Author of 'Dead Man Walking' to Deliver Commencement Address

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States," will deliver the 39th Commencement address to over 500 graduates of Cabrini College and their guests on Saturday, May 16, at 10 a.m. on the grounds of the Cabrini Mansion.

Sister Helen, who will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, will be addressing the largest graduating class in Cabrini College's history.

A film based on her "New York Times" Best Seller starred Susan Sarandon, playing the part of Sister Helen, and Sean Penn, playing the part o Matt Poncelet, a death row inmate. Sarandon wo the Oscar for best actress in 1996.

A lifelong resident of Louisiana, Sister Helen joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille in 1957. In keeping with the order's mission to "heal a world so in need of reconciliation," Sister Helen moved into the St. Thomas Housing Project in New Orleans in the 1980's.

During this time, she was asked to be a pen-pal to a man on death row. She became aware of the process by which state executions are carried out and entered prison ministry where she counseled death row inmates in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. She accompanied five men to execution and witnessed their deaths. nored at the ceremony with be Cabri ard of Trustee J. Bradley McManus w an honorary Doctor of Humane Le nus earned national ace • a decorated World War II veteran who, as one of 25 pilots and crew members flying over Greenland, landed a P-38 fighter plane bravely in what has been called the largest US Army Air Corps crash landing of the War. Since 1945, he has served as CEO of several corporations and partnerships which are involved in developing residential and commercial properties in the Metropolitan Philadelphia area.

Since then, she has devoted her energies to educating the public about the death penalty by lecturing, organizing and writing.

She continues her ministry to death row inmates and has helped found "Survive," a victims' advocacy group in New Orleans. She is also writing a book about women's struggles for equality in the Roman Catho lie C!UJ.it:GB-;-ttntt--natS-feet~l'&--IHd-Qj~:Jlill F research.

3/16, Russia

A "diversionary group's" bomb exploded in a busy market in southern Russia, killing at least 62 people while injuring scores more.

After a group of international monitors left Kosovo, Yugoslav security forces deployed new assaults on rebel headquarters, forcing thousands of civilians from their homes after a warning by President Clinton was ignored.