John Kelly Samaritan

Foreign traveler helps mugged stranger after 'holy' men pass him by. John Kelly, boys' high school teacher for fifteen years and Catholic priest for twenty-five, chafed under a Church bureaucracy. He felt his Church was more interested in dogma and damnation, internal politics and processions, than in saving derelicts. John's passion and career have been helping others. His work with troubled youth is legendary. John is known and loved in the San Francisco Bay area. He built the Samaritan House organization mostly with private and foundation dollars and volunteers galore. They feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, and care for the sick, like the proverbial Good Samaritan. John now spends many days in prison, but is free to leave. At San Quentin State Prison he counsels and befriends society's dregs and discards - mostly lifers and misfits who have committed heinous crimes. He is loved by his inmate "buddies." One thirty-year prisoner in for murder stuck with John through release and parole. His and two other tragic stories of fall and redemption are included; they say volumes about a broken system and a lot about John. Many guards, judges, district attorneys and ordinary citizens disagree with John and believe the very inmates John befriends should be locked up and forgotten. But John argues strongly for forgiveness and rehabilitation. John walks the Jesus talk. His successes have changed many minds and might change yours.