LETRAN CALAMBA’S JAIL MINISTRY MARKED ITS 12TH MONTH OF SERVICE TO PERSONS DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY IN LAGUNA, PHILIPPINES

By: Mr. Demie S. Borromeo, Jr.

On November 11, 2025, the Prior of the Convent of Saint Albert the Great and Vice President for Religious Education, Mission and Identity Division of Colegio de San Juan de Letran Calamba, Rev. Fr. Lauro G. de Dios, O.P. celebrated a holy mass for over a hundred Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDL) at the Calamba City Jail, Laguna, Philippines. In his homily, he emphasized that God’s mercy is enormous and that God is only waiting for all of us to repent and ask for His forgiveness.

Jail ministry was added to the list of community services of Letran Calamba starting November 22, 2024 when it joined the Calamba City Justice Zone in providing various services to the City Jail. Letran Calamba, through the Community and Extension Services Department sent a team of volunteer mental health professionals from its Psychology Program and Guidance and Counseling Office to conduct mental health counseling with PDL. On December 19, 2024 Letran Calamba gathered its spiritual counselors composed of a Dominican priest and Religious Education faculty members, mental health professionals, and support staff for the Paskong Pag-asa. After the celebration of the holy mass, simultaneously held the conduct of sacramental confession, spiritual counseling, professional mental health counseling, medical mission and distribution of donated food packs and sanitary kits to all PDL of the City Jail Male Dormitory and Female Dormitory. The activity title was taken from the theme of the Jubilee year – Pilgrims of Hope as declared by Pope Francis. Pag-asa is a Filipino word meaning hope.

Now, the project is known as the Pag-asa Jail Ministry (PJM), an institutional social responsibility project under the Peace and Inclusivity Thrust of Hayuma Program for Sustainable Development. It aims to bring the Catholic mission to the City Jail through monthly holy mass, mental health and spiritual counseling, sacramental confession, recollection and donation of sanitary kits to PDL. Sanitary kits containing bath soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, detergent soap and deodorant were mass offerings of students during the Mass of the Holy Spirit. The Colegio organized a team of volunteers from the rank of priests, administrators, administrative officers, faculty members, employees and students to serve in the ministry as mass servers, spiritual counselors, professional mental health counselors, catechists and recollection facilitators.

“I was in prison and you came to me” was the words of Jesus Christ found in Matthew 25:36 and is the foundation of the Pag-asa Jail Ministry. The project is one of the corporal works of mercy and intended to bring hope to PDL, especially the poor, abandoned, and those struggling with spiritual and mental health issues.