‘I’m not your judge’ – Priest urged bomber McVeigh to submit to God

ATLANTA, Ga. (CNS) – When he ministered to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, Divine Word Father Charles Smith found that his faith, instilled in him by loving parents despite the childhood pain of discrimination, enabled him to be Christ's representative even as the inmate verbally assaulted him.

"When I first came in (to see him) I thought 'God is the owner of my life,' and I went to him and he threw his feces on me and called me all types of names and said, 'You can't be a priest because I've never seen a you-know-what as a priest,'" Father Smith said Aug. 5. "The devil was messin' with me."

He made the comments in a workshop he led during the 2006 Interregional African-American Catholic Evangelization Conference, which was held Aug. 4-6 in Atlanta.

Other priests and Southern Baptist ministers had previously worked -- unsuccessfully -- with the man found guilty of bombing the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995 and murdering the 168 people who died from the blast.

But Father Smith persevered in his ministry to McVeigh and the convicted murderer, who was a baptized Catholic, began to repent. "He did a lot of things, but in the end we had confession, reconciliation. In the end he asked me a question a lot of people ask me. He asked, 'Father Charles, can I still get to heaven?'"

The priest said he responded, "I am not your judge," but reminded McVeigh that he had told him, "You must submit your will and ask God for true forgiveness. ... You knew there were a lot of innocent people and children in that building."

McVeigh asked Father Smith to walk with him to his June 11, 2001, execution. "And the tears came running down. He was crying, I was crying because he did something that changed my life, too.

"As a man it's hard to ask but for him to ask for God's love and God's grace, that did something to me," he recalled, reflecting on how God's grace can transform even the worst evil.

As he walked with McVeigh, Father Smith remembered how, when he was a child, a porter in an Illinois train told his light-skinned parents that he couldn't serve their "wicked children," who had darker skin, and how Mississippi restaurants refused to serve them.

"I remember my mom and dad say, 'Just be patient. God is going to make a way. God is going to change you. God is going to rise, and you're going to be raised up. Your life will be redeemed and your people (will be).' ... I remembered all of that, being with Timothy McVeigh."

Father Smith and his brother, Divine Word Father Chester Smith, were the first black Catholic twins to be ordained priests. Both priests are in residence at St. Rita's Parish in Indianapolis.

In his workshop presentation, Father Charles Smith encouraged people to speak the truth in love and humility, never pressuring anyone to join the church and avoiding a superior attitude to anyone.

"I know if God can call two little black boys from the South Side of Chicago to live 16-17 years in an international religious order, to go around the world and to come back home to be with his people to teach and to preach and be free in the Spirit, I have nothing to fear," he said. "I'm not worried about what any man says. And my eyes are on the sparrow. God is with me, and I know God is with you and we shall be free forevermore."

He encouraged his audience to be bold but gentle as they speak up for what they believe is right, even if it's controversial. But "don't be afraid to use prophetic dialogue ... in teaching us how to live, ... in ministry, catechism, Bible study. Use what is there to speak the truth."

He prescribed for them "old-school spirituality" of morning, noon and evening private prayer, recalling how, when he was told as a youth that he couldn't learn and shouldn't go to college, his grandmother would say, "Child, you just pray and God will make a way." He went on to graduate from college as valedictorian.

"You are a child of God. If you give your all to God he'll give his all to you so we've got to be people of prayer," he said. "Pray for God's perfect timing in your life. He's going to give you the revelation that you need."

Now I'm starting to wonder. I searched 'mcveigh's last words' and this comment and AP story was posted on one site. No mention of Fr. Smith.

Below is a story published by The Associated Press the day after McVeigh's execution on Monday, June 11, 2001. Most Americans were probably well-versed on McVeigh's defiant attitude and profession of agnosticism in the weeks preceding his execution. I will let the following article speak for itself. We won't know until we enter eternity ourselves whether McVeigh did indeed accept Christ. But the point I've made before--and that I will make again and again until it is grasped--is that anything is possible with Christ (Phil. 4:13). Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.

By RICHARD N. OSTLING, AP Religion Writer

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh left one final mystery behind before his execution: Did he ask forgiveness for his sins while meeting a priest in private, even while refusing to express public remorse?

McVeigh was brought up as a Roman Catholic, and saw a priest in the final hours before he received a lethal injection Monday. There could hardly be a greater contrast between the words he issued upon his death and those of Roman Catholicism's so-called "last rites."

Rather than uttering last words, McVeigh released a handwritten copy of the poem "Invictus" with its defiant conclusion: "I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul."

But Monday morning about 4 a.m., before being taken to the death chamber at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., the prison warden noted that a Catholic chaplain was available if McVeigh wanted last rites. According to his attorneys, McVeigh said "Sure, send him in."

The chaplain, the Rev. Frank Roof, then met with McVeigh. Roof is declining media interview requests, the prison said Tuesday. The Indianapolis archdiocese issued no statement and referred all questions to the prison.

The Rev. Ron Ashmore, a priest who knew McVeigh and whose parish is near the prison, said it's his understanding following talks with a McVeigh attorney that McVeigh received the sacrament of anointing the sick but not the sacrament of penance. The McVeigh attorneys were not at their offices Tuesday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

Penance, also known as the sacrament of reconciliation, is the normal means through which Catholics ask God's forgiveness for their sins. However, forgiveness is also possible outside of penance under certain circumstances.

Both penance and anointing are involved in what Catholics commonly call the "last rites," though the church does not officially use that term and considers it confusing.

To Ashmore "the very request" for anointing "is a request for the Lord's mercy and forgiveness."

Ashmore, who exchanged letters with McVeigh in recent weeks, said the man who killed 168 people in the bombing six years ago "had reconciled himself to God and was beginning to express his sensitivity to the pain and suffering of the people of Oklahoma."

"He was remorseful for the death and the pain, but not for going to war against the United States," Ashmore said.
In Ashmore's understanding, the sacrament of anointing would absolve the recipient of his sins.

In anointing, normally given to seriously ill patients or those at the point of death, the priest places oil on the recipient's forehead and hands, saying "May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up."

Associated Press Writer Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis contributed to this story.

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