Camerado, I Give You My Hand: How a Powerful Lawyer-Turned-Priest Is Changing the Lives of Men Behind Bars

Q&A with Maura Poston Zagrans

Q. What is the goal of the book?

A. In showing how one man can make a difference in even the most hopeless of places, Camerado, I Give You My Hand inspires, dispels popular myths about the criminal justice system, and spotlights a holistic approach to prison reform.

Q. What is the significance of the title?

A. The title comes from the last stanza in Walt Whitman s poem Song of the Open Road, which appears in his Leaves of Grass:

Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?

Camerado is a made-up word that describes a relationship philosophy that is based on the core concepts of mutual respect and partnership.

Q. Upon hearing about Fr. Dave and his journey from lawyer to priest, you felt a very strong call to tell share his story in the form of a book. Do you think it was providential that your lives intersected when they did?

A. The fact that I heard about Father Dave when I did is, in my opinion, so providential it stands as compelling proof of God s active involvement in my own little life. Meeting Father Dave was no accident nor was it sheer luck. This book was meant to be.

Q. You spent three years getting to know Father Dave. During that time, what was the most surprising thing you learned about him?

A. More than three years after beginning to work on my book, I am still being surprised by things I learn about Father Dave as well as things I learn from Father Dave; these stories surprise me not in nature but in sheer number.

I learned from our very first meeting to expect the unexpected. In June 2010, after completing a three-hour-long breakfast meeting, we left the Morris Inn on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Outside the door, our paths crossed with internationally recognized President Emeritus Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. Father Hesburgh paused to talk with Father Dave, inquiring about a foreign ambassadorship that Father Dave had been offered. He told Dave that he had written a personal recommendation for the position. Father Dave expressed warm gratitude, then told Father Hesburgh that he loved the work he was doing in the prisons too much to leave it. "Frankly, Father Ted, I can t imagine abandoning my guys ," he said.

Another moment that made me shake my head is when I found out that this high school athlete, a golfer who once carried an eleven handicap, an avid tennis and basketball player and serious runner had also been a member of a crew that won a Potomac Frostbite National Championship in the Mobjack class. Everything he does, he does well.

I had known Father Dave for quite some time before I learned about a Peace Mission in the Holy Land he completed with Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas Gandhi. I never knew Dave had worked side-by-side with President Jimmy Carter on Habitat for Humanity projects until I saw a photo of the two of them, standing atop a new roof, hammers and nails in their hands.

But the most surprising thing I learned about Father Dave is that he really does not miss Barbara, the one and only love of his life who died of cancer after 45 years of marriage. He says he does not miss her because she is still with him. He says he feels her presence at his shoulder every day and that he relies on her gentle leadership, constant presence, and selfless assistance even more now than he did when she was alive.

Q. Your work on this book took you behind the razor wire and into maximum, medium, and minimum-security facilities. Did you ever feel like your life was at risk? Did it change the way you view the criminal justice system?

A. I never felt at risk because I was with Father Dave. Going behind razor wire changed the way I view the criminal justice system because I learned, as did Father Dave, that the word "rehabilitation" is a misnomer that implies that these people were habilitated in the first place. Most of the two million Americans who are presently imprisoned need treatment--for substance abuse, poverty, poor education, and mental disorders--rather than punishment.

Q. Could you tell us a bit about Fr. Dave’s connection to Martin Luther King Jr. and why it is significant that the book is being released the day before the 50th anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech?

A. In the early 1960s, in Washington, D.C., the course of Father Dave s life was changed by Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke to a select group of government leaders about the need to work for equality in our society. In the 1970s, when Dave was dean of the Notre Dame Law School, he was asked to re-enact the famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which had been delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. When Dean Link assumed the lectern at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame, he was astonished to spot MLK Sr. ("Daddy" King), the guest of President Hesburgh, sitting in the front pew.

On this 50 year anniversary of the "I Have a Dream” speech, Father Dave is continuing the work of the great civil rights leader. Like King, Father Dave helps us to confront and understand what King referred to as the "fierce urgency of now."

Q. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

A. I am profoundly proud that I can introduce to my readers someone who is truly humble, honorable, respectful, and admiring of his wife and of everyone, especially the Holy Spirit, who has helped him along the way. That he is a beacon of believability makes him a powerful force for change.