What’s it like to say Mass on death row? Ep.131

For the past 10 years, George Williams, S.J., has passed through
metal doors plastered with the word “CONDEMNED” to minister to the
men on death row at San Quentin State Prison, located on the north
side of the San Francisco Bay. As the Jesuit chaplain for the
California prison, he provides spiritual counseling, teaches
theology and says Mass in what many would consider the most
hopeless of circumstances. Yet amid the sin and injustice that he
sees each day, Father Williams also encounters conversion,
forgiveness and grace. We ask Father Williams how he spiritually
prepares men for the death penalty or life without parole, how
Jesuit spirituality resonates with inmates and what he would say to
Catholics who disagree with Pope Francis’ pronouncement that
capital punishment is “inadmissible.” Zac is on pilgrimage in the
Holy Land, so no Signs of the Times this week. However, he sends a
special message to the Jesuitical podcast community! You can tell
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