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What’s it like to say Mass on death row? An interview with the Jesuit chaplain of San Quentin prison

JesuiticalMarch 06, 2020
A chaplain distributes Communion to a death-row inmate at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Ind. (CNS photo/Karen Callaway, Northwest Indiana Catholic)

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 us what you think about the interview on our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and help other listeners find Jesuitical by leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a member of our Patreon community. Patrons get access to an exclusive newsletter written by one of your hosts each week!

Jesuitical

A podcast from the young, hip and lay editors of America Media.

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