Dead Man Walking heroine Sister Helen Prejean coming to North

Nov 12 2009 by Joanne Butcher, The Journal

Sr Prejean continues to campaign for an end to the death penalty in the US and counsels death row prisoners. Bud Welch also opposed the death penalty after his daughter Julie was killed in Oklahoma City.

She was one of the 168 victims of the bomb planted outside a government building by Timothy McVeigh.

Mr Welch talks about the rage and anger he felt, and the journey of forgiveness he made which brought him to campaign, unsuccessfully, against McVeigh’s death sentence.

However, he maintains a strong relationship with McVeigh’s family.

Across the four-day conference, the speakers will address an audience of over 4,000, many of them aged between 15 to 18, from Catholic schools in the diocese.

The event has been organised by the Youth Ministry Team with the aim of prompting young people to question ideas of revenge and forgiveness. There will also be time for prayer.

Father Dermott Donnelly, brother of television’s Declan Donnelly and a member of the team behind the event, said: “The theme is Step Into Life and the experiences of the speakers are types of modern parables.

“It is often easiest to want revenge. But people like Sister Prejean and Bud Welch have stopped that cycle and allowed forgiveness.”