When Mary Hennig heard the words of Jesus commanding people to “love one another,” she took them to heart.
“There is nothing more than loving,” said the 95 year-old “We only have two rights. One is to love and the other is to forgive.”
That is why if you stopped by her house off Allen Road, you might find her sitting at her desk with pen in hand and a piece of paper writing an encouraging letter to one of the seven inmates she currently corresponds with, sitting on death row or serving a life sentence at various prisons across the United States.
Because of her decades of commitment to prison ministry, Hennig was recently awarded the Purple Ribbon Peace Award by the Pax Christi, Catholic organization which works to bring peace and justice locally, nationally and globally by the use of non-violent means.
“Well, I thought they reached in the bottom of the barrel to get my name. I never thought I did anything spectacular. It was just kind of funny that somebody decided that I needed (this award) so I decided I better graciously accept it,” Hennig said. “It isn’t my thing to be the center of attention. I just feel that this is where God wants me to be, so I will continue as long as I can move my fingers and write.”
Hennig was born in Ann Arbor in 1920, the fourth of five children born to devout Catholic parents, her mother being a convert. At age 2, her family moved to Lake Orion, where the Ku Klux Klan was very active.
“When we moved to Lake Orion the Ku Klux Klan was very prominent. We were right on Paint Creek Road and they burnt some crosses across there,” Hennig explained. “That was way back when I was just 2 years-old, so that was a long time ago.”
Hennig married her husband Ted in 1939. They remained in Lake Orion until moving to Pontiac for eight years and then making the move to Independence Township in 1954. She and Ted had nine children.
“I was pregnant an awful lot, and not really happy about either,” she said with a laugh. “They were all loved, but never planned.”
In 1960, Hennig became actively involved in St. Daniel’s Parish, which is where her interest in prison ministry began. She recalls getting an invite from the late Arlene Moore, who served as the parish’s Christian service coordinator, to go visit women at Camp Gilman, a low-security prison for women that was located off White Lake Road.
“Many of these women were mothers of children left to be cared for by others. I came away thinking that these women were just like I was. They did wrong. I do wrong, only their wrong was illegal. They were worried about their children just as I was worried about mine,” she explained. “In the words of Pope Francis, who was asked why he visited those in prison, he said, ‘Every time I go to prison, I ask myself, why them and not me?’ His words express my feelings, also.”
With her interest sparked, Hennig believed God had a hand in her noticing an ad placed in a local paper where she could subscribe to the Death Row Forum. After sending her $12 subscription in, she received a thank-you letter from Jerry Bevins, co-author of the Death Row Forum. It was this “thank-you” letter that led Hennig to correspond with Bevins and others “on the row.” She was faithful in her writing to Bevins and visited him at least 25 times before his execution by the State of Indiana in 2001.
Hennig also believes the prison system has become one about revenge for one’s wrongdoings instead of reform.
“Jesus wasn’t about revenge, she said. “He said to the prostitute ‘Go and sin no more.’”
Since Bevins death, Hennig has had other inmates to correspond with “shoot out” at her. Her most recent being a prison in New York, Hennig said a friend had given her an article printed from the internet that was written by a man who was in solitary confinement.
“The title of it was ‘The loneliest place in the world.’ When I got to the bottom the last paragraph said ‘Damn, the mailman just went by again and I didn’t get anything,’” she said. “That went to my heart and I wrote to him and we’ve had a correspondence for some time.”
While some correspondents stop writing, Hennig said she still makes it a point to send a letter out on their birthdays.
“I made a promise to myself that once I started to writing to them, I wouldn’t desert them because they are deserted enough without someone else doing it to them,” she added.
Her hope is that other people would be inspired to start writing prisoners.
“It’s such a simple thing, just take one on and write to them,” she said.
Beside just prison ministry, Hennig has been a strong advocate of peace in all areas of American life. She has protested against the School of the Americas in Georgia where Central and South American soldiers were trained to fight, kidnap and take over the land of the native tribes; she has protested the making of military weapons, protested the unfair treatment of LGBT persons, as well as racism.
As far as the prison ministry goes, Hennig described it as a “joyful journey, but one of sadness.”
“My deepest sorrow is losing someone murdered by the state. When they are hurting – I hurt. When I can help with a letter to the authorities or a phone call – I help. I do feel with certainty that they are all held closely in the arms of God. I do believe that God has a special love for prisoners.”