Manuel Pardo Requiescat in Pace

After 27 years on Death Row, Manuel Pardo was executed by the State of Florida on December 11, 2012, at 6PM EST, when the Governor of Florida and the Courts refused to grant a stay of execution. On the day before his execution, Manuel took the time to write me a farewell letter, which I print out here:

December 10, 2012

Dear Ken,

Hola Amigo, I hope this letter finds you in the best of health with your family. I am doing OK, Thank God and thanks for having been blessed with your friendship. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you have done for me especially your precious friendship.

My daughter Lxxxx and godson were here today and we had a nice visit but as always it’s rough to see them cry and not be able to hug & kiss them. At least tomorrow after the first two hours when I have my last meal (I asked for Spanish food) they will give me a one hour of contact visit from 10AM-11AM when I’ll be able to kiss and hug my daughter, sister, godson, nephews, etc. So thank God I will be able to have closure with them. Then they bring me back to the cell then at 4PM take me to another cell by the Execution Chamber, and at 6PM send me to God’s Eternal Kingdom. I’ve made my peace with God, have him in my heart, and pray hard to protect Mxxx and give her strength to carry on and have a long, healthy, happy life!

I want to thank you again my brother in Christ for all you have done for me especially your precious friendship. Please keep in touch with Brother Dale [Recinella, author of Now I Walk on Death Row]. He will be with me tomorrow at the end for spiritual support. God bless you always tu Amigo Siempre,

Manuel

God bless you always, Ken! Thank you!

Desert Prison Ministry thanks you for your prayers of support for Manuel. I continue to need your support for my work with men in prisons. I will now need to drive to another prison in Tennessee. Needs: money for books, stamps, gas money, clerical supplies, and money for monthly allowances to prisoners in need. Blessings for each of you for what you do! Benedicite!

ST NICHOLAS FEAST DAY & PRISONERS

Dear Manuel, amigo, camerado, In the Eastern Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches, the Feast of Saint Nicholas is a big day. One of the parishioners dresses up as Nicholas would have appeared, in a Bishop’s hat and long beard, and passes out candy and fruit to the children. We know that Nicholas was, indeed, a holy man famed for miracles and kindness, and that he was chosen as bishop for his home town of Myra, near the sea, in what is now Turkey. We also know that under the brutal persecution by the Emperor Diocletian he was tortured and imprisoned for his adherence to the faith. When Diocletian died and Constantine became Emperor, one of Nicholas’s famous miracles was appearing in a dream to Constantine and pleading for three prisoners condemned to die. The next day, Constantine freed the three prisoners and sent them to Bishop Nicholas with a request that Nicholas pray for the peace of the world. More churches have been dedicated to Saint Nicholas than any other saint, four hundred of them in England alone. He is the patron saint of prisoners and captives and many miracle of his intervention on their behalf have been recorded. Saint Nicholas, I ask you to come to the aid of Manuel, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, and bring him peace of heart and mind. St. Nicholas, pray for Manuel and for all prisoners on death row in America! Manuel, again, I don’t know if this has time to reach you, but again, please know that many are praying for you. In Christ Our Savior, Ken

CHRISTMAS SEASON IN THE PRISON DESERT

First, thanks for all the help you have given me. Contributions of money, stamps, and most importantly, prayers, have made it possible for me to get five Shorter Christian Prayers to prisoners. Several of these men are Benedictine Oblates or Oblate novices, and three are considering becoming Oblate novices. I meet with a small group at Riverbend Prison in Nashville who are hoping to form a Benedictine community in the prison with the help of the Chaplain, Jeannie Alexander. Please pray for them and for her. One of the men I write who was strongly considering becoming a Benedictine Oblate is Manuel Pardo, who is still on Death Watch and is scheduled to be executed on December 11 at 6 PM EST, after living for 27 years on Death Row. On December 2, I am beginning a Novena to Saints Peter and Paul, asking for their intercession on Manuel’s behalf as he faces his ordeal, and I ask you to join me in this prayer. [See http://blessedcatholicsaints.blogspot.com/2010/06/novena-for-feast-of-saints-peter-and.html] By the way, if you are a Protestant, “novena” means nine, and the reason we pray “novenas” is because the Apostles and Mary prayed in the upper room for nine days after the Ascension before they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. So if you just pray for Manuel for those nine days, thinking of the prison terms of Saints Peter and Paul . .well, that would be wonderful. During November, I have also been able to send money orders for prisoners amounting to $100, and many books, including four copies of He Leadeth Me by Father Walter Ciszek, S.J, one copy of his With God in Russia, two copies of G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, two copies of A Different Kind of Cell: The Story of a Murderer Who Became a Monk, by Father Jones, a Trappist hermit, and many other books and pamphlets, as well as Bishop Sheen’s War Prayer Book, and murder mysteries. I heartily recommend the Different Kind of Cell book to all! Thank you for your continued generosity! Ken Craven Desert Prison Ministry 661 S. Edgewood Drive Sparta, TN 38583-1105 931-979-1938 kentoncraven@hotmail.com

PLEASE NOTE: Desert Prison Ministry is now located at: www.kencraven.blogspot.com

DEATH WATCH

Manuel writes on November 1, 2012, that he will be executed by the State of Florida on December 11, 2012, after twenty-seven years on Death Row in Florida. He will have one hour to kiss his daughter and family, and after that can be seen through glass only. On Death Watch, he has been moved to Florida State Prison, where Florida executes its inmates. Manuel thanks me and Desert Prison Ministry supporters for the book he has been reading this month, The Desert Fathers by Helen Waddell. In the last month, Manuel has been giving strong consideration to becoming a Benedictine Oblate. Please pray for Manuel, a good Catholic man who accepts his guilt and punishment, and ask others to pray for him. Manuel is regularly visited by volunteer Catholic Chaplain Dale Recinella (Now I Walk on Death Row) and a retired Catholic bishop.

Blessed is he that understandeth . . .

Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor: The Lord will deliver him in the evil day. . . .[Douai, Psalm 40] The conditions and practices of prisons continue to amaze me. I will be writing about this on www.faileldhermit.blogspot.com soon. In the meantime, when I remember that American prisons were established by Quakers for the moral and spiritual reformation of those guilty of crimes, I cannot help but think that the American prison system today is almost schizophrenically dislocated from that purpose. For one thing, I keep meeting prisoners who are trying to live holy lives as best as they can, often (and I will write about this also in the future), without regular support from the Church. One man went seven years on death row without the visit of a priest. Some of these are Benedictine Oblates and others are in the process of becoming oblates or are otherwise trying to be good Catholics or Christians of other communities. Often these men are jammed into situations in which their lives are constantly in danger or they must be heroic to live good lives the midst of ugliness, chaos, and prison-culture nastiness. Some excerpts from recent letters: This one comes from a prisoner whose cellmate just got placed on suicide watch in another cell. B writes that “I really doubt that he comes back to this cell. I hope not, Short letter, okay? A lot going on here. My nerves are shot . . .I’ll answer tomorrow if nothing crazy happens. The prison is on lockdown here. The Mexicans and the Crips are at it big time. Power is being shut off. Could be a major shakedown coming. Phones are off. Visits are off. Sack lunches every meal. Something is up. “ D writes: “I have been working nights and it has made me catatonic in the daytime and really tired [D is in very bad health], feeling like I need more sleep. Prison is hard enough in a bad unit where people are being robbed and beat up every week. . . .I’m glad you liked the[hand-made]

icon I sent you . . .a second one I sent to my son, C. . . .Are you excited about the year of Faith we are starting as a Church? My priest has been relieved of his assignment here, so we are without Mass right now. The last two months have been hard because of work and drug-addicted cell-mates. But I have prayed to St. Benedict asking him to help me overcome Satan and his vices. I am praying the Rosary more and reading your prayer book and the daily Mass liturgy.” This one comes from a man just transferred to a different prison. R writes that “time is lost to me right now. I think it is Tuesday but I really don’t know. When I first got to where I’m going I almost died. . . . this is the worst prison in [name of State]. . . . When I first got here they messed with my meds. I kept blacking out. . . .When I got here my glasses got lost. . . .they took over the kitchen and all we are going to get is bologna sandwiches [called in prisons Obama steaks] until all the stabbing and the fights stop. I know that God will keep me safe. . .this is a different world where people can do what they like to us and we can’t do anything back. I know that I have to let God take over but I can’t do that now. I’ll write better when I get a pair of glasses.” Note: America continues to have the highest percentage of imprisoned for its population of any country in the western world. It is the only country in the west that still has capital punishment.

Desert dwellers, hark!

Show me one who loves, he knows what I mean. Show me one who is full of longing, one who is hungry, one who is a pilgrim and suffering from thirst in the desert of this world, eager for the fountain in the homeland of eternity; show me someone like that, and he knows what I mean. But if I speak to one without feeling, he does not understand what I am saying. –Saint Augustine, a treatise on John

October Needs

Dear Friends of Desert Prison Ministry, THANK YOU! Thanks for all the donations of books, pamphlets, rosaries, and stamps. In the last few weeks, I have been helped a great deal by gifts. Naturally, I am asking again! What’s needed especially now: stamps (always, stamps!), cash donations, money orders. You can send cash or blank money orders to me so that I can send them to prisoners’ accounts. A gift of $10 helps a prisoner with basic needs. Most prisoners have to buy nearly everything they need from socks to underwear and stamps, paper, envelopes, and pens or pencils. Regulations governing nearly all correspondence with prisoners are byzantine and bizarre (example: Texas will not permit rosaries to be sent to prisoners—oh, those rosaries, so dangerous!) Sending books to prisoners is very important, but again, the rules are sometimes incomprehensible. Some states permit only books direct from Amazon! So far, Desert Prison Ministry has great success with mailing new and used books from its Desert Prison Ministry address. Please ask if you wish to send books to prisoners. Thanks also for your prayers, novenas, Masses, and good will! Ken Craven

Desert Prison Ministry is a private, unrecognized, unauthorized, unsanctioned Catholic ministry to prisoners. Visiting the imprisoned is the Sixth Work of Corporal Mercy in Catholic teaching.

My purpose in carrying on this ministry is simple: to fulfill Christ’s injunction (Matthew 25:36) to visit and minister to prisoners. At present I write some thirty-five prisoners on a regular basis, many of them on death row, and mentor two groups of prisoners at Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville, TN. These prisoners are forming small groups dedicated to the study and living of the Rule of St. Benedict. I do this under the guidance of Chaplain Jeannie Alexander and Father Donald Raila, O.S.B., Oblate Director at St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, PA. On this blog site I intend only to make contact with others carrying on the same work, and to solicit the prayers and financial contributions that make my work possible. Nothing on this site will in any way compromise the privacy of the prisoners ministered to. Desert Prison Ministry helps prisoners of any faith or no faith with financial contributions when possible and supplies Bibles, prayer books, and other literature as needed. For example, in addition to religious literature, DPM has sent prisoners Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, St. Thomas More’s Sadness of Christ, Father Ciszek’s He Leadeth Me, Orwell’s 1984, and other classic works of literature and spirituality. On this site I will list current needs. Those interested in helping me with them should respond to this site or contact me: Dr. Ken Craven 661 S. Edgewood Drive Sparta, TN 38583-1105 931-979-1938 kentoncraven@hotmail.com May God bless you for your prayers!