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Volunteers Needed For Kolbe Prison Retreats
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May 20, 2024Amarillo—Volunteers are needed for the next scheduled Kolbe Prison Retreat, Thursday, Aug. 8 through Saturday, Aug. 10 at the William P. Clements Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Amarillo, according to Deacon Andy Gonzalez, diocesan Prison Ministry Coordinator.
Deacon Gonzalez is seeking the support of 30 men from the Knights of Columbus, the ACTS Community and the Cursillo Movement to make the retreat at the Jordan Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice possible.
“We are asking for volunteers for this retreat and any and all assistance to this ministry will be greatly appreciated,” he said.
Formation meetings for the Clements Unit Kolbe Prison Retreat will begin in June.
At this time, an additional Kolbe Prison Retreat is scheduled Thursday, Nov. 14 through Saturday, Nov. 16 at the T.L. Roach Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Childress.
The Kolbe Retreats are named after St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Patron Saint of Prisoners, according to Deacon Gonzalez. St. Maximilian was a Polish Conventual Franciscan Friar who was sent to Auschwitz during World War II in 1941. When Nazi guards selected ten people to be put into an underground bunker to be starved to death in punishment for a prisoner escaping in July 1941, Father Kolbe volunteered to die in place of one of the men selected, Franciszek Gajowniczek. Father Kolbe died Aug. 14, 1941 after a lethal injection of carbolic acid. He was canonized as a Saint by Pope (now Saint) John Paul II on Oct. 10, 1982.
For more details or to volunteer to be a team member on a Kolbe Retreat, please call Deacon Gonzalez at 806-463-0262 or Deacon Darryl Dixon at 806-290-8842. The Kolbe Prison Ministry is a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations are charitable donations for tax purposes.
