Prison Angel

Prison Angel: Mother Antonia's Journey from Beverly Hills to a Life of Service in a Mexican Jail by Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan, 225 pages

Mary Clarke had her share of ups and downs in her life.  Her father struggled to make ends meet in the Great Depression, but founded a stationary company in time for World War II, becoming successful enough that the family moved into a mansion in Beverly Hills.  Wealth could not buy happiness, of course, and in adulthood Mary struggled through two failed marriages.  Increasingly, she became involved with charitable work, and it was there that she found her vocation.  At the age of 50 she sold her house, donned a homemade habit, and began full-time work at La Mesa prison outside Tijuana, Mexico.  A year later she moved into the prison permanently, living in a cell, ministering to the prisoners, and acting as a mediator between the inmates and authorities.  Working tirelessly to improve living conditions, promote peace, and inspire others to repent and forgive, she became known to guards and prisoners alike as "La Mama".

The authors make much out of Mother Antonia's two divorces in order to create space between her and the Church, despite the close cooperation between her and the local bishops in both San Diego and Tijuana and the personal blessing of St John Paul II.  They follow the common journalistic practice of casting "church rules" as arbitrary limits that are inherently oppressive.  At times the book, in the process of humanizing the convicts at La Mesa, comes perilously close to sanitizing them, a mistake which diminishes the true nature of Mother Antonia's work, casting her as a social worker in a habit rather than a minister of repentance and reconciliation.  In the end, however, the authors' literary skill and the force of their subject's personality overcome these handicaps to present a lively portrait of a woman who heard God's call late in life, but responded to it with her whole heart.