Formation Meetings Underway For Pampa Kolbe Retreat

March 26, 2024

Amarillo—Team formation meetings for the second Kolbe Prison Retreat of the year have begun. The formation meetings take place Tuesday evenings at 6:30 in the parlor at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, 4100 South Coulter.

The retreat will be offered Thursday, May 2 to Saturday, May 4 at the Rufe Jordan Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Pampa, according to Deacon Andy Gonzalez, diocesan Prison Ministry Coordinator.

Deacon Gonzalez is seeking the support of 30 men from the Knights of Columbus, the ACTS Community and the Cursillo Movement to make the retreat at the Jordan Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice possible.

“We are asking for volunteers for these retreats and any and all assistance to this ministry will be greatly appreciated,” he said.

Additional Kolbe Prison Retreats (dates subject to change without notice):
• Thursday, Aug. 8 to Saturday, Aug. 10 at the William P. Clements Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Amarillo; and,
• Thursday, Nov. 14 through Saturday, Nov. 16 at the T.L. Roach Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Childress.

The Kolbe Retreats are named after St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Patron Saint of Prisoners, according to Deacon Gonzalez. 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 an 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 more details or to volunteer to be a team member on a Kolbe Retreat, please call Deacon Gonzalez at 806-463-0262 or Deacon Darryl Dixon at 806-290-8842. The Kolbe Prison Ministry is a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations are charitable donations for tax purposes.