A Comboni Missionary for more than thirty years, he defends the human rights of youths imprisoned in Brazilian prisons for minors.
Taking advantage of a pause in the incessant Autumn rains, I made my usual visit to the Educational Centre for Youth in João Pessoa, the capital of the State of Paraíba, in north-east Brazil. It is meant to be a rehabilitation centre for minors convicted of crimes but the structure, compared to underground mediaeval prisons, leaves nothing to be desired.
Built in the seventies, the Centre has room for a maximum of 70 youths but it usually houses, on average, 160. The youths are locked in cells with no ventilation, very little light and soundproof walls. The ceiling is full of cracks. The mattresses are piled up in the courtyard to dry in the sun. There is rubbish everywhere and a strong smell of sewage. It is cleaning time. Some wash the floors while others clean the sheets spread out on the ground.
They have to be quick as water is available only three times a day for fifteen minutes. In that time, they have to shower, clean the toilets and do their washing. The should really be at school but there is no use going as the teachers are refusing to work not having received their pay for three months.
I stop outside every cell, as I have been doing for around thirty years. They all come close to the bars. They all have a story to tell, especially when they find someone willing to listen to them with respect. I reach inside the bars and shake hands with them all. I call them by name, greet them and listen to them attentively.
They ask me questions. They want to know about their court cases. They report the attacks on them by the warders. I take note of everything they say. I take some photographs of the place and, especially, of the bruises caused, they say, by the warders. Some ask for help but I cannot provide everything. Often, I have to shrug my shoulders to show there is nothing I can do. I take from my satchel the dozens of reports I have already sent to the judge for minors, reporting the situation but I have to admit the results are poor. They ask me to pray with them.
I came in at 10am and leave at 4pm. I get in my car. It will take me at least two days to digest all I have heard and seen. My heart is torn by different feelings. The strongest is anger. I cannot be indifferent faced with all that is happening to the youth of Brazil. Throughout the country there are 23,000 youths between 12 and 18 years old locked up in the prisons for minors which, with a few rare exceptions, are just great social coffins in which all human dignity is buried.
The youths I have seen in the prisons and those I meet in the shanty town where I have chosen to live, have never had anyone to take care of them. Left to fend for themselves within days of being born, almost all the time deprived of their rights, they do not know what it means to be loved, acknowledged or respected. Some of them do not consider themselves worthy of being loved.
Our missionary work in the prisons for minors must break this cycle of abandonment, indifference and marginalisation by means of a presence that allows the merciful love of God to shine through. In our pastoral work, acts speak louder than words. One of the things that surprise the youths is the way we look at them.
Used as they are to being looked upon with contempt, they see in our gaze a look of love capable of going beyond appearances to the intrinsic worth of each individual. We never ask about the crimes they committed. They have already been asked those questions when they were interrogated by the police, in court and also in the prison for minors itself. We are not interested in the past. What matters to us is that it is possible to build something starting here and now. To set in motion this process of again building up their lives, it is essential for them to meet people who will take care of them with a love that fosters autonomy, freedom and responsibility. (Father Saverio Paolillo)