Five days before the execution of James “Chip” Smith on Sept. 1, 1882, Father Michael J. McGivney celebrated a high Mass at the jailhouse in New Haven, Connecticut, where Smith was held.
Thanks to countless hours that Father McGivney, the young curate at St. Mary’s Church, had spent ministering to him, Smith was far from the man he was two years earlier. In December 1880, the 21-year-old Smith was drunk and causing a disturbance in the nearby town of Ansonia. In a skirmish with the chief of police, Daniel J. Hayes, he shot Hayes in the abdomen. Hayes died four days later, and Smith was eventually sentenced to death.
Visiting the New Haven Jail, Father McGivney truly became a spiritual father to Smith, who underwent a profound conversion, and to other inmates as well.
“At his request, I ask for the prayers of all of you that when next Friday comes, he may die a holy death,” Father McGivney told the 150 people in attendance at the jailhouse Mass on Sunday, Aug. 27. “If I could consistently, with my duty, be far away from here next Friday, I should escape perhaps the most trying ordeal of my life, but this sad duty is placed in my way by Providence and must be fulfilled.”
Five days later, the 30-year-old priest walked with Smith to the gallows. Smith calmly accepted his fate and died with a cloth Sacred Heart badge, which Father McGivney had given him, pinned close to his own heart.
Earlier that same year, the Knights of Columbus was formally chartered on March 29. Father McGivney founded the Order upon the principles of charity, unity and fraternity — the same virtues he demonstrated each time he walked through the doors of the jail to visit Smith and other inmates.
Today, in the spirit of Blessed Michael McGivney, hundreds of K of C chaplains and other Knights of Columbus serve as mentors and counselors to incarcerated people, recognizing in them Christ in disguise: “I was in prison and you visited me” (Mt 25:36). Below, prison ministers and volunteers in Massachusetts, California, and New Brunswick, Canada, share how walking in faith with inmates is woven into the fabric of their identity as Knights.
FATHERS TO THE FATHERLESS
When David Bergeron entered his faith formation and Bible study class with an armful of new Ignatius Bibles, gold-leaf trim lining the edges of each page, it was like Christmas morning for his students: inmates at Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow, Massachusetts.
“I was so happy to see these guys, their true joy with these brand-new Bibles. Everybody had their nose to the Bible, smelling it,” Bergeron laughed.
“I was describing to the guys [his brother Knights] their enthusiasm for getting these Bibles.”
Bergeron, a member of Ludlow (Mass.) Council 3535 who has taught Bible study and faith formation classes at Hampden for 11 years, described the inmates’ enthusiasm to his brother Knights.
Last year, Council 3535 adopted what is now called the Blessed Michael McGivney Jail Ministry — thanks to the urging of Rob Powell, a fellow council member. For over 30 years, Powell served as a counselor, manager of counselors, and assistant superintendent at the correctional center in Ludlow and the jail in Springfield.
“David is a father figure for these men who don’t have fathers, and that was also the case for me,” Powell said. “The most important role I played was being a father figure for those 500 men in my building.”
The council provides Catholic instruction materials, as well as Bibles and rosaries, for the ministry.
On Mondays, interested inmates gather in the chapel, where Deacon Paul Mazzariello, who serves as the prison chaplain, exposes the Eucharist for adoration. Inmates join in praying the rosary and singing hymns before the Blessed Sacrament, and following Benediction, Bergeron leads Bible study and faith formation. Topics range from apologetics to the sacraments to the Blessed Mother and the saints — with lots of Q&A.
Altogether, the duo spends two hours with about a dozen men. The prisoners don’t have long stays at the facility, cycling out of jail or moving to a higher-level prison after two to three years. But even that short time, Bergeron said, can make a significant impact and have a lasting influence.
“Initially, before I began jail ministry, I had little empathy [for inmates] and thought, ‘you sleep in the bed you make,’” Bergeron admitted. “But once I met them in person, I immediately realized it’s only by God’s grace that I’m not with them. All it takes is some poor formation and a few missteps.”
There is no doubt the Blessed Michael McGivney Jail Ministry is changing lives.
“Seeing these men preparing for and receiving the sacraments and growing in their faith life encourages my own faith tremendously,” Bergeron said. “This ministry has been a heaven-sent blessing.”
HOPE AND HEALING IN ACTION
“I have seen what evil can do to a human being and how destructive it is,” said Father Humberto Gomez, a priest of the Diocese of Sacramento. “Yet I have a stronger belief that every person is capable of changing, healing and being restored.”
Father Gomez, who was raised in Mexico, is a member of Blessed Sacrament Council 5322 in Rancho Cordova and has ministered in prisons for nearly two decades. After serving as a chaplain for nine years at a youth correctional facility, he has been a full-time chaplain at Folsom State Prison since 2016. A medium security facility near the state capital, Folsom is the second oldest prison in California and houses more than 2,500 inmates.
“Some attend our religious services such as Sunday Mass, praying of the rosary and other devotions, while others participate in our restorative justice programs to work on rehabilitation,” Father Gomez explained. “I am always available to the incarcerated people whenever they need counseling and spiritual support.”
Father Gomez has witnessed firsthand many lives changed by God’s mercy and feels blessed to be “an instrument of reconciliation and hope for the incarcerated.”
“One of the incarcerated people thanked me for becoming their chaplain and said, ‘We are members of the diocese as well.’ And he was right. Their incarceration doesn’t take away their membership in the Body of Christ.”
He recalled one man, imprisoned for over 30 years at Folsom, who eventually became Catholic.
“He shared his story with [fellow prisoners] about his life conversion, and at the end of his brief speech, he said, ‘Faith and hope in God will help you find a new way of life. Don’t ever give up on your faith,’” recounted Father Gomez.
“One of the incarcerated people thanked me for becoming their chaplain and said, ‘We are members of the diocese as well.’ And he was right,” Father Gomez affirmed. “Their incarceration doesn’t take away their membership in the Body of Christ.”
Respect for this God-given dignity is one reason that Dave Adam, a member of Father Grealy Council 4540 in Roseville who volunteers with the prison ministry at Folsom, said he calls inmates “gentlemen.”
Adam, too, has had countless transformative encounters during his 15 years in prison ministry. One such meeting was with an inmate named “Moot” during a Kairos Prison Ministry International Prayer and Share session.
“I just felt compelled to tell him, ‘Jesus loves you,’ and he goes, ‘Say that without that smirk on your face,’” Adam recalled.
“I said, ‘I’m sorry I was born with this dumb look on my face, but Jesus loves you,’” Adam continued. “By the time he got about three feet from me, the tears were just rolling down his eyes. He threw his arms around me, and he gave me this hug and he said, ‘I needed that.’”
In addition to Folsom, Adam volunteers at the maximum security state prison in Sacramento, where he serves as the Kairos advisory council chairman.
“My calling as a Knight is to serve those who are hated and discarded and thrown away by society in prison,” said Adam. “Somebody will come to Christ, or they’ll come to a Bible study and get out of the gangs — you see the changes in them. It’s worth it.”
Father Gomez finds inspiration in the vision of Blessed Michael McGivney.
“I have always been inspired by the core principles he gave to the Knights to empower Catholic men to live their faith, to seek hope even in the dark places,” he said. “It compels us to be people in action.”
‘HERE TO WALK WITH YOU’
Prison chaplain Craig Murphy, a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Council 9270 in Riverview, New Brunswick, doesn’t have a trick up his sleeve when he meets an inmate — it’s the sleeve itself that does the trick. His bright-colored clothing and Nike sneakers, he said, help to break the ice.
“My clothes are my schtick,” laughed Murphy, who has spent 27 years as a prison chaplain. “I love colorful, zany clothes and a bit of humor. I want to shake people up a little bit and make them think, ‘OK, he’s a chaplain? A Catholic chaplain? What are you doing in prison?’”
“That really has allowed me to walk alongside these guys and just develop these relationships and be open and honest,” he explained. “I let them know, ‘Hey, you’ve already been judged; I’m not here to judge you. I’m here to walk with you.’”
For the past nine years, Murphy has been the Atlantic Region director of chaplaincy for Bridges of Canada, a multi-faith spiritual mentorship and chaplaincy service, where he supervises 18 chaplains in five federal institutions. He visits prisoners about five to six days a month, spending most of his time at Dorchester Penitentiary, a men’s multi-level security federal corrections facility.
“They want to participate, they want to do a reading at Mass, and they want to follow along and be there,” Murphy said. “There’s a hunger and a desire to feed that part of our soul.”
Father Phil Mulligan, pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Pastoral Unit (composed of four parishes) and chaplain of Council 9270, is a key collaborator in Murphy’s ministry. He has spent about three years celebrating Mass at Dorchester Penitentiary but has served in prison ministry for 28 years.
“In the short time Father McGivney lived, he put the poor and marginalized front and center in his life,” Father Mulligan said. “When I interact with inmates, I want to know: who are you underneath that prison garb? More and more, I just see a child of God who maybe made some bad decisions.”
Murphy, who joined the Order in 2022, said that Blessed Michael McGivney’s legacy, and especially his ministry to men like Chip Smith, resonates with him.
“It’s encouraging to know,” Murphy said, “that just as I walk and try to accompany this fellow or that fellow, I’m following in those footsteps.”