Deacon Richard Rondeau and wife, Marge, say goodbye to ‘parishioners’ at
Correctional Mental Health Facility in Larned
Chaplain retires
from service in Larned after more than 15 years
By David Myers
The
inmates at the Correctional Mental Health Facility in Larned
recently said goodbye to two valued friends.
Deacon Richard Rondeau,
who has been holding the Liturgy of the Word and communion service at the
facility twice each month for the last 16 years, and his wife, Marge, who has
served beside him for the past six, made their last visit to the facility Aug.
28.
“I’m 84,” Deacon Rondeau
said, chuckling. “I think it’s time to slow down.”
Of course, the 100 mile round-trip from the
couples’ home in Chase didn’t help. In fact, if the couple lived in Larned, they said they may still be serving.
“Bishop Stan (Schlarman)
asked me to go to Belpre,” said Deacon Rondeau, who
was ordained a deacon in
Each of those incarcerated suffers some form
of mental illness, and each have been convicted of a
felony crime serious enough to land them in lock-up. Many of them start their
incarceration at the
“You’re well protected when you go in,”
Deacon Rondeau said. “We had to go through the
orientation and annual training. You’re up on everything before you go in; you
know what you can and can’t do, what to avoid. You catch on real quick. I don’t
recall having any trouble with the inmates. It’s a good ministry.”
Twice each month (once a week for the first
few years), the couple has heard the heavy clang of the inches thick door as
they made their way down the sparkling clean hall to the tiny chapel. There, a
handful of patients made their way in and sat quietly.
“Wisdom
is a gift; it’s a gift from God,” he told several patients during a 2005 visit, which
the SKR was invited to observe. “And any gift he gives is not
complicated. … The 10 Commandments are very simple. The words of Scripture are
simple. Nothing is impossible for those who love the Lord.
“Where is God?” he asked. “Is he only in the
Bible? What if you don’t have a Bible? Is he only in the Rosary? What if you
don’t have any of these things?”
Deacon Rondeau moved
to a small tape-recorder that has had its “record” mechanism removed as per
rules of the facility. He pressed “play” and a song belted out about God’s ever
present love. When the song was finished, Deacon Rondeau
looked around and said in a quiet voice, “It’s true. God is everywhere.”
After the service, Marge Rondeau
began a Bible study that focuses on the reading from Mark in which a man asks
Jesus for the answer to eternal life.
“What do you think this man was really
seeking from Jesus?” she asked prior to offering several possible answers, including
that the man was searching for meaning and fulfillment.
A brief discussion ensued; one man looked
down and said, “This ain’t no good
place [to find meaning]. It’s hard to do that in here.”
Another man, in a soft-spoken voice said,
“It’s hard to let go and let him take over. It’s not that I don’t trust him,
but part of my penance is to keep whatever pain I have.”
At the conclusion of the Bible study, Deacon Rondeau thanked them for coming and announced the date of
the next service, in two weeks. With a forlorn look, one man looked down and
said, “I wish you could come every day.”
Marge Rondeau, like
other deacons’ wives, went through the deaconate training process with her
husband. She had taught the RCIA program in
“If they wanted to ask questions, or were
thinking about becoming Catholic, I would take them into a room adjacent to the
chapel and listen to any questions they might have,” she said.
One of the highlight of their years of
service was taking one of the inmates through the RCIA process.
“Of course we couldn’t take him to the
bishop’s meetings with the candidates,” Deacon Rondeau
said, “but otherwise it was the same as we would have done in a parish. Some of
those guys have been in there 35 years. We have considered that our parish, and they have been our parishioners.”