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The archbishop of Santa Fe removed his ornate gold cross — given to him by Pope Benedict XVI — before stepping through a full-body metal detector.
“You’re reading the Bible, I see,” he said to the security guard whose reading glasses lay on the metal table. The archbishop put his cross back on, grabbed a small pot filled with ash and whispered, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return” under the fluorescent lights of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Detention Center.
The Archbishop of Santa Fe Michael Sheehan didn’t spend the morning of Ash Wednesday at a cathedral or church. Instead, he performed this catholic ritual for hundreds of inmates at the detention center. He walked from pod to pod, each of which holds more than 60 inmates, wiping ash on the foreheads of orange-clad inmates standing in long, single-file lines.
“You couldn’t come to me today in the cathedral, so I’m coming to you,” he said each time.
The majority of the inmates received ashes from the archbishop.
Some crossed themselves; others said, “Thank you, father;” and others wiped fallen ash from their noses. As the archbishop left, he handed out religious cards, and the prisoners scrambled to get one. “Get me one, bro,” inmates from the second floor yelled down. One man asked for Communion, while others asked for a weekly service at the jail.
Santo Lucatorto, one of the inmates who received ashes, said he was raised as a Roman Catholic. He said he gets ashes every year, although the archbishop’s presence was a surprise.
“I’m kind of nervous about it, seeing him in a place like this, I guess. It’s not normal,” he said.
Detention Center Chief Ramon Rustin said most of the inmates are grateful to the archbishop.
“For the guys in the back, this is probably a real special moment for them,” Rustin said. “Some of these guys don’t get visitors at all. For the archbishop to come in and visit them, it’s probably a highlight of their lives, so I bet most of them are right on the phone now telling parents and friends, ‘I got ashes by the bishop.’”
Sheehan said the ritual of Ash Wednesday is particularly important for incarcerated people.
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“I think it’s very important for me as the archbishop to reach out to inmates here and bring the forgiveness of Jesus and the ashes they symbolize to them. It’s very important for folks to have the presence of the church in their lives,” Sheehan said.
Although the Albuquerque Metropolitan Detention Center has been criticized for sexual violence, drug trafficking and overcrowding, the archbishop said he never feels unsafe or scared in the jail.
“I’ve never been abused or insulted when I come, in the 20 years I’ve been the archbishop and visited these institutions, I’ve never felt rudely treated,” Sheehan said. “I’ve never had a moment where I felt afraid for my safety, never.”
As the archbishop slowly walked back through security toward the exit, he asked a man in the hallway if he wanted ashes.
The man replied, “I’m Lutheran, but you guys are all the same, so why not?”
