The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #29850 Message #4069626
Posted By: keberoxu
25-Aug-20 - 05:27 PM
Thread Name: Steve Earle sees a friend killed
Subject: RE: Steve Earle sees a friend killed
While the story in this article from The Pilot, the news organ of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston,
might merit its own thread,
there is enough of a connection to
this existing thread, about
Steve Earle and his friendship with Jonathan Nobles,
to append the story here in a post.
Those who include intercessory prayer in their beliefs, such as the Roman Catholic Lay Dominican volunteers introduced by this article,
will tell you that they believe that
Jonathan Nobles, after death, interceded in spirit
for the men still living in prison,
that these men might benefit as he did from a changed life.
Because I used to know the chaplains who worked at MCI Norfolk,
which in another century was called
the Norfolk Prison Colony, in Massachusetts,
I was their guest on two Sundays when they met with
the professed Lay Dominicans who were inmates inside the prison.
I had never been inside a prison before.
In this post-electronic day and age,
MCI Norfolk is considered medium-security, as it is an old facility
and could only be modernized so far
without tearing the place down and starting over.
When the Norfolk Prison was built, there was no electronic technology;
and it was built to be maximum-security in the days before hi-tech security.
Thus, MCI Norfolk has a series of walls within walls;
a 'trap' into which all visitors and guests must stand while a security guard,
viewing the 'trap' from a secure position above,
shuts one door, leaves you inside for a minute or two,
then slowly opens another door;
and multiple checkpoints. Everyone is frisked,
and passes through an electronic search feature,
I forget what you call the things.
I had to take the metal barrette out of my hair
and leave it 'outside' because it would have tripped the electronics.
It was scary as anything being inside,
and I didn't even see the 'pods', where the prisoners are housed;
what I saw was the inmate's communal activity center, where they attend worship services or small group meetings.
I could not breathe freely until I was back 'outside' again,
a few hours later.
The chaplains whom I personally knew are both retired now,
and younger ministers serve in their place;
I have no recent news of
this chapter of the Lay Dominican Fraternity,
and you can see that this article is years old.
But I share it with you
for what benefit it may offer you.
And:
no, I am not aware of
Steve Earle knows about what transpired here.