Robert A. Harvie Social Justice Lecture Series
Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., Marcus Pavilion
Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., will speak at Saint Martin’s University,
Lacey, WA on Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 7 p.m. in the Marcus Pavilion.
Sister Helen’s appearance will be the inaugural event for the 2009-10
Robert A. Harvie Social Justice Lecture Series. Admission is free to the
public.
Sister Helen was born April 21, 1939 in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. She joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille (now The
Congregation of St. Joseph) in 1957. In 1962 she received a Bachelor of
Arts degree in English and Education from St. Mary’s Dominican College,
New Orleans, LA. In 1973 she earned an M.A. degree in Religious
Education from St. Paul’s University, Ottawa, CA.
Sister Helen began her prison ministry in 1981 when
she dedicated her life to the poor in New Orleans. While living in the
St. Thomas public housing project, Sister Helen became a pen pal with
Patrick Sonnier, convicted of killing two teenagers and sentenced to die
in Louisiana’s electric chair at Angola State Prison. Sister Helen began
visiting Sonnier in prison and later turned her experiences in to the
book Dead Man Walking. She published a second book on the death penalty,
The Death of Innocents, in 2005.