His mission is coming to an end. Roger Pacreau, ordained deacon in 2012, has been part of the team of prison chaplains at the Niort remand center for twelve years. He will leave his position after the Christmas mass at the remand center, Saturday December 21, 2024. “It’s a page in my life that is turning. I give thanks to these years which have certainly changed me”he confides.
One or two afternoons a week, the 67-year-old man, originally from Vendée, met the inmates of the Niort remand center who requested it, directly in their cell, to listen to them.
Listening, an essential quality to fulfill this role, alongside humility and the ability to communicate with your team. “We need to share the things we experience,” he elaborates.
A change in the vision of the prison world
This experience profoundly changed the deacon’s vision of the prison world. “Before meeting them, I had a bad image of the people detained. But I realized that I was making a fundamental mistake. » Over the years, his attitude towards them has evolved greatly. “When we arrive, we want to find the answer to all the problems. But we are not here to save them, the most important thing is to listen”he indicates.
On several occasions, the life stories told touched the deacon. “We don’t come out of there completely unscathed. At the beginning, when I went home, you shouldn’t talk to me.”he reveals.
He insists. “We are not here to judge them. We avoid knowing what they did, it doesn’t interest us. We are here to help them get through life’s challenges. We take them as they are, in great distress, in great suffering”he explains.
The chaplain has had a foot in the associative world for a long time. “I have been president of parents’ associations, secular or not secular. I was also president of the Souché district for many years. » Roger Pacreau also went to middle and high schools to talk to the youngest about his mission as chaplain and the prison world.
Before becoming a deacon in 2012, he was an executive in a metallurgy company. He began his professional career as a carpenter, then worked with people with disabilities. “I am self-taught. I like to challenge myself”he summarizes.
Continue to work with the most deprived
Apart from his associative commitments, the chaplain says he likes to tinker and says he “computer enthusiast”. Married, father of two children, soon to be a grandfather for the second time, Roger Pacreau would now like to have “a little more free time”.
But the deacon nevertheless wishes to continue to be involved with the most deprived, even if he does not yet know what form this will take. He could eventually turn to reintegration. “Some people come out of prison with nothing, it’s very difficult. »
Saturday December 21, Roger Pacreau will participate in his last Christmas mass at the Niort remand center. It will be given by Father Julien Dupont, priest of the Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul parish in Niort. “There is always a large audience at Christmas mass. The end of year holidays are a very difficult time for detained people. They are far from their family. »
