It all started with two families from Pinecrest Academy, a Regnum Christi school in the suburbs of Atlanta, where Regnum Christi member Roberto Sánchez Mejorada, who had children at the school, met Jorge Valdés, a businessman and philanthropist who had made some bad decisions when he was younger. Jorge is an ex-convict who made a radical life change. In 2011, Jorge invited Burl Cain, who was then warden of the Angola prison, to give a conference at Pinecrest Academy. After that talk, Roberto Sánchez Mejorada took on the commitment to organize a father/son mission trip to visit the Angola prison. Roberto bought an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with the intention of bringing it to the prison. He invited several businesspeople to accompany him and to give the image to the jail. The prison warden, Burl, was seeking to generate a “moral renewal” in the jail. There are nine chapels of different faiths at Angola, built by private donations. “God lives in this prison,” Cain affirmed. But a Catholic chapel was missing. Only in 2013 was it possible to build the chapel, thanks to the support of a group of Mexican businessmen. 300 Hispanic inmates worked on its construction and even painted murals on its walls. The chapel was finished in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
On December 12, 2013, a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe was dedicated in a maximum-security prison in Louisiana. Ten years have passed now, and the blessings have poured forth generously, as could be expected in a “community” with a devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe. On the 10th anniversary of the chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe, they held a consecration ceremony to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On this occasion, a Eucharistic celebration was presided by Fr. Edouard Marot, who travelled from Belgium to give his testimony about the apparition of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, along with the missionary Alicia Beauvisage. Under the leadership of Tim Hooper, the prison’s current warden, Angola Prison has developed programs of moral reform and dignified treatment. Deacon Billy Messenger tends to the Catholic community and encourages the faith of each inmate in his spiritual growth with great dedication and commitment.
