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Your Catholic Neighbor: Mitch Vitkovitch
Joyce Coronel/CATHOLIC SUN
Mitch Vitkovitch talks about his many years of service bringing hope to those incarcerated in Arizona’s prison system.
For 26 years, St. Luke’s parishioner brings hope, faith to prison inmates
By Joyce Coronel, The Catholic Sun
March 6, 2008
St. Luke’s parishioner and retired high school teacher Mitch Vitkovitch was a 15-year-old baseball player when he decided he never wanted to set foot in a prison ever again. Little did he know God had other plans for him.
When his team’s bus broke down on the road to Douglas, it was a truck from the state prison that came to the boys’ rescue, giving them a ride back to the corrections facility while repairs were made.
While there, the team had a tour of the facility and saw the electric chair and nooses used in executions. Years later, Vitkovitch still recalls the incident as though it happened yesterday.
After high school he joined the Air Force, then married and had five children. Though his primary job was teaching high school social studies, Vitkovitch held as many as four jobs at one time during a four-year stretch in order to provide for his family.
For six years, he and his wife ran the RCIA program for St. Luke’s, with as many as 40 people attending the meetings at their home. After making his Cursillo, he became so deeply involved in the movement he took part in their leadership training.
In 1981 a friend, Deacon Tom Swisher, challenged Vitkovitch to re-consider his moratorium on prison visits.
“He said, ‘You’re my son’s godfather. We’re starting a prison ministry and I want you to go with us.’ I said, ‘Tom, I’ll think it over, but I know what the answer will be.’”
Now, after more than 26 years in prison ministry, Vitkovitch is glad he accepted the challenge. A lay Claretian, he’s a man who lives to bring hope to men many in society have forgotten and some whom even despise.
“Some of them don’t get visitors other than us. One guy never even got a postcard from his parents in seven years. They’re lonely, forgotten, lost and alienated. They’re looking for forgiveness, and if we don’t bring it to them they’re lost souls forever,” Vitkovitch said.
The prison ministry Vitkovitch engages in has been reaching these lost souls with a renewal program that emphasizes the reality of God’s love. The prisoners themselves are often the best recruiters, finding candidates for conversion and bringing them to the presentations Vitkovitch’s group conducts. One of the incarcerated men, Pedro, is allowed to give some of the talks.
“He talks to the young guys. He’s been in at least 35 years and he tells them, ‘You may think you’re the toughest guy in the world, but they’ll break you here, they have the means to break anybody they want.’”
Vitkovitch said when his group first visited the prison they promised inmates that if they would go through the renewal they’d have monthly follow-ups for a year. The men were skeptical at first because some famous televangelists had promised to return and never did.
“Their eyes light up when you walk in. A lot of programs are held, and they say ‘we’ll be back,’ but they never do. After 26 years, we’re still going back.”
How does your faith affect your work?
“If you don’t walk the walk, you shouldn’t talk the talk.” That puts it pretty simply. If I can’t live what I talk, then I shouldn’t be doing it. I learned patience and humility from working in the prison. You drive all the way down there and [if] they’re on lockdown you can’t go in.
What do you love most about your ministry?
The greatest thing is when you see people who have committed various levels of crime against humanity who are willing to change their life. I have seen so many. We’ve had over 7,000 men and women who have been through this renewal. When you see them and get correspondence from them they say, “You changed my whole life. Today I’m married and I have a family, a job and two cars.”
What do you like most about being Catholic?
It is the one and only true faith that Jesus brought to us. I have experienced a lot of beautiful things… you have a sacrament you can receive every day, because we believe it is the Body and Blood of Christ we receive in us.
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