Prison chaplain devotes herself to work that 'can't be measured'

Published: 2007-01-19

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- At first glance, it wouldn't seem like a 64-year-old woman religious would possibly be able to relate to inmates at a women's prison. But that's not the case for Mercy Sister Natalie Rossi, a petite, gray-haired woman who works at the women's prison facility outside Erie, Pa. Sister Natalie has a natural camaraderie with the inmates because she has no shortage of empathy. For the past 12 years she has been a full-time chaplain at the State Correctional Institution for Women in Cambridge Springs, Pa., a minimum-security facility primarily for women nearing their prison release. She coordinates programs with part-time chaplains from other faiths, supervises church-based volunteers, directs spiritual activities and deals with reams of paperwork. But the most important part of her job, as she sees it, is one-on-one time with the inmates, either in daily visits to women in the prison infirmary or pastoral counseling sessions in her office.

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