For Whom the Bells Toll:
A New National Death Penalty Project
by Dorothy Briggs, O.P.

In 1978, when I was starting my sabbatical from teaching, I had trouble sawing wood for my stretchers for canvases. They were horrible; everything I cut was crooked and misshapen.

John, the assistant, created the stretchers for me in his workshop in prison. That was in the old days, when the system allowed such occupational privileges for the prisoners. It seems those days are gone forever.

The brother who was a chaplain at the maximum security prison in Walpole, Massachusetts saw my dilemma and asked if I wanted to have his assistant make them for me. I immediately said, "Yes!" And so John, the assistant, created the stretchers for me in his workshop in prison. That was in the old days, when the system allowed such occupational privileges for the prisoners. It seems those days are gone forever.

A while later I finally met John, and we became good friends. I visited him for 10 years. He taught me a lot about the prison system, and this revelation led me to work in prison reform. In 1988, I joined a wonderful grassroots criminal justice reform organization called CURE (Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants), and then I started a CURE chapter in Massachusetts. For health reasons I had to stop working inside the walls.

About a year ago, I received a call from Charlie Sullivan, the CURE national director. Charlie had just learned that Bishop Walter Sullivan of Richmond, Virginia had asked the churches in his diocese to toll the church bells on each day of any execution in Virginia. That initiative, it seems, is modeled after a similar effort by Jamie Cardinal Sin of the Philippines.

The concept seemed so simple, but had enormous potential. On the one hand, it would cost a church nothing to participate… At the same time, it would give church members inspiration to discuss the church’s position on the death penalty.

I immediately shared Charlie’s enthusiasm. The concept seemed so simple, but had enormous potential. On the one hand, it would cost a church nothing to participate. A few dedicated parishioners could administer the program. At the same time, it would give church members inspiration to discuss the church’s position on the death penalty. And it would make a statement to the community: state-sanctioned murder is wrong and should be stopped.

I called Bishop Sullivan to determine if anything was being done to promote the effort on a national level. No such attempt was being made, and I was encouraged to do so. I spoke about this with Kay Perry, the director of Michigan CURE, who was serving as coordinator of a national campaign addressing the immoral charges for collect calls from prisons which the families of prisoners are forced to pay. With the support of Kay and Charlie, I decided to coordinate this new campaign from my home in Medford, Massachusetts.

In September 2000, we launched the national ecumenical For Whom the Bells Toll campaign. The goal of the campaign is to engage all religious congregations, churches, synagogues, abbeys, monasteries, mosques, and temples throughout the country to toll their bells for two minutes at 6:00 p.m. on the day of any execution. We recognize that many places of worship may not have bells. We are encouraging them to place a black drape over the outside door of the building and/or tie black ribbons around the trees and utility poles surrounding the church.

A very striking black & white, indoor-outdoor banner, about 4 feet by 6 feet, is available. This banner can be easily read from the street. The banner can be seen on our web site.

This is an ecumenical effort. A vast majority of religious congregations oppose the death penalty. My work is to contact these groups all around the country, explain the campaign to them, and ask them if they would consider joining this effort.

In just a few short months, we’ve seen this project spread quickly. We already have groups in 33 states participating in tolling the bells, including the National Shrine and St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Our hope is to have hundreds of participants in every state. We are convinced that it will take the combined voices of every death penalty group in this country to bring about a moratorium: the For Whom the Bells Tolls campaign is just one voice.

We’ve also received some touching stories from around the country. I was thrilled when Joleen Graske from Rosary High School, in Aurora, Illinois sent me an e-mail saying that her "Lifesaver Group" has been working against the death penalty as one of their important issues. She wanted me to know she thought the campaign was a wonderful idea. I was so touched by her message that I sent her one of our banners which is hung in the foyer of their school. The students also put black ribbons on the doors of all the administrative offices.

A student… heard the convent bells tolling while crossing the campus. A Sister happened to be walking by and the student asked her, "Did a Sister die?" The Sister responded, "No, but someone is being executed in this country today."

A student at St. Catharine College in Springfield, Kentucky heard the convent bells tolling while crossing the campus. A Sister happened to be walking by and the student asked her, "Did a Sister die?" The Sister responded, "No, but someone is being executed in this country today." Tolling the bells can often be a teaching moment.

This has made capital punishment more real to people as they walk down some street and hear the bells toll knowing someone is being executed in some state in this country. It has been a means of educating people that there is power in numbers, that we can change policies that are unjust.

One can easily get discouraged when only a few responses come back to thousands of letters. When this happens, I read my favorite poem by T.S. Eliot, in which he writes:

For most of us, this is the aim
Never here to be realized:
Who are only undefeated
Because we have gone on trying:
For us, there is only trying.
The rest is not our business.

Overall, though, the support that I have received from hundreds of people I never knew is overwhelming. Indeed, the campaign has taken on a life of its own. About 150 brochures were returned to my home that I never sent out — some wonderful person out there is copying my brochures and sending them all over the country! I wish I could thank that person. This type of support encourages me to continue and to not stop until the death penalty is part of our history.

It’s funny, in my "golden" years I thought I had retired from prison work! I hope I live to see the end of this obscene action by our government.

Dorothy Briggs, O.P., is a Dominican nun who has taught all levels of education, from grade school through university. She studied art in Florence, Italy for two years, which led to her designing an art semester abroad that included study & painting in Italy, France, and Greece. In 1978, she began a decade of full-time painting. Dorothy then began working in the prison system, and this ultimately let her to death penalty ministry and the For Whom the Bells Toll campaign.

For more information please email Dorothy at dotbop@juno.com or visit the For Whom the Bells Toll web site: http://www.curenational.org/~bells

On the web site you can sign up to receive a weekly email of upcoming scheduled executions from around the country.

Related Links:

There are several web sites that provide current information about pending executions, including:

www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/pendex.html

http://www.smu.edu/~deathpen/pending.html