“HAVE YOU COME TO DESTROY US?” (Mk 1:21-28): 15 January 2008 (Tuesday)
Reading: www.nccbuscc.org/nab/011508.shtml
I saw “Dead Man Walking” almost ten years ago, but it remains one of the most powerfully moving and disturbing films I’ve ever seen. It’s about a true-to-life Louisiana nun, Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon), who momentarily interrupts her work with inner city children when she receives a letter from Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn), a prisoner on death row for rape and murder. She visits him only to find that the prisoner is far from likable or repentant: He is rough, insolent, and is a liar. Despite all this–and to the horror of the victims’ families–Sr. Prejean campaigns against capital punishment, insisting that no one deserves to be killed–even for the most heinous crimes.