Seeing the Future of the Church in our Summer 2025 Interns
Every summer, CMN hosts interns through the Congregation of St. Joseph’s Internship in Leadership Through Ministry Program.
College or university students in this unique program gain hands-on work experience with CMN in addition to spiritual and leadership formation with the Congregation of St. Joseph. This includes one week of virtual orientation and weekly virtual training led by sisters of the Congregation of St. Joseph.
This past summer, CMN was delighted to work with Victor Caceres from Loyola Marymount University, Patricia Wright from Marquette University, and Samson Sudan from The Catholic University of America.
The interns took on a number of projects while gaining an insight into the office life of CMN. These projects included research on the death penalty and restorative justice and assistance with development of educational resources, advocacy alerts, and events; additionally, interns participated in regular staff meetings and trainings.
This Summer, our interns had three particularly special opportunities to engage in CMN’s mission and ministry: leading one of our monthly virtual prayer vigils, meeting with a capital defense attorney, and visiting the DC Jail to spend time with incarcerated individuals.
As a Catholic organization, we ground ourselves in prayer every first Friday of the month through a virtual prayer vigil. For our July vigil, our interns took the reins in coordinating the event and leading the prayers. Victor said, “Ultimately, this experience reminded me of the power of community and collective prayer in the face of injustice. It was moving to witness so many people come together in solidarity, and it deepened my understanding of how virtual spaces can still hold sacred, meaningful moments.”
Our interns also met with Larry Komp, the Capital Habeas Unit Chief for the Western District of Missouri’s Federal Defender Office. Larry shared about his background — including what influenced him to choose his current career — and answered all of our interns’ thoughtful questions. After the meeting with Larry, Victor took away some noteworthy points:
“He talked about accompaniment and how that is something that keeps him going, especially through rough patches. He doesn’t care that he is nationally recognized as one of the best lawyers or ranked in the top twenty; rather, he struggles to find himself worthy at times to be in the presence of his clients … I think that is a beautiful thing and goes to show his passion towards the work he does.”
Finally, before leaving the office for the end of the summer, our interns joined CMN staff for a visit to the DC Jail, arranged by The Douglass Project. The program facilitates meetings between incarcerated and free persons in an effort to de-stigmatize the challenges faced in prisons or jails.
Patricia had this to say about her experience in talking with some of the participants in the DC Jail’s Young Men Emerging Program:
“When the majority of the incarcerated population cannot access programs [like this] intended for their rehabilitation and reintegration, the system inadvertently perpetuates a cycle of recidivism rather than breaking it.”
Samson wrapped up his personal reflection of the visit by saying that “the entire experience showed me exactly what we were fighting for in CMN: restorative justice through healing rather than violence.”
We at CMN are very grateful for the time we had with Patricia, Samson, and Victor in the office. Through engaging with young people like them, we continue to have hope for the future in the death penalty movement and in the broader Church.
