Calendar

Go

Great Wednesday Online Webinar with Sr. Helen Prejean

Great Wednesday Online Webinar with Sr. Helen Prejean

Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Download: Download Event

2021 GREAT WEDNESDAY WEBINAR SERIES STARTS THIS WEEK WITH SISTER HELEN PREJEAN

Register Now

Join us Wednesday at 7 PM for a conversation between Sister Helen Prejean and our Rector Neil Willard. Sister Prejean is a renowned leader in efforts to stop the death penalty and the author of the bestselling book Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States. In 1982 Sister Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun in New Orleans, began corresponding with Patrick Sonnier, who had been sentenced to death by the state of Louisiana for the murder of two teenagers. Two years later, when he was killed in the electric chair, Sister Prejean was there to witness his execution. Subsequently she became spiritual adviser to another death row inmate, Robert Lee Willie, who was also executed. Her experiences led to her writing Dead Man Walking, which ignited a national debate on capital punishment and inspired an Academy Award winning movie, play and opera. She has been instrumental in sparking national dialogue on capital punishment and in shaping the Catholic Church’s vigorous opposition to all executions.

Born on April 21, 1939, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Sister Prejean joined the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1957. After studies in the USA and Canada, she spent the following years teaching high school, and serving as the Religious Education Director at St. Frances Cabrini Parish in New Orleans and the Formation Director for her religious community. In 1982, she moved into the St. Thomas Housing Project in New Orleans to live and work with the poor. It was while there that she became acquainted with Mr. Sonnier.

Sister Prejean continues her activism today, dividing her time between educating the public, campaigning against the death penalty, counseling death row prisoners and working with murder victims’ survivors. Her second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, was published in 2004; and her third book, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey, in 2019.

She works with people of all faiths and those who follow no established faith, but her voice has had a special resonance with her fellow Catholics. Over the decades, she has made personal approaches to two popes, John Paul II and Pope Francis, urging them to establish the Catholic Church’s position as unequivocally opposed to capital punishment under any circumstances. After her urging, under John Paul II the catechism was revised to strengthen the church’s opposition to executions, although it allowed for a very few exceptions. Not long after meeting with Sister Prejean in August 2018, Pope Francis announced new language of the Catholic Catechism which declares that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person, with no exceptions. 

Please register in advance for this webinar by clicking here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.