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Accompanying women imprisoned far from home Ministering to Latino women imprisoned in Frankfurt, Germany, is one of hundreds of ways in which Medical Mission Sisters around the world try to be a healing presence to those in need today. German Sister Birgit Weiler, our former Sector Coordinator in Latin America, is involved in a special volunteer prison ministry as she works on her Ph.D. at the University of Frankfurt. “I mainly accompany women from Latin America and participate in the pastoral team for the Spanish and Portugese speaking women,” she explains. Nearly all of the women she works with are imprisoned because of drug trafficking. Sister Birgit says, “Listening to the stories of the women, it is clear to me that the majority of them agreed to enter the drug business because of the very difficult economic situation of their families…often they tried very hard to make ends meet, but could not find a stable job.” She adds, “Though what the women have done is illegal and part of a chain of drug trafficking which causes a lot of damage, listening to their stories I can very well understand how a mother who loves her children and can no longer give them what they need to survive follows the temptation to gain money this way.”
The majority of these women are caught in their first attempt to transport drugs from Latin America to Europe. Having been told that the airport controls are easy to pass through, they are stunned to find themselves arrested in a country whose language they don’t speak or understand, and whose culture they don’t know.
During the many months of waiting for their court case, the women are normally allowed to call their families just once. Someone from the pastoral team notifies the family that the person has been arrested. Sister Birgit shares, “My continuous visits to the women in prison have made me very sensitive to the preciousness of the gift of freedom…for them, we are the only contact to the ‘outer world.’” Since poverty is a root cause of their imprisonment, the women are given the opportunity to take professional courses like tailoring or hair dressing, and upon completion receive certificates that are valid in their home countries. Caritas often helps the women when they are able to return home. Sister Birgit reflects, “For me, it is a gift to witness how in the rather harsh conditions of a jail, healing is taking place in women who take the time in prison as a chance to look at their life history, to process past experiences, and to open themselves to reconciliation. It reminds me continuously of how God’s grace works in many hidden and often unexpected ways.”
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