The training of clergy serving as assistants to the heads of pre-trial detention centers for working with believers under the program "Organization of work with believers in a pre-trial detention center" is conducted on the basis of the Academy of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia (Ryazan) from May 5 to May 16, 2025 in remote and face-to-face forms.
On May 14, as part of the training program, a seminar meeting was held between students from 26 regions of our country and the chairman of the Synodal Department for Prison Ministry, Priest Kirill Markovsky.
In his speech, Father Kirill paid great attention to the specifics of pastoral work with detainees, noting that serving in a pre—trial detention facility allows a priest to gain unique and important experience that will be useful to him both in serving in other places of human sorrow - hospitals, hospitals, a war zone, and in parish ministry.
The head of the synodal department discussed in detail the practical issues of the activities of the assistant to the head of the SIZO for work with believers, pointing out the special responsibility that priests bear as officials. "Your ministry in pre—trial detention facilities is an extremely difficult task, requiring sacrifice and full dedication. But it allows us to provide spiritual help, give hope, and in some cases even bring back to life people who are desperate and discouraged, which there are many in places of detention," said the priest.
The Institute of pre-trial detention center assistant heads for work with believers was introduced into the penitentiary on January 1, 2024 at the initiative of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and has already proved its effectiveness. Currently, clergymen who fill the positions of assistants to the heads of pre-trial detention centers for work with believers provide full-fledged spiritual assistance to suspects and accused: they perform the Sacraments of the Church in the pre-trial detention center, conduct individual and group conversations with prisoners, paying special attention to people who are suicidal and in a serious spiritual condition. With the advent of full-time prison clergy in the pre-trial detention center, spiritual and educational work with prison staff has also intensified.
In the course of training at advanced training courses, academy teachers conduct lectures and seminars with students on legal training, the specifics of the functioning of pre-trial detention facilities, study the requirements of the regime and security on the territory of the SIZO, the specifics of educational, social and psychological work with prisoners.
At the end of the advanced training courses, the assistants to the heads of the SIZO for work with believers will have to confirm their knowledge on the final qualification exam.