By Rita McInerney

On Oct. 28, Joan Walker was in Fulton County Jail, three years to the day after her own imprisonment for protesting abortions at Midtown Hospital in Atlanta.

For her this night was truly a celebration – of the Liturgy. Father Ray Horan, her pastor at St. John the Evangelist parish in Hapeville, celebrated Mass for 25 inmates. It was the third such celebration in Fulton County Jail through Joan Walker’s determined persistence. The others, on Sept. 16 and Oct. 14, also were celebrated by Father Horan. Thirteen prisoners attended the Sept 16 liturgy.

Masses are being celebrated twice each month at the jail now because of the three days Joan Walker spent in the Detention Center in October, 1988. That stay made her see the gap in spiritual help for Catholics inside. With her release came the resolve to overcome this lack.

Sept. 16 was the first time Mass was celebrated in Fulton County Jail since the fall of 1988. Father John Adamski said he celebrated Mass there at that time for men and women arrested in Operation Rescue protests at Atlanta abortion clinics.

Joan and her husband, Tony, became volunteer chaplains for prison work with Dale Young, a nurse at Fulton County Jail at the time, helping them obtain the necessary credentials. The Walkers have been visiting prisoners since late in 1988. It took almost three years to get official prison permission for the Mass.

Mrs. Walker sees their ministry as an outreach of the Legion of Mary. Her praesidium, Our Lady of the Immaculate Medal at St. John’s, has supported the couple from the beginning. Later, other praesideiums across town began giving them support.

Mrs. Walker said Baptist Minister Jerry Connor, fulltime volunteer jail chaplain, was helpful along the way in getting permission for Mass. But first she had to “build rapport” with him. She recalled him saying at one time, “I don’t even know what you believe.” She gave him a copy of the Apostles Creed and wrote him “almost a book on the Mass.”

“We’ve always known there was a need” for Catholic services, Reverend Connor said. It was “a case of finding the right people, the right place and time to do so.” Reverend Connor volunteers at the jail through Baptist International Missions.

“Joan and Tony Walker are the primary ministers and Dale Young helped while she worked here,” he added. There are no other Catholic volunteers other than people who come in with the Walkers, he said.

Reverend Connor said there were an average of 45 Catholic prisoners in jail at any one time. Since the Masses began he’s been giving Mrs. Walker a printout of those who list Catholic as their religion.

After gaining permission for the Mass Mrs. Walker was worried about getting celebrants. Mentioning this to Father Horan, he told her “not to worry. This is what I’m supposed to be doing.” He said he would try and get other priests whenever possible to say Mass. She is hopeful that it soon will be offered to women prisoner.

There is no chapel in the new Fulton County prison built a few years ago to accommodate 2,200 inmates and now housing about 2,600. The Oct. 28 liturgy was celebrated in a second floor zone area, a bare space furnished for the occasion with an upright metal box as altar and three rows of metal chairs. In plain view, reached by a flight of blue painted iron stairs, was a row of small booths where lawyers talk with prisoners.

Mass participants were escorted to the zone area by sheriff’s deputies Lt. Don Jardes and Lt. Dennis Moran. Both Catholic, they gave Father Horan, the Walkers and Dale Young a friendly welcome. The men, mostly young, wore laundry faded dark blue cotton uniforms. Some came in leg chains, others walked free. Most sat lost in thought while the congregation assembled. In the front row, Joan Walker spoke quietly with a young man who would give a reading.

Once Mass began, Father Horan had an attentive congregation, although the men prayed the responses and sang hymns with the timidity of those somewhat distanced from the ritual.

During his homily on the Gospel from Mark 10:45-52, Father Horan repeated the question the blind man asked Jesus after his sight was restored: “What do you want me to do?” To follow Jesus, he assured the men, takes a change of heart and will not be easy.

Gospel, homily, Eucharist, prayers and hymns seemed calm. Men who entered with stony faces eased into calm as the Mass progressed. At its conclusion, as they waited to be escorted back to the cells, a brief community surfaced in this unlikely gathering area. Prisoners stood around in small groups with the visitors, and Lt. Moran, telling snippets of their stories and thanking the outsiders for coming. “It brings us some hope” was expressed more than once.

Most left with literature Tony Walker had placed on a small table. Choices included the New testament and the Word Among Us in both English and Spanish, God’s Word Today, Legion of Mary literature and some Catholic monthly magazines.

”I never go in (to the jail) without praying to the Holy Spirit,” Joan Walker acknowledged. She visits regularly, responds to the call when a prisoner might submit a request to Reverend Connor’s office to see a Catholic. Sometimes they just need to talk and have someone listen, she knows from experience.

Ministry began with “baby steps.” Now “it seems to be opening up…It was a ministry I was led to do. The ‘Hound of Heaven’ (the metaphor for God used by poet Francis Thompson) opened the doors for me…It’s not a ministry I would have chosen for myself,” she admitted.

Her devotion to the Blessed Mother and St. Maximilian Kolbe (a prisoner himself) strengthens her for the most demanding of encounters. Some prisoners she meets with a glass partition separating them in the attorney booths. Most times she is allowed to meet them in the common room (zone area) where she can touch a man or woman she is praying with.

She felt “blessed to be used” when she could bring Communion to a man dying of cancer who hadn’t received the sacrament in 20 years. She was happy to get a wave from a former prisoner among spectators at the Right to Life march last January in downtown Atlanta.

Her reports are given regularly to her Legion of Mary praesidium but the files on her visits are kept confidential. A strict rule she follows is never to give a prisoner her home address. Correspondence must be addressed to her at the parish.

“I started off in ministry rather slow,” she recalled. Father Michael Woods, her former pastor at St. John’s, urged her into pro-life involvement in 1988. She is grateful to him, Father Horan, and Father Adamski who gave her permission to recruit priests to celebrate Mass. The prison is in his jurisdiction as pastor of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

There have been prisoners she didn’t want to see although they had asked to see her. It’s at such time she asks Jesus to “teach me how to love You better” and to be able to see Him in every person, no matter how repugnant the crime.