Christmas Giving Louisiana Style
By: Sister Linda Songy, Chaplain at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women
If you take a look at the front page of the New Orleans newspaper, "The Times-Picayune," for Tuesday, December 22, you'll see a picture of a little Catholic church in Violet, LA. The church is in St. Bernard parish, which was almost totally destroyed by Hurricane Katrina--including this little church which had been broken into. The intruder(s) unwrapped the 65 or so Christmas gifts which were to be given to poor children, took the gifts, and left the wrappings! The priest and parishioners discovered that when they came for Sunday Mass.
The word got out immediately, of course, and one of our inmates at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women heard it on the news (even before any of the rest of us "free people" heard it). This inmate (of 12 years incarceration) came straight to the chapel, told the senior chaplain what she heard, and requested that we send this parish some of the many gifts which had been donated for the inmates' children. At her request, Chaplain Sumrall pursued the necessary permissions from administration and later that day, they called me (it wasn't one of my work days) to pick up 10 boxes (the size that printer paper comes in!) of gifts and toys to bring to the church in Violet. That was an example of one inmate's compassionate initiative, and many, many others support her in it--not at all in keeping with society's stereotype of "convicts!"
The December 23 issue of "Times-Picayune" tells of the outpouring of help from all over (including Wisconsin) which they received. And I'm very proud and happy that LCIW was a part of that outpouring!