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| Susan M. Recinella, Clinical Psychologist for mentally ill adults, and
Catholic Lay Minister to Families of the Executed |
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Upcoming Events:
Death Row Ministry as a Couple and as a Family
Dale and Dr. Susan Recinella
Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 6:30pm - Florida
Catholic Volunteers of Florida Annual Retreat
Green Cove Springs, FL (not open to the public)
For information, contact Sr. Florence by email: fbryanssj@aol.com
The Biblical Truth about America’s Death Penalty
(offered twice)
Catholic Teaching and the Realities of the American Death Penalty
Dale S. Recinella is the presenter of these three workshops at the NCADP
(National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty) National Conference:
Training for the Long Run 2009
January 25-27, 2009 - Harrisburg, PA
Workshops will be offered on Saturday, January 26
Holiday Inn Harrisburg East
4751 Lindle Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111 Phone:(717) 939-7841
Dale’s book, The Biblical Truth about America’s Death Penalty, will be
available for purchase and signing.
For information, contact NCADP:(202) 331-4090 or
go to conference webpage: ncadp.org
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La Pace è il Nome di Dio
(Peace is the Name of God)
By: Dale Recinella
The first weekend of October 1997, my son Christopher and I squeezed our way into a crowd of 850 Romans at Ostiense station.
Our goal: a chartered night train north. The event: Eleventh Annual Peace Conference of World Religions called “Peace is the Name of God.”
The sponsor: Sant’Egidio.
Our traveling companions were members of Sant’Egidio (St. Giles), a community of ministry, spirituality and fellowship founded in Rome in
1968. This group, which then had 8,000 members in Rome and 15,000 members world-wide (including 7 people in the U.S.) ministers to the
world’s poorest. Also, they believe that if even small populations can make war, then even small groups can make peace. What better place t
o start than among the world’s religions.
In the opening ceremony in Padua, Emil Constantinescu, President of Romania, pleaded for peace between the religious factions which
threatened to turn his country into another Bosnia. He invited next year’s conference to take place in Romania—which it did with amazing results.
There were 21 parallel sessions in only 3 time slots. In the conference “Christians and the Poor”, we were stunned by the testimony
of Alexander Ogorodnikov on the dangers of maintaining a soup kitchen in Moscow in the face of “informal” pressure, even physical
attacks, by the local power structure. In America, we never thought of serving the poor as a priceless “freedom.”
In the session on Muslim-Christian Relations, we heard from our Muslim brothers and sisters on their perception of Christian outreach
to the poor in the Arab world. As a fifth grader in Detroit Catholic school, I donated my hard earned paper-route money to the Society
for the Propagation of the Faith. On the receiving end, baptism as a condition for food, clothing and education, smacked to some of extortion.
Sr. Helen Prejean spoke in the session on the death penalty. But we cringed when Anatolij Pristavkin, President of Russia’s Clemency
Commission, described how the new democracy could have gone either way on the death penalty but was heavily influenced by the American
choice. And, in Russia as in America, it was being used primarily against the poor. [1]
At the closing prayers, thousands of people were present in the Venetian Piazza of St. Mark as over a hundred religious leaders,
Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Protestant, Orthodox, Catholic, Buddhist, Shinto, and numerous others, signed a declaration of peace.
A simple question hung in the evening air: “Will things change soon?”
[1] Russia has since suspended the use of the death penalty.
First published: The Talahassee Democrat, November, 1997
© 2008 Dale S. Recinella & The Talahassee Democrat.
Used with permission. All rights reserved.
No further reproduction or republication without prior written permission.
www.iwasinprison.org
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I Was In Prison
News & Updates
This ezine is targeted for people involved in prison ministry or in stopping the death penalty, we think you will find helpful information for people who are undecided about capital punishment, for those who have never experienced the inside of a jail or prison, and for those who feel called to participate through prayer and adoration.
Your name and information will never be used or shared with anyone. We promise!
Dale S. Recinella, Catholic Lay Chaplain, Florida Death Row and Solitary Confinement
Susan M. Recinella, Clinical Psychologist for mentally ill adults, and
Catholic Lay Minister to Families of the Executed |
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