Page 21 - Catholic Extension Magazine - Spring 2016

Extension | Fall 2016 21
Benedictine Sister Kathleen Atkinson ministers to people inside prison walls and to those who are released from prison.
“Mercy is going to be messy; but that is the reality of my family here, and it is also the reality of the global family.”
“I was nding excuses to not be successful, and she said, ‘You can do anything.’ She saw me as a per- son and not just as an ex-prisoner,” he said. “She works with outcasts, people with marks. She makes you feel comfortable in your own skin so you can go out and say, ‘Hey, I made a mistake. But I can do bet- ter, give me a chance.’”
James found a job. “Now, I even have keys to a bank,” he said, grin- ning. He is a janitor there.
Ministry on the Margins, with
a cadre of 60 volunteers, serves about 200 people a week. Every year more than 1,000 men and women in North Dakota nish their time of incarceration and re-enter society.
e group also ministers to fam- ily members who have someone
in prison. Recently Sister Atkinson helped a grandmother whose two adult children were simultaneously sentenced for drug use, leaving her with six grandchildren to support on her xed income.
Sister Atkinson’s prison ministry is also going strong. Since starting her Tuesday and Wednesday eve- ning visits in 2010, she has helped to celebrate several baptisms, rst Communions and con rmations. “We have inmates gathering daily for rosary,” she said. “Two men just became Benedictine oblates [lay
associates] and made a solemn profession to our prioress to live the Benedictine way of life accord- ing to their state in life.”
Ministry on the Margins is a beautiful example of what Pope Francis has in mind for the Year
of Mercy. “ e Holy Father calls
us to be people of action and to
be compassionate rather than judgmental,” she said. “He has acknowledged that this type of presence in the world is going to be messy; but that is the reality of my family here, and, likewise, it is the reality of the global family.”
Sister Atkinson was honored in 2015 as a nalist for Catholic Extension’s Lumen Christi Award and received a Catholic Extension grant for her ministry. Her light shines brightly as an advocate for the marginalized.
VISIT THE IMPRISONED