Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

Sister Helen's Oregon Visit

Katie D.

January 28, 2010 - 11:07 AM

It has taken me a couple of days to process Sister Helen's visit. I'm currently looking at a picture that was taken of myself with Sister Helen and my friend Madeline, who also worked as event coordinator for Sister Helen's visit. I cannot believe the stories that have emerged from this past week, and cannot believe how lucky I am to have spent this wonderful time witnessing the power and conviction of this woman.

What a blessing to have been a part of this fabulous UO event.

Sister Helen Prejean is a leading anti-death penalty activist and author. She has published two books, Dead Man Walking and The Death of Innocents. The first was turned into a film starring Susan Sarandon. She has spoken before hundreds of crowds and has dedicated her life to ending the death penalty in the United States. This Catholic nun travels the country working to bring her story to audiences in all corners of the US, from the eleven states that have abolished capital punishment to the very heart of Texas with its active execution chamber.

This is what I loved most about Sister Helen: that she arrived with a story. She did not wake up one morning with a burning desire to dedicate her life to working as an advocate to people living on Death Row. Instead, while doing charitable works in the projects of New Orleans, she was asked to send a letter to a Death Row inmate. A single letter. That first letter became a regular correspondence, that blossomed into a role as Spiritual Advisor that took her first to Angola Prison in Louisiana, and then into the execution chamber itself, where her face was the last thing Patrick Sonnier saw before his execution by electric chair.

Her life's work arises from a deep compassion, and from witness. She has developed her theory, her message, around the basic fact of the humanity she witnessed in the people executed by the State. Her compassion transcends the reality of the crime in the person's past: she knows that a human being is not equal solely to the worst action of their past.

In the years since her friendship with Patrick Sonnier, she has accompanied five more men to their executions. She has also worked with the families of murder victims, and has created support groups for those who have suffered crimes. She has spoken with political officials here in the US, and met with Pope John Paul.

What an inspiration. She is a true example of integrity: someone who lives her convictions every single day.

Earlier I wrote that her storytelling was what I loved best about Sister Helen. That was true of my whole history with her: from the time I first heard about her, to the first reading of her books and viewing of her movie, and my exploration of online rescources about the Death Penalty.

But things have changed.

On Saturday afternoon I went to the airport with Madeline and Cheyney Ryan, a professor of philosophy and friend of Sister Helen's. We handed over the flowers we had brought her, packed into the car, and within ten minutes were laughing hysterically together as she joked with Cheyney and made friends with Madeline and myself. The rest of her visit was a stream of speaking engagements and meetings, punctuated by time spent relaxing and chatting. Madeline and I took her out for a cheeseburger at McMenamin's. We spent hours one night talking with her and Cheyney Ryan's family about everything from comedy shows to movie stars to the philosophy of war. She is a profoundly intelligent woman who is also very real in a hilarious and open way. Madeline and I had the opportunity to work with her because of our involvement with the Savage Committee for International Relations and Peace, as well as our connections with the Clark Honors College. Sister Helen was in no way obligated to turn two student workers into her friends. But she did, and she embraced us with open arms, calling us the "angel on my left and the angel on my right."

I could go into minute detail about her trip. It included speaking events for religious groups and for Clark Honors College classes. She had breakfast with leadership from the Inside-Out Program (which she was extremely excited to hear about), and lunch with the Center for Intercultural Dialogue. She spoke to a packed crowd of 250 in the Law School, with an additional two hundred people in an adjacent room, watching the event on live video stream. It included a beautiful moment when, during a gathering and in the middle of a speaking event, she was informed that the Saints had won the football game and would be going to the Super Bowl. She told me that she didn't care much for football, but her city sure needed the good news.

I encourage everyone to read her books. Especially if you feel torn about issues of Capital Punishment. She handles complex moral concerns with a delicacy and compassion I have seldom encountered in someone who has so dedicated her life to this work.

And let us also celebrate this University, which brings such fabulous people to campus. I cannot exaggerate the impact this four days with Sister Helen has had on my own convictions and my plans to create change in the world. I hope to some day arrive at some tiny fraction of her integrity and her universal compassion.

Until then, I have this beautiful message from Sister Helen, which she signed on the picture of the three of us: "To my friend, Katie-together in joy in the work for justice."