By Amy White
The Texas Catholic
With Bibles in tow, the St. Jude Collin County Juvenile Detention Center Ministry teams trek through a maze of hallways and past a series of heavy metal doors to bring the light of Christ into the confines of Collin County’s juvenile detention center, illuminating the young hearts and minds within.
Established nearly two decades ago, the St. Jude CCJDC Ministry takes parishioners of St. Jude Catholic Church into the McKinney facility to offer spiritual support to the boys and girls inside. The mission of the ministry, volunteers said, is to spread a message of hope to the confined youth through Scripture and conversation. This ministry is part of the Diocese of Dallas’ wider efforts to spiritually accompany incarcerated populations in north Texas.
“Our mission is to provide spiritual guidance to people that are incarcerated,” said Deacon José Treviño, who has served as the Diocese of Dallas coordinator of prison ministry for two decades. “They’re at a place right now where they have a lot of time to reflect and a lot of time to think about the things that they have been through; and that’s when they’re looking for some spiritual assistance and help.”
Currently, one women’s team and two men’s teams from the Allen parish minister at the facility, with each team visiting multiple times per month. Of the few church groups that regularly enter the detention center to encounter the youths inside, the group from St. Jude has had the longest presence there.
“How do we get God’s message to people that need it the most if they don’t have people bringing it to them?” said Holly Dieterle, coordinator for the St. Jude CCJDC Ministry’s women’s team. “Our mission is just to bring God to them and let him work.”
Message of hope
In a large white room lined with gray metal doors, hand-drawn crosses and scribbled scripture verses hang from the walls. Spread across the space, a dozen or so teenage girls sit in a half circle, under the eyes of a watchful officer, as parishioners from St. Jude take seats at the front of the room to begin their visit to the McKinney facility.
Dieterle, who described the setting of her team’s visits, said that within this space — as well as within the pods visited by the men’s teams — every visit can take a “life of its own,” but the heart of each is the same: Scripture, discussion, and prayer.
During the hour-long visits, volunteers share Sunday readings with the boys or girls gathered — often stories of sin, of reconciliation, of mercy. Then, a discussion begins. David Tuite, a longtime member of the ministry, said that during these conversations, volunteers shoulder the task of bringing clarity to the Word of God. They must communicate in a way that makes the text accessible to the youths, since some may have had no prior encounter with the Holy Book, he explained.
“When you get into the Bible, it starts with the ‘thees’ and the ‘thous,’ and it’s a little bit confusing,” said Tuite, who has volunteered with the ministry since 2007. “You begin to sit forward in your chair and make the message known to them; and they get it.”
For the boys and girls in the facility — many of whom have suffered anything from substance addictions to broken relationships to unstable homes — these conversations offer a space to share experiences of sin and struggle as well as hope, volunteers noted, and to invite God into their often complicated lives.
“The moments aren’t grandiose; they’re just heartfelt,” Dieterle said. “There’s some peace that comes over them as they’re able to talk about their struggles, as they relate to the readings that we had; and just some hope that you see coming back into their eyes and their hearts as we’re talking about these things.”
Planting seeds
The gift that CCJDC volunteers give to the confined youth of Collin County is, ultimately, one of hope: that there is another way to live.
“There’s another approach than going out and following the crowd,” said Deacon Craig Malone, spiritual director for the ministry. “What really matters is eternal life and God.”
The volunteers plant the seeds that grace then grows; and often, their efforts are met with miraculous results. The ministry’s members recalled stories of formerly detained youths who grew into doctors, lawyers, and theologians — all through the grace of God, the youths’ own grit, and the encouragement of mentors along the way. Echoing these stories of hope, St. Jude parishioner Pat Doyle said CCJDC volunteers on his men’s team continue to foster career ambitions in the teenagers they serve.
“If they say, ‘Hey, I want to be a cook; I want to have a culinary career,’ there’s all kinds of things put out by Indeed, Forbes … We’ll take in things like that,” Doyle said. “Just exposing kids [to the idea] that there is a future; God loves all of you; you can have a career; you can go do anything you want — I think that’s very positive for these kids.”
“Clearly, spreading the Word of God is important,” he added, “but then showing them that someone cares about them.”
Along that vein, Dieterle shared a story of hope from the ministry, recalling the efforts of St. Jude CCJDC volunteers to help a girl in the McKinney facility who struggled to earn her GED.
“Several of the ladies are teachers, so they got approval to come in on Saturdays and coach her, to help her get ready for her GED,” she recalled. “It was a very big, touching moment for all of us to see that she’s been able to come that far and that she trusted us enough to do the work and actually get ready and pass the test.”
Volunteers have fostered hope in many other ways too, Dieterle said, such as sharing lists of local resources that the kids can consult following their release; and, during the Christmas season, ministry members have begun annually delivering St. Jude Giving Tree gifts to the boys and girls in the facility.
“St. Jude parishioners responded so generously in giving them books and clothing and games,” Deacon Malone said, recalling last year’s efforts. “It was just an outpouring of love. It blew away not only the kids, but it blew away the guards.”
Through the Christian love and faithful witness of its members, the St. Jude CCJDC Ministry has already touched many young hearts, volunteers said; and, with God’s grace, it will continue to bring the light of Christ to confined youth in north Texas for years to come.
“Every day is a new choice for them,” Dieterle said. “It’s really beautiful to see how God works.”
Cutline for featured image: Members of the St. Jude Collin County Juvenile Detention Center Ministry pose for a photo. Front row from left: Phuong Doan, Luara Klein, and Barbara Andrievk. Back row from left: Holly Dieterle, Deacon Ron Craig, David Tuite, and John Nguyen. (Courtesy photo)
