“Jail ministry has taught me about suffering. It has taught me about faith, about hope, about love. Jail ministry has taught me, over and over, to be more grateful and more humble in the light of God’s mercy and blessings to me,” said Susan Hundt-Bergan.
After more than 17 years in jail ministry, Hundt-Bergan is retiring as the coordinator of the Dane County Jail Apostolate.
Answering the call
“I felt a call to jail/prison ministry,” Hundt-Bergan said.
“I did not seek it; it came to me. I accepted the call to share the good news of Jesus Christ at the Dane County Jail as best I could.”
There were a number of influences that led her to that call.
Her time in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia as a school teacher showed her “what it means to be an outsider, a stranger, someone who can never just fade into the crowd.”
Her career path would take her to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. (where she met her husband Hal who she has been married to for 51 years), an aide to a state senator in Wisconsin, and with the Wisconsin DNR before feeling “the pull to something else”.
She started going to daily Mass at St. Patrick Church near downtown Madison.
“That daily encounter with Christ in the Eucharist changed my life,” she said.
This first led to an early retirement to help her aging parents and then the Madison Diocesan Institute for Lay and Diaconate Formation.
Toward the end of her studies, the late Deacon Jack Fernan (himself in diaconate formation), told her about his involvement at the Dane County Jail.
“I couldn’t put it out of my mind. I couldn’t think of anything more terrible than being locked up in a barred cell, away from family and nature, and feeling the shame of it.”
She was advised to contact Fr. Mick Moon, who was in charge of the jail ministry at the time while serving at Holy Redeemer Parish in downtown Madison.
A growing role
Her first night in the ministry was on September 9, 2004. At that time, Mass would be offered at the Dane County Jail in the small chapel each week for men who had signed up to come.
There was no service for women inmates at that time.
“My first couple of years I was learning, serving in the ways Father Mick directed me,” she said.
“He was a kind and patient teacher. I watched Father Mick with the men, noting his respect, his kindness, his open-hearted manner. The many Spanish-speaking inmates were immediately made more comfortable by Father Mick’s fluency in their language.”
After Father Mick was transferred to another parish in 2006, Hundt-Bergan, Deacon Fernan, or John Howard, a parishioner at St. John the Baptist in Waunakee, led Word and Communion services when no priest could be made available.
“I gradually took on more of the weekly tasks, communicating with the jail staff, ordering publications, assisting a person who wanted to become a member of the jail team, etc. By 2007, I was serving as the coordinator,” she noted.
In 2009, services for women started, and Hundt-Bergan led services for both men and women.
“My involvement in the jail ministry sometimes went beyond the chapel to writing letters of support for men or women going through a court proceeding or visiting them in prison,” she said.
Challenges of the ministry
Like any ministry, working with the inmates had its challenges and rewards.
“A major challenge was not knowing what we would find when we got to the jail,” she said.
“Sometimes we waited a long time in the visitor’s office on the sixth floor before being admitted into the actual jail space. Once in the jail proper, deputies would search the things we were carrying, and sometimes we were surprised to find that they didn’t pass muster.”
She added, “Some nights all the inmates might be locked down, restricted to their cells, because of a fight or some other crisis. Some nights we made it to the chapel, set everything up for Mass or a Word and Communion service, and would then wait and wait before the men who had signed up for chapel were brought to us.”
Another challenge she described was that “the population in a jail, unlike a prison, is a transient one. That meant that our congregation was constantly changing. We would be getting to know a man or woman, watching that person grow in faith, and then he or she was gone. Despite that, most often there was a sense of community when we gathered to worship.”
Due to priests being less and less available for the sacraments, in her “distress,” Hundt-Bergan sent an email to Vicar General Msgr. James Bartylla in December of 2010 asking for help.
Since then, Monsignor Bartylla has been one of the priests who regularly comes to the jail to celebrate Mass and he invites newly-ordained priests to become part of the jail ministry.
She also said COVID has been a challenge, with jail programming shutting down in March 2020. It has been paused ever since but is expected to be at full potential again soon.
She and others involved with the ministry have written letters to those inmates who came to chapel before the pandemic.
They also correspond with men and women in the state or federal prison system. These are individuals they met when they were incarcerated at the Dane County Jail.
“During this pandemic, those letters have been more important than ever to them,” she said.
Blessings and rewards
“On Thursday night at the jail, I felt I was where the Lord wanted me to be: I was visiting the imprisoned. Even if things didn’t go perfectly, I had done my part,” she said.
“Because we were there — the ministry team — men and women could get out of their dreary cells to pray, to sing, to share their stories in the circle, to realize that they are beloved children of God,” she added.
“I cherish the response of the men and women as they entered the chapel doors — their smiles, their eagerness, the hopeful hesitation of a first-timer. I remember the words of one brother, ‘I want what you have here.’ Many times we heard, ‘I wait all week for Thursday night,’” she recalled.
Reflecting on the years
As she nears this retirement, Hundt-Bergan said, “I will miss my incarcerated brothers and sisters who came to chapel. I will miss all the priests and lay men and women who have been part of the jail ministry.”
She added, “I will miss the richness and urgency and eagerness of our worship at the jail, the prayer of men and women who are searching for hope, for a way out, for a way forward, for a light in the darkness.”
Thinking on the past years, Hundt-Bergan said “I am grateful to everyone who was part of my jail ministry experience at the Dane County Jail. I am grateful to the priests who generously came to celebrate Mass, offer spiritual counseling, and hear Confessions, extending their work day until at least 10 p.m. I’m grateful to the many lay men and women who were an indispensable part of the jail ministry team over the course of the last 17 years.”
She thanked former Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney and other deputies and staff, the Dismas Ministry of Catholic prison outreach, and her parish of Blessed Sacrament in Madison for its support, including its priests. She also thanked the current members of the team.
“God bless you as you prepare to return to the Dane County Jail chapel.
“Although I will no longer be going into the Dane County Jail each Thursday evening, I will continue to walk with those who are incarcerated in jails and prisons: They are in my daily prayers,” she added.
“A few I will continue to correspond with and support in other ways. My husband and I will continue to contribute to organizations that assist prisoners.”
To those who also feel the call to minister to the incarcerated, she recommended finding out how you can serve those in a jail or prison near you, adding helpful online resources are the Catholic Prisoner Ministries Coalition and Dismas Ministry in Milwaukee.
She added, “one possible role is writing to a prisoner. Being incarcerated in a jail or a prison is a dreary, lonely, shameful, and often dangerous existence. The prisoners with whom I correspond have described it in detail.”
“One way we can all help is by praying for prisoners each day,” Hundt-Bergan said.
If you’re interested in knowing more about or getting involved with the Dane County Jail Apostolate, contact Dennis Noonan at dennishnoonan@gmail.com