(BALTIMORE, Md.) – Sister Helen Prejean, world-renowned social justice advocate and author of the book, Dead Man Walking, will deliver a virtual commencement address to about 600 Notre Dame of Maryland University graduates on May 22, 2022, at 11 a.m. at the Baltimore Convention Center. She will also receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. View a livestream of the in-person commencement.
Sister Prejean has been tireless in her efforts to end capital punishment and to influence the Catholic Church’s opposition to all executions. She began her advocacy work after witnessing executions in New Orleans in the early 1980s. She was determined to shine a light on capital punishment with her 1993 book, Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States. Her book sparked a national debate on capital punishment and inspired an Academy Award-winning movie, a play, and an opera.
She has made personal appeals to both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis, urging them to establish the Catholic Church’s position as unequivocally opposed to capital punishment. After meeting with Sister Prejean in August 2018, Pope Francis announced new language of the Catholic Catechism that declares the death penalty is inadmissible because it attacks the “inviolability and dignity of the person.”
Through the Ministry Against the Death Penalty, Sister Prejean continues to educate the public, campaign against the death penalty, counsel death row inmates, and work with murder victims’ families. She also published two additional books: The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions in 2004 and River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey in 2019.
Established in 1895, Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU) is a private, Catholic institution in Baltimore, Maryland, with the mission to educate leaders to transform the world. Notre Dame has been named one of the best "Regional Universities North" by U.S. News & World Report.
