Authors Renew Acquaintances in New Orleans
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June 19, 2023When I was Editor of LIGUORIAN, the best job description I received was “to look down the road and see around the corners” to understand what people are interested in reading. To help in the creative process of putting an issue together, I typically scanned twenty to thirty diocesan newspapers every week. I saw in the CLARION HERALD of New Orleans that Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ was speaking to residents of assisted living facilities in the early afternoon about the morality of the death penalty.
I told the editorial staff that we should treat this topic since it is so much in line with our Alphonsian tradition of moral theology. I called Sr. Helen and asked for an interview. Like so many people in New Orleans, she said, “Sure. Come on down.”
I took the St. Charles Streetcar to Loyola University, where St. Helen was speaking to a journalism class. When her lecture finished, she said she couldn’t meet because she was having supper in the French Quarter with Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins to discuss adapting her recently published book, Dead Man Walking, to a screenplay.
We agreed to meet at Hope House the next morning, where for four uninterrupted hours Sr. Helen shared the story so poignantly told in her book. She wrote Dead Man Walking in the first person, present tense – the most compelling way to tell a story.
It is so appropriate that Sr. Helen returned to St. Alphonsus Parish last week, since this is where it all began. Sr. Helen came to Hope House to teach literacy skills to African American women. Hope House was also the home of the Coalition to End the Death Penalty.
She was asked to write to Pat Sonnier, who was convicted of a double murder, sentenced to death, and awaiting execution on Death Row at Angola Prison. He wrote back to Sr. Helen, and her role as a spiritual advisor to a person on Death Row began to take shape.
Released in 1995, Dead Man Walking was a critical and commercial success. The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. Susan Sarandon, who played Sr. Helen, won the Academy Award for Best Actress. LIGUORIAN published a two-part article: first, on the morality of the death penalty; and second, a profile of Sr. Helen.
In our recent brief conversation, Sr. Helen capsulized her work in light of the Catholic Church’s teachings. For 1500 years the Church sanctioned the death penalty as a means of preventing crime and protecting society. Everyone has the right to live free of harm, in a safe environment. We have come to the point where those who commit capital crimes are removed from society and never released from prison.
In the Gospel of Life published in 1995, St. John Paul II asserts that the state has the right to take a life when there is an absolute necessity because of the dignity of human life. In 2018, Pope Francis amended the Catechism of the Catholic Church to say that the state cannot be given the right to take a life.
On a personal note, I have never been the victim of a capital crime. From my perspective, it is easy to understand that it is not right to take a life when other measures are available to prevent crime and protect society. For those who have been a victim of a capital crime, I believe it takes great grace to seek justice but not revenge.
