In crime-stricken Latin America, growing segments in society have been demanding not only tougher penalties for criminals, but also fewer rights for prisoners – even though conditions in penal systems all across the region are notoriously deplorable, with overcrowding, lack of sanitation, and even hunger.
Last month, Argentina’s Church took an important step in the opposite direction, trying to bring humanity and dignity to the inmates of the Penitentiary Unit No. 43, a prison with around 1,300 detainees located in González Catán, La Matanza, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Two dioceses – San Justo and Gregorio de Laferrere – launched an addiction treatment center inside that penitentiary, serving 60 inmates in the morning and another 60 in the afternoon.
The initiative is part of a national network called Hogares de Cristo (“Homes of Christ”) and is the very first to be implemented in a prison, a long-time dream of Father José María di Paola, the mastermind behind the project.
Di Paola is one of the most famous curas villeros (“slum priests”) in the South American country (where he is popularly known as Padre Pepe). Ordained in 1987, he worked as a priest in Villa 21-24, a major slum in Buenos Aires with around 100,000 residents.
Inspired by the late Father Carlos Mugica (1930–1974), who founded the Movement for Priests for the Third World and launched the curas villeros initiative, di Paola realized through his years of work among the poor that drug addiction was one of the central problems that needed to be addressed.
The first Hogar de Cristo was created in 2008 in Villa 21-24, during an Easter celebration presided over by then Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mário Bergoglio, who in 2013 became Pope Francis.
Since then, hundreds of Hogares de Cristo have been founded throughout the country, with more than 300 now in operation. In González Catán, the initiative is led by Father Nicolás “Tano” Angelotti.
Di Paola, who has worked in Santiago del Estero in northwestern Argentina since 2024, has two dreams today.
One is to help launch new Hogares de Cristo in prisons throughout all regions of Argentina. The other is for Pope Leo XIV, who is scheduled to visit South America in November, to visit a Hogar de Cristo.
Please find Crux Now‘s Q&A with Fr. José María di Paola, below, transcribed and edited for length and clarity …
Crux Now: Why did the Church decide to establish a rehabilitation center inside a prison?
Fr. José María di Paola: For a long time, it had been our desire to have a Hogar de Cristo in a prison. Many young people are incarcerated and need treatment. They need a place that can help them recover.
For me, when it finally became a reality, it was a tremendous joy. We are working to replicate the experience wherever we can.
In Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America, many people are tired of so much crime and violence and believe that stricter rules are needed, including inside prisons. How do you advocate for a humanistic initiative like the prison’s Hogar de Cristo in such a context?
It’s always important to preserve a degree of humanity. The work we are doing is to find humane ways of treating prisoners – as human beings and not as animals. There is a challenge in making sure that hatred, racism and violence do not prevail.
Every place has its own challenges, but there is a lot of misinformation among people.
Journalism sometimes appeals to the emotions of the moment and gradually creates a climate that feeds into this.
In the past, I used to work with inmates at San Martín prison in Buenos Aires. The important thing is to have a compassionate look, as Jesus did. That doesn’t have anything to do with taking away the inmates’ responsibility.
Many people don’t think like that…
Father Pepe: Xenophobia and racism are being promoted nowadays – things that seemed to have been overcome.
By the way, it is precisely in countries where those things seemed to have been overcome the most that we are seeing more of them now. Europe is abandoning its own principles.
But in the case of inmates, for instance, from a practical point of view, what is better: for a person to leave prison changed, so that they can reintegrate into society, or to leave with hatred and go back to committing crimes?
How those ideas about crime and prisons relate to the message of Pope Francis?
Those extreme ideas are currently being promoted by certain interests, and people are being used for their votes or their political support.
When Pope Francis died, we said that we had lost not only the pope, but also a world leader who transcended religions and continents.
His was a message like those of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, one that reached the heart of all humanity.
How did Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio take part in the creation of the Hogares de Cristo?
Bergoglio always accompanied us.
He was always side by side with the curas villeros. We talked with him a lot. I became the coordinator for the villas at one point.
Prevention and recovery were recurring issues; they were our great challenge.
The question of how to help people struggling with addiction, during the 2001 economic crisis, became a much bigger issue in the working-class neighborhoods.
That was when paco [a drug similar to crack cocaine] began to appear in the villas.
It was extremely toxic and harmful.
Young people in the poor neighborhoods were becoming addicted to that substance.
At the parish, we had sports, camps, everything that conveyed values and the teachings of the Gospel.
But I wanted to do something more.
We had to bring these young people into the community. That’s how Hogar de Cristo came about.
The idea was for each person to stay close to their villa and be able to integrate into every aspect of life: their relationship with their family, job training and health issues.
What were Bergoglio’s ideas for a rehabilitation initiative like that?
The first Hogar de Cristo was created in Villa 21-24, where Bergoglio used to go with me.
On Holy Thursday in 2008, he came to bless the place and washed the young people’s feet. In his homily, he spoke about the slavery of drug addiction and told us we should “receive life as it comes.”
We should welcome reality as it was, without bureaucracy or distance.
He also said that an effort like that should be carried out face-to-face, one person at a time. Those are words that became our motto.
A person recovers within the community, where young people in particular feel more integrated.
The resources of the parish are very helpful: schools, sports and vocational training.
These elements become part of the young person’s path to recovery. Our model grew and was replicated from one villa to another.
Do only slum priests work with the Hogares de Cristo?
No, we have a larger group. Villa is something very specific to cities like Buenos Aires and Rosario, but not to other parts of the country.
Nevertheless, there are working-class neighborhoods in other regions with the same problems found in the villas, including drug addiction.
I’m now in Santiago del Estero, where I work with 250 young people. There are Hogares de Cristo in provinces like Misiones and Salta as well.
President Javier Milei is known for his ultra-libertarian ideas and strict economic policies. Did the budget cuts promoted by him affect the Hogares de Cristo?
We are present in working-class neighborhoods, and we see the problems caused by cuts to education, services for people with disabilities, transportation resources… in everything that involves social programs. It is quite a long list.
But we are connected to Argentina’s Secretariat for Comprehensive Drug Policies, which is a government agency, and we maintain the same relationship with it. We continue working, and our work continues to be recognized.
What are the main inspirations for the Hogares de Cristo and the network’s activities in the years to come?
Without a doubt, Father Carlos Mugica is a major inspirational figure.
He was one of the founders of the Movement for Priests for the Third World in the 1960s, and now we are taking on the challenges of a different era.
Pope Francis is also a central figure. He accompanied us, and his teaching is our daily bread.
That’s why we want to bring the young people of the Hogares de Cristo to meet with Pope Leo XIV when he comes to Argentina.
That’s an initiative that started with Pope Francis, and it would be extraordinary if Pope Leo could listen to the young people and offer them advice.
It would be something very good.