Catholic International’s digital prison ministry began with the launch of the first Continuing Education Catechetical course on the Edovo Technology Company’s digital platform: The Gospel of St. Matthew, a multi-lesson course. At that time, Edovo was serving just under 50 prisons. The first report providing statistics on the number of students taking The Gospel of St. Matthew was generated on March 14, 2018, showing that 52 students had taken or were in the process of taking the course. Today, six years later, the program has expanded to include 95 multi-lesson courses on the Edovo platform, with 24 of those available in Spanish. The number of students has grown significantly, with approximately 18,000 students a year now completing one or more courses. This growth is reflected in the Edovo report for May 2023 to April 2024, which recorded 18,286 students, up 2,000 from the previous year.
This expansion has been made possible through collaboration with the Order of Malta, which has supported the creation of many of these courses. Additional offerings include the Gatekeepers Re-Entry program in both English and Spanish, the Stations of the Cross program, and custom content developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the Advent video prison program. Other initiatives supported by the Order of Malta include the Behind the Walls program, the Pen Pal Program, the Digital Rosary, and Quarterly Newsletters. Catholic International has also developed the Hallow Company Audio Series, comprising 208 audio files, and continues to provide content tailored to meet the needs of incarcerated individuals.
Catholic International University is actively collaborating with Hallow Company to integrate additional audio content into the Edovo platform and is engaging with organizations such as SFS Ministries to further expand its offerings. As of September 18, 2024, Catholic International University’s content is live in 1,093 state and county prisons, with an additional 192 facilities in pending deployment status through Edovo and its tablet providers. This brings the total number of facilities either live or soon to be live with Edovo content to 1,265. Engagement metrics highlight the program’s success: as of September 18, 2024, 2,512,063 lessons have been started, and 2,192,472 lessons have been completed, reflecting an 87% completion success rate.
