On Thursday 7th April, 2011, Archbishop Paul Cremona OP, visited the prisoners who are serving time at the Forensic Unit at Mount Carmel Hospital. On his arrival, he was greeted by officers and nursing staff who work at this Unit. The visit commenced at 9.30 am with a mass, concelebrated by the Archbishop together with P. Franco Fenech …, the parish priest at the Kordin Correctional Facility and P. Franco Bugelli …,the parish priest at Mount Carmel Hospital. During his homily, the Archbishop insisted that Jesus Christ, by his victory over death, is telling us that “there is nothing in this lifetime that cannot be turned into a means for our own resurrection”. His Grace encouraged the prisoners to entrust their suffering into the hand of our Lord Jesus Christ in order that he may change their death into resurrection. He invited the prisoners to turn their eyes onto the good thief who was crucified with Jesus so that he may show them process by which they can transform their lives: “The first step was that he made an admission to Jesus. He addressed the other thief who was ridiculing Jesus, telling him “we know we have sinned”. That is the starting point! Admitting to your errors means that you wish to change your path”, stated the Archbishop. The second step is to make a great act of faith in Jesus Christ and not rely simply on what you see: it is sometimes said that the thief stole his way into heaven. What did he steal? We see Jesus in all his power and do not believe in him; yet this thief, who was crucified next to him, went beyond that which we was seeing and told him ‘I believe that the Kingdom is yours’. The third step is to pray: ‘Lord, let me be with you’. It is my desire for us to focus not merely upon our earthly life but to go beyond it and look to eternity”. His Grace recalled the victims saying that: “Jesus brings to mind the reality of the victim; as a victim on the cross, he gave the word ‘victim’ a special meaning. Many times, when one is a victim, he bears within him a spirit of anger, of vengeance. We cannot blame him for feeling this way; yet as a victim, Jesus, on the cross, lived this reality by forgiving those who crucified him”.
After Mass, Archbishop Cremona spent some time in conversation with the residents. The visit came to an end at around 12pm.