April 21, 2017

"It took me 40 years to wake up. Looking back, I see why it took me so long. I was in a double bubble: first, the class bubble (middle-upper), and second, the cloistered bubble (away-from-society nun)."

— Sr. Helen Prejean, member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, from "The imperative to speak out," a reflection on her website earlier this year. Author of Dead Man Walking and a longtime activist against the death penalty, Prejean was born on this day in 1939.