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11 July 2006, 12:57Mass construction of religious buildings in Russian prisons
Moscow, July 11, Interfax - Russian prisoners will build over seventy religious buildings with their own hands in the near future.
‘The Church helps the prisoners to restore moral qualities and values in their life, renders them its charity, provides them with clothes, medicine, food and literature,’ a representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service said as quoted by Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Tuesday.
According to him, the prisoners who are believers are more disciplined and tolerant to other people. As practice shows, they do not return to prisons after their release.
The construction will be carried out under patronage of the Russian Orthodox church, the Muslim organizations, the Buddhists, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia and the Union of the Evangelical Christians Baptists.
It was not only the administration but also prisoners who have initiated the project. Sometimes new churches are restored on the site of the lost ones. For instance, a chapel in the notorious Kresty prison in St. Petersburg was made a meeting hall during Soviet power. At present it is made over: the bells were brought back, and the crosses were installed on the domes.
There are 396 religious buildings in Russian prisons and colonies at present, including 370 Russian Orthodox churches, 18 mosques, 5 Buddhists temples and 3 Catholic churches. Besides, there are 695 prayer rooms, 228 Sunday schools and 902 libraries of religious literature in the penitentiary institutions. |
