42
I am in a Faith-based dorm and will
be receiving all three Sacraments in
April. I feel so at home in the Catholic
Church. I spent 17 years taking and
not giving. I just want to give back to
God for all the pain and hurt I have
put on my family and friends. I want
to help others become real men, better
men. I come up for parole in 2 years.
We have 493 Catholics on this unit and
roughly 70 attend Mass each week. If
we can get materials out to the others,
this will change. Thank you for all
your help. < Daniel - TX >
My dad thanks you for the materials
you sent to him. I use the info you
send along with prayer cards. I need
more information about the Blessed
Mother and how to pray the Rosary
beads. Please pray for this prison
because there have been a lot of
deaths and killings and stabbings.
They tell us, it is suicide but I don’t
believe it. Pray for us. Love is being
sent your way. < GA >
I have been here in prison for the past
24 years. I enrolled in the very first
RCIA class that was offered but still
have little access to materials about
the Catholic Faith. It was wonderful
to get your response to my request.
I struggle daily to live the life Jesus
intended for me. Yours is the only
ministry which has ever sent me
materials to do so. We read but, without
help and guidance for living what
is read, it seems almost fruitless.
Please keep me on your mailing list.
Thank you! < Bryan - AR >
This unit has a large turnover of
inmates so we see lots of new faces at
Mass. We are expanding our outreach
to include the Spanish speaking
population who have felt left out.
They are relegated to the bilingual
Protestant services. With your help in
sending the beautiful Spanish materials
for them, we find they are returning
one by one. Your contribution is greatly
appreciated! < Richard - TX >
“Patron Saint of Prison Ministry”
Vasyl Velychkovsky was born in the year of 1903 in Austria-
Hungary. He entered the seminary in Lviv in Western Ukraine
and was ordained a Redemptorist priest in 1925. He served as
Superior of the Redemptorist monastery in Stanislaviv.
It was not a good time to be Catholic in Ukraine. In 1945,
the Communist secret police arrested Fr. Velychkovsky and
sent him to Kiev. He spent three years in a psychiatric hospital where he was
tortured and given drugs to ruin his health and mind. He was released and
spent time in Yugoslavia. He was consecrated a Bishop and gave retreats
in Canada at the Ukrainian diaspora. He died in 1973 at the age of 70 and is
buried in Winnipeg.
As a child, he prayed, "Dearest Mother of God, give me the grace to become
a holy priest." is prayer remained planted deep in his soul. He was beatified
on July 20, 2014. His courage, faithfulness and zeal for the salvation of the
most abandoned, gives witness and encouragement to those who themselves
do prison ministry. He prayed the Rosary daily on a Rosary made of string and
dried prison bread. Even amidst the most adverse conditions and fierce persecution,
he persevered to the end. His incorrupt body is entombed at St. Joseph’s
Ukrainian Catholic Church in Winnipeg, Canada.
Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky, pray for us!