Institute for Ministry establishes certificate program at Angola Penitentiary

Fifteen inmates imprisoned in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola will begin a 36-credit extension program in June, taught by Loyola University New Orleans Institute for Ministry. The program will allow the inmates to obtain certificates in either pastoral studies or religious education.

A credentialed, trained and certified facilitator will implement the program, which will be monitored by on-campus faculty members of LIM. The Rev. Jerry Fagin, S.J., has also developed a recent addition that weaves the graces of the “Spiritual Exercises” of the Jesuit’s founder St. Ignatius Loyola throughout the curriculum.

This unique program is operated under the auspices of the Diocese of Baton Rouge, in which Angola is located, and with the approval of prison administration and assistance from Catholic Charities of Baton Rouge.

“Angola already has extensive inmate-run ministries, and LIM is perfectly suited to augment what is offered and thereby deepen the education and formation of inmates,” said Tom Ryan, Ph.D., LIM director. “The LIM extension learning model is successful because it makes graduate-level ministry programs available in locations that have little to no access to Catholic higher education. We offer our extension program in dioceses around the United States, in Belize, Scotland, England and Nigeria.”

Housed in the College of Social Sciences, LIM prepares women and men for religious education and ministerial leadership in Catholic and other religious communities through professional graduate education and through professional continuing education. It has pioneered distance education through its unique extension model in the United States and abroad since 1983 and is one of the largest ministry formation programs in the country with nearly 3,000 graduates.