Pace e Bene

A Note to Pace e Bene Associate LR Berger

Pace e Bene staff member Fr. Louis Vitale, 77, began serving a six-month prison sentence on Monday, January 25 for nonviolent, prayerful protest calling for closure of the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. On February 25 he was transferred from Crisp County Jail in Cordele, Georgia, where he has been held for the past month, to the US Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia.  You can write to at the following address:

Louis Vitale #25803-048

USP Atlanta

U.S. Penitentiary

P.O. Box 150160

Atlanta, GA 30315

To see updates from and about Fr. Louie, please click here.

The following letter was sent by Louie to Pace e Bene’s New England Associate, LR Berger.

February 5, 2010

Dear LR,

What a beautiful image—your card. Thank you for writing.

The poem also is a special gift. The reflections of Rainer Maria Rilke are awesome (i.e. fill me with awe). This is very helpful in a place where the noise and darkness can begin to close in.

So far I am doing well. I am adjusting to the more difficult aspects here in Cordele, mostly, I think, because I have been here before. The hardest is the noise of the ubiquitous TV. I learned a new trick: take half a square of toilet paper wrap it in saran wrap (comes with sandwiches) and make ear plugs (not elsewhere available).

Sometimes it is too much—I have to cover my head with my jacket and tough it out—but, there are also the quiet times: early morning hours or even after breakfast when the energy wears down from late nights (theirs and mine) and Orpheus slips in, or the Holy Spirit enters with a contemplative space. A friend, Friar Bob Cushing, was moved close to here and pays me wonderful pastoral visits (even face to face, not with the glass/phones of the visiting room). God is good, full of surprises.

Again gratitude, blessings,

Love,

Louie