Volunteers Sought For Kolbe Prison Retreats

Amarillo—Two Kolbe Prison Retreats are scheduled early this year, and volunteers are needed, according to Deacon Jessie Guerrero, diocesan Prison Ministry Coordinator.
 
The first retreat is set for Thursday, Feb. 1 through Saturday, Feb. 3 at the Clements Unit, with a second retreat taking place Thursday, March 22 through Saturday, March 24 at the Neal Unit.
 
Deacon Guerrero is seeking the support of 30 men from the Knights of Columbus, the ACTS Community and the Cursillo Movement to make these retreats possible.
 
“We are asking for volunteers for these retreats and any assistance to this ministry will be greatly appreciated,” he said.

The Kolbe Retreats are named after St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Patron Saint of Prisoners, according to Deacon Guerrero. 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 a 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 additional information or to volunteer to be a team member on a Kolbe Retreat, please call Deacon Guerrero at 364-8432 or 346-1502; Deacon Andy Gonzalez at 463-0262; Kent Hoelting at 679-1725; or, Tino Frausto at 220-6049.