LEBANON, Ohio -- This Easter represents a fresh start for more than a dozen prison inmates at Lebanon Correctional and Warren Correctional in Warren County.
They were accepted into the Roman Catholic Church after months of study and preparation.
Easter is the typical time of year that new members are brought into the church. The Most Rev. Joseph Binzer, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, celebrated Masses over the weekend to welcome them.
Ronald C. Moore Jr., one of the recently initiated inmates, said it was a more personal experience than other churches.
"It was exuberant," he said. "It was a feeling of unity. I feel like I was brought into something like a marriage... it's a commitment."
Binzer will celebrate another Mass on Monday at Dayton Correctional Institution.
In all, eight men and five women from three southwest Ohio prisons will join the church over the Easter holiday. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati is the 44th largest Catholic diocese in the country, with more than 450,000 Catholics.
