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The Packers, the Prisoners and the Priest Who Unites Them

Lambeau Field and Green Bay’s maximum-security prison are brick fortresses separated by three miles but worlds apart. From the bell tower of his home, Father Jim Baraniak can look down upon both of his flocks

Kerry Gross

More than three hours before the Packers kicked off against the Texans in Week 13, Jim Baraniak led the usual game day mass inside a lecture hall. On this Sunday, the Catholic chaplain asked the players and coaches, including Mike McCarthy, who never misses mass, to pray not for a win but for a specific inmate at the Green Bay Correctional Institution—a maximum-security prison just three miles across the Fox River from Lambeau Field.