The Catholic Standard and Times

Neumann College honors student for peace and justice work

By NADIA POZO
CS&T Staff writer

"I was a strong advocate of the death penalty and believed that if you took someone’s life, then we had the right to take yours,” Monika Solarska said.

The 25-year-old Solarska began her senior year at Neumann College in favor of the death penalty but after reading Sister Helen Prejean’s second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, and taking a senior seminar on the topic she changed her stance — and went on to receive the Sister Helen Prejean Peace & Justice Award from Neumann College.

Solarska, a native of Poland who came to the United States with her family as a child, was given the award for her academic excellence, her dedication to the criminal justice major and her service to the college and community. Fittingly, she received the award from Sister Helen Prejean herself.

Sister Helen Prejean, a sister of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, is best known for her work to abolish the death penalty. She too was honored by Neumann college on April 22 for her work, and was given an honorary degree from the school for “her passion and commitment to the sacredness of human life,” according to Stephen Thorpe, the vice president for Academic Affairs.

It was during that ceremony that Solarska was given the award by Sister Helen.

“I was very honored to receive this award, especially being named after her because she is such an advocate for life,” Solarska said.

Sister Helen’s first book, Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 31 weeks and went on to become a major motion picture starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. The book detailed her own experience as the spiritual advisor to death row inmate Patrick Sonnier, who killed two teenagers. The experience opened Sister Helen’s eyes to the Louisiana execution process which she knew needed to be made public.

“I know if the people of Louisiana could really be brought close to this and know what went on here tonight … they’ll reject the death penalty,” Sister Helen said in an interview after witnessing Sonnier’s execution.

Of the five men that Sister Helen has accompanied to death row, two she believes were innocent and it is their story Sister Helen recounts in her latest book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions.

“These experiences cemented one of my strongest convictions: that it is a profound moral contradiction to give the state the power to kill in order to prove murder is wrong,” she said.

It is this latest book that had such an impact on Solarska. What she came to understand, she said, is that the death penalty doesn’t solve anything.
It is deeply flawed, Solarka said. 117 death row inmates have been exonerated since 1973 — some having served for decades despite innocence. She added that she felt that the death penalty is unfairly applied along racial and socioeconomic lines.

The death penality is considered cruel and unusual punishment in a modern society where other means of protecting society are available, noted Pope John Paul II in his encyclical the Gospel of Life. “The dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform” (27).

This truth has changed Solarska’s heart, she said.

“Jesus emphasized the importance and sacredness of human life and human dignity,” she added. “In the New Testament Jesus shows us to love and forgive, even our enemies. He received the death penalty although he was innocent. Pope John Paul II forgave the man that tried to kill him and even visited him in prison. Being able to forgive is something you don’t see today. Instead, it’s more about revenge but people don’t see the power of forgiveness for healing.”

Sister Helen’s work also includes supporting and counseling families of murder victims through the victims’ advocacy group she founded called “Survive.” Through her work with death-row inmates and families of murder victims, Sister Helen bridges a healing process which involves forgiveness. Sister Helen describes forgiveness as being “perpetually in a stance of love so that the evil and hatred are not going to overcome you.”

Solarska says that now that she has graduated from Neumann College, she hopes to take the knowledge she has gained to her future work with victims — helping them to heal and understand their rights in the criminal justice system.

To learn more about the criminal justice major at Neumann College visit www.neumann.edu or call (610) 558-5616.

To learn more about Sister Helen Prejean, her latest book or her work to abolish the death penalty and through Survive visit www.prejean.org