Death Row

My name is Michael Ross. I am a condemned man on Connecticut's death row. When most people think of death row inmates, I'm the one that they think of. I'm the worst of the worst, a man who has raped and murdered eight women, assaulted several others, and stalked and frightened many more. When I am finally executed, the vast majority of the people of this state will celebrate my death. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I can see the hundreds of people who will gather outside the prison gates on the night of my execution. I can see them waving placards, drinking and rejoicing, and I can hear their cheers as my death is officially announced.

I have lived here on Connecticut's death row for over eight-and-a-half-years. I live in an eight-by-ten foot unpainted concrete cell for 23-hours-a-day—24-hours-a-day on weekends. I come out for an hour of“recreation”five days a week. The only other times that I leave my cell is for a 15-minute shower five days a week, or for an occasional visit (30 minutes, through glass, on a telephone). My meals are brought to my cell in a Styrofoam box three times a day. I live in a single cell—and since I can only talk to the two people on either side of my cell—I quite often feel alone.

One of the results of this almost total isolation is that, after a while, a person is forced to look at himself. I'm not talking about the cursory, superficial manner in which most people look at themselves, but rather a quite painful, unrelenting search of one's very soul.

Many inmates in prison, and many of those on death row, are able to lie convincingly to themselves, to see themselves as basically good people who are the innocent victims of a corrupt judicial system or of an unfair and uncaring society in general. Sometimes it is very difficult to honestly see ourselves as we truly are, and much easier to blame others as justification for our actions. I know this to be true because for years this is exactly what I did. During this period I was angry—very angry—at everyone and everything except for the one person I should have been angry with—me. It took a very long time—years in fact— for that anger to subside, to accept who I was and what I had become, and even longer before I was ready and willing to accept responsibility for my actions.

Mypersonaltransformation…allowedmy humanity to awaken, giving me back something that I thought I had lost forever…. Now that my mind was clear, I began to see—really see. It was like a spotlight shining down on me, burning away the mist, exposing every shadow of my being. I saw things as they really were; things I didn't like; things that brought great anguish.

Yet it is … reconciliation that I yearn for the most: Reconciliation with the spirit of my victims; reconciliation with the families and friends of my victims; and finally, reconciliation with myself and my God. This will be the final part of my transformation—and undoubtedly the most difficult part…. I have gone through quite a transformation since the day I first set foot on death row—most of it alone.

There is a group of people who firmly believe in this concept of reconciliation—victim-offender reconciliation and of the offender's reconciliation with society. They stand up for their beliefs and actively promote reformation and reconciliation. For more information about this group contact: Pat Bane, director; Murder Victims'Families For Reconciliation, PO Box 205, Atlantic, VA 23303-0208. Or call her at (801) 824-0948. And please tell her Michael Ross sent you.

Michael Ross, no. 127404 Northern Correctional Institution Somers, Connecticut

Immigration Mystique

Ordinarily I consider it inappropriate for an author to reply to his reviewers, but Robert Moser's charge that my book The Immigration Mystique: America's False Conscience is“anti-Catholic”and that I have“disdain for the Catholic Church”must be answered. I am Roman Catholic; and if Dr. Moser is unable to recognize a co-religionist when he reads him, perhaps that is because he has come to think of his Church as simply another social service agency, and its teachings as indistinguishable from the Democratic Party.

Interestingly, Dr. Moser does not refer to my remarks on Thomism and its displacement in the American Church in particular by the modern Catholic left. In the Thomistic view our obligations are to those connected to us by nature, to friends rather than strangers, and to one's country rather than to the world.

As I say in my book, the immigration crisis is a serious temptation to the Churches—not just to the Catholic Church—to confuse the worldly with the otherworldly. Undoubtedly, the fact that immigrationismhasbecomeafalsereligion—indeedan idol—goes far to account for this confusion; and nowhere has immigrationism been made more an object of idolatry than in the American Church's refugee and immigrant services departments, where Dr. Moser resides. Thus Moser's opinions in respect of immigrants do not surprise me. His inability to recognize Catholic argument when he meets it, however, disappoints.

I could answer his charge regarding my own lapses in logic. This being a letter in defense of my faith, and not of my book, I won't.

Chilton Williamson Jr.Kemmerer, Wyoming

Father Coughlin

Gabriel Meyer's article on the most famous radio orator in history was most interesting. My father used to set aside Sunday afternoon to listen to Father Coughlin. Unfortunately, his rise to fame proved Aeron's maxim that power corrupts.

However it is worth noting that when Father Coughlin was silenced by his bishop he lived up to his vow of obedience in the capacity of a parish priest for 37 years until he died in 1979. Many liberals who were opposed to any form of censorship applauded his retirement but asked“why did it take so long?“

Would an activist accept the authority of a bishop in today's climate?

Edward Halpin Park Ridge, Ill.