Volunteer lauded for 22 years of service with the Diocese of Salt Lake City's prison ministry

Intermountain Catholic

+ Enlarge

Dave Howa (center), a volunteer with the Diocese of Salt Lake City's prison ministry at the Decker Lake Youth Center, received the Father Thomas J. Kaiser Annual Prison Ministry Award. He is shown with Tim Ford, another volunteer, and Illa Wright, director of volunteers for the ministry.

SALT LAKE CITY — In the Catholic Diocese of Salt City, a small group of volunteers in the prison ministry heeds the words of Matthew 25:36 – "(For I was) in prison and you visited me." Each year, they honor one of their own with the Father Thomas J. Kaiser award.

"The people who receive the award every year are dependable, put in their time and have a passion for working with the young people," said Illa Wright, director of the prison ministry volunteers.

This year’s award recipient, Dave Howa, "meets every bit of that," she said, explaining that Howa started as a volunteer 22 years ago with Fr. Kaiser, and later chauffeured the priest for the ministry. Today he continues to visit the incarcerated at the Decker Lake Youth Center. "Through it all he’s been there," Wright said. "He does not know what taking a day off or going on vacation means."

It’s the great need of the youth that keeps Howa returning, he said. "These kids have never had any religion at all," he said. "It makes me feel good to be able to talk to them about God."

At the award banquet Jan. 15, the Most Rev. John C. Wester, bishop of Salt Lake City, thanked the volunteers for reaching out to the youth. "You’re helping folks who lost their way," he said, adding that he refers to prison ministry as "the dark side of the Good News. God’s working in this, it’s just not as easy to discern."

Those who minister in the jails and prisons should look at inmates as human beings with the potential for new growth, the bishop said. "Your ministry is to help people see that there is hope… [jail] can be the beginning of a new life."

The bishop also commended those who work in the jail. "Looking at the dark side of the Good News day in and day out can be depressing. It’s easy to become jaded," he said, but he urged them to continue to treat people with dignity and respect.

Deacon Manuel Trujillo, coordinator of the Davis County jail ministry, said they provide Catholic services, but people of all faiths are welcome. "That’s what this ministry is all about, reaching out to the least of our brothers," he said. "You’d be surprised how many of these people who are not Catholic continue to come to our services. It’s all the work of God. I see the hand of God in all of this."

Past Fr. Kaiser award recipient Brian Mullahy, who has volunteered with the ministry once a month for 13 years, also believes that God is at work through him. "It’s letting the Holy Spirit lead and hoping others will follow," he said. "There have been experiences inside that facility that I would never have had any other way."

For example, one young man who asked to talk to Mullahy had committed a heinous crime and was "yearning for God’s peace," Mullahy said. "It was a beautiful moment."

Another time, he met a young woman who had been in his prayer group at the grocery store where she was working, and she told him she was now married with a family. "But we shouldn’t give ourselves too much credit, because really this is God’s work," Mullahy said. "God leads and you just let it work."

Sometimes the results take time, Wright said. "When you plant the seed, it grows, and you can be ever so thankful that God has selected you. You have been called to do this and when he calls you, you have to be able to say ‘I’m ready. I am ready to go where you called me and I will go where you send me."