funds for children, community-investment incentives, strengthened obscenity enforcement, covenant marriage, assorted tax breaks, economic literacy programs in "every school in America" (his italics), and more.
HTB may not be terribly successful in its prison ministries or in its attempts at church planting in the poorer and more de-Christianised parts of London, but it does take them seriously, and it is about the only part of the Church of England where that tradition is still alive among the congregation.
