APRIL FOOLS IN CHRIST

Again, dear friends, thanks for your huge generosity in March.

The Desert Prison Ministry account again stands at $2.18. Funny how that happens. At least I can tell you that your financial support goes directly to the work—our staff is one unpaid hermit, one well fed cat, and assorted blackbirds. No other staff, no overhead but gas, printing supplies, and yes, stamps. A year ago I purchased a box of 500 envelopes—it is now nearly kaput. As for your prayer and Mass support, well, those are on different accounts in very secure banks.

A SPECIAL PLEA FROM BUBBA. Bubba has been in prison for over 14 years, 13 of those on death row; he is now on Life Without Parole. He is a convert to Catholicism and pursues the faith with great zeal. That is remarkable since he went for seven years on death row in the infamous H Unit in Oklahoma without seeing a Catholic priest. In the last nine months, he has seen a priest once. Bubba needs to be confirmed so that he can become a Benedictine Oblate. I have written on his behalf several times to Bishop Slattery in Tulsa without receiving a response. You may wish to write in behalf in Ernest (Bubba) Phillips #187810 to:

Most Reverend Edward J. Slattery, Bishop
Catholic Diocese of Tulsa
2233 S. Gary Avenue
PO Box 690240
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74169

Now, Bubba says, “how would you like to live in a bathroom for 14 years?” Bubba does not have a TV. Most prisoners in the U.S. have TV’s only if someone pays for them. I know, there is the standard response, “they shouldn’t live in luxury!” Believe me, it ain’t luxury, and Bubba says it’s a good thing: prisoners with TV are not likely to cause trouble.

So here we have a good Catholic denied the sacraments who was not able to see any news about the new Pope, sitting in his bathroom-sized cell, listening to the noxious roar of prison, reading Evelyn Waugh’s Life of Campion and St. Thomas More’s The Sadness of Christ (supplied by DPM). Would you like to help with a small TV? Send the money to me, earmarked for Bubba’s TV, and I will get it into his commissary account. If you send too much (!), I will use it for good books and the work. No, as a hermit, I don’t have or watch TV myself, but then I don’t live in a bathroom. Yet.

Desert Prison Ministry
661 S. Edgewood Drive
Sparta, TN 38583-1105
931-979-1938