Kolbe Prison Ministries of the Salina Diocese
Our Ministry
We are the Kolbe Prison Ministries of the Salina, Kansas, Diocese. Kolbe Prison Ministries is based in Dallas, Texas, and is named after Saint Maximilian Kolbe who was martyred in a German concentration camp during World War II. He is the patron Saint of prisoners.
Our mission is to share the love of Jesus Christ with those in prison, and to teach the fullness of the truth of the Catholic Church to the incarcerated here in Kansas.
We carry out this mission by presenting a three-day retreat within the prison followed by ongoing Catholic formation.
Each prison is served by local Catholic volunteers who bring into the prisons training materials, literature, and videos with the purpose of educating inmates about the Catholic faith and answering those who have shown an interest in learning more about the Catholic faith after attending a retreat.
This ministry is authorized in the Diocese of Salina, Kansas, by Bishop Gerald Vincke.
Who are we?
We are fellow parishioners, both men and women, who have a calling to reach out to those in prison, forgotten by society.
The Kolbe Prison Ministries began in Texas and arose out of retreats such as ACTS and Cursillo. Our experience shows us that the incarcerated feel abandoned by family, friends, and their faith. Prisons are the devil’s playground leading them to an eternity in hell. We are led by God’s call through the corporal works of mercy to visit those imprisoned, through Kolbe Prison Ministries. We brought Kolbe Prison Ministries to Kansas in 2024, and Bishop Vincke approved our work in early 2025. Since that time, we have led two retreats, one at Ellsworth Correctional Facility, and a second at Norton Correctional Facility, both in 2025.
The retreats take place in the prison, and last three days. The retreats teach the basics of Catholic spirituality. The efforts of the Holy Spirit in these retreats enriches and reinvigorates the spiritual lives of the incarcerated, and frequently leads to an increase—a doubling in some instance—of the numbers in OCIA classes. Many fallen away Catholics also return to the Church. Many of the inmates open their hearts to the word of God and begin to make positive changes in their lives.
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest”. Lk 10:2
How can I support your work?
First and most important, you can support our work through your prayer! Satan is alive and well in the prison environment. You can help support our work through your constant prayer for those men and women in prisons who reach out each and every day for salvation. You can pray for the innumerable volunteers who work in prisons to bring souls to Christ. And you can pray for the retreat volunteers who spend three days in retreat with prisoners, teaching them the truth of the Catholic faith. Pray also for the victims of criminal acts, for their families, for those that are locked away, for those that volunteer to visit and work within the prisons. We also and we ask that you pray for the men and women in our Ministry. Pray for the offenders that they put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, knowing that they can be forgiven for their mistakes and live the will of the Father.
Sign up to be on our prayer team here. Second, each year we run two retreats in Salina prisons, Ellsworth Correctional Facility, and Norton Correctional Facility. If you want to be a member of our volunteer team, please let us know. Experience in prison ministry, or experience with ACTS and Crusillo retreats in parish environments is a plus, but not necessary. We will train you in the Kolbe Prison Ministry retreat format. If you want to volunteer click here. Or just find out more information about our retreats, click here.
Lastly, we run these retreats as cost-effectively as we can, but they are NOT free. So, we need your financial support. We have NO paid staff, and a very small part of our support is devoted to overhead, nearly 100% of your donations are devoted to our activities in the prisons, and goods (bibles, catechisms, other books and paper goods) and services (our web presence) that directly support our prison retreats. If you can see your way to a small donation, please contribute here.