Marian Sister’s ministry of hope at the Saunders County Jail
By Chris Legband, Wahoo Newspaper
WAHOO – Three times a week, Sister Veronica Volkmer goes to jail.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday she visits with inmates at the Saunders County Jail.
Eighty-three years young, Sister Veronica said her mission is to pray for the forgotten people.
“The Christian definition of love is to want what’s best for the other person,” Volkmer said. “When you look at these people you want what’s best for them and you are happy to be there.”
After many years of ministering to those incarcerated, Volkmer said it started when she went with a friend to a Bible study in the State Penitentiary.
Although she began this journey at the state level, she would eventually be led to Wahoo where she has been sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with those behind bars.
“After the Bible study I started going with Father Edward Tuchek in Lincoln when he would go into the prison,” she said. “My role was to present an instruction class so that the inmates had a better understanding of what he was presenting. I had an ID and could walk right in. I still have that ID.”
Sister Veronica remembers feeling uncomfortable that first time behind bars when she was working in another correctional facility.
“The only time I was concerned was when we didn’t meet in a private room. I went right into the jail where all of the inmates were,” she said. “Outside of my little group I was surrounded by 50 or 60 other men. It was monitored, but at first I felt a little uncomfortable.”
Sister Veronica was a teacher at Bishop Neumann High School for 11 years, starting in 1965. She spent the next 17 years teaching at Pius X High School in Lincoln before landing back in Wahoo.
“At 75 I said to myself... ‘the students need a younger person,’” she said with a smile. “I was sent to Wahoo to work in the jail ministry specifically.”
When Sister Veronica first started working with inmates in Saunders County, it was much different than it is today.
“In the beginning we had all of the men at once,” she said. “There could be up to 28 inmates in one room. They always wanted to chat amongst themselves at the very beginning but they were always respectful when I gave them the V sign which means to stop talking.”
It is in jail that inmates are separated from all that they ever knew or loved; men and women who struggle with feelings of despair and hopelessness, according to the nun.
“As they search for some sense of meaning and purpose for their lives, they wonder if anyone outside the walls of the prison knows or cares about their struggles,” she said. “Even in the darkest places there is light. I want to give them hope.”
Sister Veronica remembers a specific young man she met during her time ministering to prisoners.
“He was maybe only 20 years old and was facing 80 years of incarceration,” she said. “He was brilliant. I gave him some books to read and he understood things better than I did. I wanted to give him hope. No matter how much we fail, we have a promise of a future through Jesus Christ.”
Sister Veronica believes that the breakdown of the family is feeding the prisons.
“I could write a book on this,” she said. “A lot of these folks have not had intact homes. When children are not conceived and raised in love, it affects them for life. God’s plan is we are meant to be born in an intact home where the parents take responsibility and coach them with good morals.”
Saunders County Jail Director Brian Styskal said Sister Veronica does group visits as well as individual visits each week.
“I am appreciative of the all of the people who are willing to give up their time to come and meet with the inmates,” Styskal said. “We just hope those inmates that attend these things take the information seriously and really try to improve themselves with the guidance they receive from these volunteers.”
Sister Veronica said she will continue her work behind bars as long as her health allows.
“When you get to my age you never know, I’ll go as long as I have the energy,” she said. “At the convent we have a saying, ‘retirement is literally out of this world.’”
This item originally appeared in the Dec. 11, 2019 Wahoo Newspaper. It is reprinted with permission.
