Faith demands justice and mercy:

Prison ministry invests in the work of restoring lives and relationships
 
By Linda Harvey

When a murder occurs, it impacts the family. Deacon Bob Kotzbauer and his wife, Connie, of Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary in Lexington, learned this when their 24-year-old daughter, Lori, was kidnapped with her 9-month-old daughter, Alexis, from a Walmart parking lot in Springfield, Ill., on the afternoon of Aug. 1, 1999. Alexis was spared by the offender, Dale Lash, and brought back to the Walmart unharmed.
Lori was raped and murdered.

“Lori was our middle child. Her sister, Sarah, is 41, and her brother, Greg, is 49 now. Still, when they walk out the door, there are concerns about their family’s safety,” said Connie. “Lori was the communicator in our family. We had to learn a different way to communicate, and it changed each of our lives.”
The Kotzbauers asked prosecutors not to pursue the death penalty, a request that went unheeded. Later, Lori’s killer and 160 individuals on death row were commuted to life sentences without parole by Illinois Gov. George Ryan as he left office in 2003.
 
Faith and Justice
Connie and Bob, who celebrated 50 years of marriage in June, have worked to transform their loss and pain.

“What happened to Lori was so violent and brutal. With faith, we learned to appreciate what we have. It moved me, step by step, to becoming a deacon,” said Bob.
“Lori was a social worker and cared much about others,” said Connie. “We had to pull from everything we believe and had to come to grips with what is important.”

As a result, Connie became involved with Transformation House, where she was a volunteer team member who went into prisons in Kentucky to bring the restorative justice “Impact on Victims Seminar” that reached 200 inmates who had committed homicide. Inmates were able to put a face on the surviving victim by hearing Connie’s story. Later, she worked as a volunteer with Juvenile Restorative Justice and also led a restorative justice course for eight weeks at the Federal Medical Center (prison) in Lexington.
Bob is a pharmacist who travels to Hazard, Ky., to work in the Appalachian Regional Hospital during the week. On the weekends, he does deacon ministry. The Kotzbauers have hosted a gathering in their home with Catholic families who have lost children. They also developed bereavement ministry training to support parishes in the diocese.

Connie has traveled nationally testifying on her experience and advocating for the restorative justice philosophy. Rooted both in Scripture and the rich tradition of the Catholic faith, restorative justice focuses on the common good and how to repair the harm of the crime.

“Questions such as who has been hurt, what are their needs and whose obligations are these are asked and directly involves the offender, the victim and representatives from the community,” said Connie. “The criminal justice system often focuses on what laws have been broken, who did it, and what do they deserve?”

Pope Francis has addressed this on numerous occasions. Speaking on Nov. 8, 2015, to a gathering of leaders in Catholic prison ministries, he urged greater efforts to reform prison systems, address the root causes of crime, reform sentencing guidelines and ensure acceptance and reintegration into society once a person completes his or her sentence.

“The whole Church in fidelity to Christ’s mission is called to show the most vulnerable people the mercy of God that we will be judged on,” said Pope Francis. While previous popes have decried the death penalty, Francis has gone further, denouncing life sentences without parole and calling solitary confinement in prisons a form of torture.
 
Thriving Local Witness
Prison ministry in the Diocese of Lexington is a thriving pastoral area, in part by necessity. There are five federal prisons, seven state prisons, two for-pro t state prisons and 33 county jails spread across the diocese. And in addition to the priests saying Mass at different prisons on a regular basis, deacons and laypeople — like the Kotzbauers — comprise this local witness to restorative justice.

Holy Spirit Parish/UK Newman Center parishioner Kerby Neill is a retired child psychologist who has been mentoring youth offenders since 2006. Some have progressed to learning about nonviolence and restorative justice, become successful in community and are no longer involved in substance abuse.
Deacon Paul Root, director of the diocesan permanent diaconate, looks forward to resuming Wednesday morning Bible study and Sunday Word and Communion (put on hold by the pandemic) at Blackburn Prison in Lexington.

Deacon Jere Noe of St. Peter and Paul in Danville has been ministering at the nearby Northpoint Prison for 20 years two times a week teaching religion, working with the chap- lains and assisting at Mass. A small team from the parish joins him.

In an effort to coordinate and articulate the values that animate this work, Deacon Eddie Grider has been appointed to be director of prison ministry and is in the process of gathering information on the needs of those already involved in prison ministry. “Once I establish the contacts and begin to meet with everyone, I can see what is unique to each facility, and what we can do as a diocese. We need to do additional training that includes laypeople, meeting guidelines of the bishop and developing a prison handbook that will include what prisons and jails parishes are serving,” he said. Deacon Grider, who is assigned to St. Peter Claver, spent a week at Loyola University in Chicago with the Restorative Justice Institute of Pastoral Studies. He recently received his master’s degree in Christian ministry from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix and began doctoral studies there in June.

Deacon Grider wants to assure incarcerated people that they are not forgotten and help them re-enter into society. It’s ultimately a work of transformation that St. Peter Claver parishioner Cheryl Bogarty has witnessed with her husband, Sandy, as volunteer chaplains for an ecumenical ministry at Clark County Detention Center in Winchester for the past seven years.

“We do not ask the men and women why they are incarcerated. Our focus is on their spiritual life. What a joy to bring love, hope, compassion, grace, and mercy of God,” said Bogarty. “My eyes have seen lives change from the inside out by God delivering, correcting, instructing, forgiving, healing, comforting, restoring and bringing peace. I am changed, and so are the women I serve.”