Volunteers Sought For Amarillo Kolbe Retreat

Amarillo—Team formation meetings are underway for the third Kolbe Prison Retreat of the year, according to Deacon Darryl Dixon, a member of the diocesan Prison Ministry team.
 
The retreat is set for Thursday, July 10 through Saturday, July 12 at the William P. Clements Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
 
Team formation meetings for this retreat take place Tuesday evenings through July 8 from 6:30 to 8:30, in the parlor at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, 4100 South Coulter.  
 
Deacon Dixon is requesting the support of 30 men from the Knights of Columbus, the ACTS Community and the Cursillo Movement to make the retreat at the Clements Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice possible.
 
“We are asking for volunteers for these retreats and any assistance to this ministry will be greatly appreciated,” he said.
 
Additional dates for Kolbe Prison Retreats in 2025 include (subject to change):
• Thursday, Sept. 18 through Sunday, Sept. 20 at the Mechler Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Tulia; and,
• Thursday, Nov. 13 through Saturday, Nov. 15 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 Dixon. 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 Dixon at 806-290-8842. The Kolbe Prison Ministry is a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations are charitable donations for tax purposes. Donations can be mailed to Kolbe Prison Ministries, P.O. Box 4125, Amarillo, 79116.