This website is the home site of my criminal reformation apostolate; here you can find details about the Lampstand Foundation which I founded as a 501c (3) nonprofit corporation in Sacramento, California in 2003.

I also maintain a daily blog, The Catholic Eye, https://catholiceye.wordpress.com/

The work connected to the apostolate is listed under the home page categories which I will be expanding as needed.

Member only Publications

Membership information is in the Membership Info, Organization Overview category.

Annual Policy Primer Research Reports

St. Dismas Day Policy Primer #1: (Terms-Thesis-Policy, March 25, 2007) E-Report (Free to members)

Summary: A criminal, as we use the term, is a professional criminal. Our thesis is that it takes a reformed criminal to reform criminals, and the policy we suggest is that of providing financial support for a model reentry program managed by a reformed criminal.

St. Dismas Day Policy Primer #2: (Catholic Social Teaching & Capital Punishment: A Tradition of Support, March 25, 2008) E-Report (Free to members)

Summary: One of the strongest statements from Christ concerning capital punishment is Matthew 18:6. The magisterium of the Catholic Church supports the use of capital punishment. Those within the social science field informed by Catholic teaching, with professional knowledge of criminal justice issues and an understanding of how evil is expressed within the criminal world, embrace that tradition. Research clearly indicates that capital punishment deters crime and saves lives.

St. Dismas Day Policy Primer #3: (Justice, Theology, Criminal Transformation & Pope Pius XII, (March 25, 2009) E-Report (Free to members)

Summary: Justice informed by the theology of the Church, expressed through the social teaching, and responding to the call of Pope Pius XII, can transform criminals. These stated principles, when coupled with the work of the Church through its saints, through its Popes, and the entire history of two thousand years of standing against the gates of hell, is a concrete story of standing on principle, speaking truth to power, walking the talk, proclaiming the truth to man; that will resonate with the criminal—when presented by another who shares the depth of experience represented by the criminal/carceral world—like none other.

St. Dismas Day Policy Primer #4: (Unpacking the Lampstand Catholic Reentry Program Model, March 25, 2010) E-Report (Free to Members)

Summary: The purpose of the Lampstand reentry model program is to evangelize criminals–those who are not Catholic and those who are–bringing them the truths of the social teaching of the Church, from a transformed criminal who has become a deep-knowledge leader, as it will lead to the leaving of their criminal life and conversion to communal life. The truths of the Catholic Church trump the truths of the criminal/carceral world, and as important to the criminal–as it is to all men–is the drive to know the truth; which the criminal already thinks he knows and has been living–the truths of the world–taught and learned under the influence of the prince of the world.

St. Dismas Day Policy Primer #5: (The Prison Ministry, March 25, 2011) E-Report (Free to Members)

Summary: The Lampstand prison ministry is evangelization using words, and when the words are from the sanctified teaching of the Church, enhanced through the sacramental Word and congruent with the history of the Church, the seeds of transformation for prisoners due to be released and actual transformation of the prisoner serving natural life into a spiritual warrior or prison monk able to literally change prison life from the inside out, is possible, as all things are possible through Our Lord.

St. Dismas Day Policy Primer #6 (The Criminal’s Search for God: Sources, March 25, 2012) E-Report (Free to Members)

Summary: The collection of source books and the seminal ideas within them, that have played a large role in the development of my thinking—initially to deepen my criminality, but eventually became the soil from which my transformation grew—is a potential transformative tool that can be used as a guide for those criminals seeking to restructure their lives who are not yet prepared to embrace Catholic works.

St. Dismas Feast Day Policy Primer #7 (Catholicism, Communism & Criminal Reformation, March 25, 2013) E-Report (Free to Members)

Summary: In this paper we have focused—as we always have—on the internal development of criminals moving toward reformation, whether consciously or unconsciously, with a specific focus on the influence Communism (often masquerading among Catholics as Liberation Theology) has had on the academy and criminal justice professionals, and by extension, many criminals.

St. Dismas Feast Day Policy Primer #8 (Women in the Church, Teilhard de Chardin, & Criminal Reformation, March 25, 2014) E-Report (Free to Members)

Summary: It is so appropriate that today, March 25, is the day in 1347, that St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church, was born; a woman clearly capable of being a priest, cardinal or pope; and it is also the feast day of St. Dismas, as well as the Annunciation of the Lord; a great day to release this policy primer on women in the Church.

St. Dismas Feast Day Policy Primer #9 (Judaism, Knights Templar, & Criminal Reformation, March 25, 2015) E-Report (Free to Members)

Summary: This is a paper calling on transformed professional criminals—excluding rapists, pedophiles and informers—who have done time in maximum security prisons, who have gained graduate degrees from the Academy and an in-depth knowledge of Catholic Social Teaching, to take to the city streets and country byways of this world to defend, spiritually and martially, Catholics being persecuted, and thus to evangelize in the toughest and most dangerous mission fields they can find; for the Church needs you, the People of God need you, and you need to do this for you are among the few who can do this without fear; for who can remain fearful who has survived and thrived on the main yards of America’s maximum security prisons.

Lampstand Leadership Resources

#1 Resources for Leaders of Criminal Transformation Programs (An annotated listing of professional associations, books, journals, newspapers, websites, reports and other resources for grassroots leaders.) E-Booklet, 21 Pages, (Free to members)

#2 A Catholic Grassroots Organization Model (A workbook about a model reentry community program, staffed by one transformed criminal, helping 60-70 reentering prisoners annually on an annual budget of $70,000.00) E-Booklet, 19 Pages, (Free to members)

#3 Annotated Catholic/Criminal Justice Bibliography (A resource that can help guide study, research, and reference around the issues that intersect with Catholicism and criminal justice.) E-Booklet, 20 Pages, (Free to members)

#4 Lampstand Leader’s Circle: Definitions, Experiential Requirements, Daily Practice, & Resources (A workbook defining the professional criminals our work is directed to, their life benchmarks, and the daily practice necessary to become a member of the Lampstand Leader’s Circle. E-Booklet, 16 Pages, (Free to members)

#5 Praying the Rosary for the Criminal (A resource that is useful for penitential criminals who pray the rosary, incorporating prayers and brief histories of five great penitential criminal saints: St. Mary Magdalen, St. Dismas, St. Pope Callistus, St. Mary of Egypt, & St. Paul Hanh.) E-Booklet, 31 Pages, (Free to Members)

Lampstand Periodic Monographs

Lampstand Monograph #1: (Capital Punishment & Matthew 18:6) May 23, 2008, E-Paper (Free to members)

Abstract: Matthew 18:6 is perhaps the clearest expression of support for capital punishment spoken by Christ. The Catholic & Protestant commentaries about this verse and the teaching of the entire chapter reveal the vigorous sanctions – capital punishment and banishment – Christ taught as applying to the members of the church community who violate its teachings. Matthew 18 has long been acknowledged as a Discourse on the Church, but not enough attention has been devoted to its support for capital punishment; and the historic support of the magisterium for capital punishment, and the corrosive direction taken by some segments of Catholic leadership in the United States to abolish capital punishment, all of which are the subject of this monograph.

Lampstand Monograph #2: (The Way of the Saints & Doing Life) July 23, 2013, E-Paper (Free to members)

Abstract: Professional criminals who are serving life sentences in maximum security prisons and who will never be released from prison under any conditions, have an opportunity, though in only a very few cases will it actualize, to trod the path to sainthood. Becoming a true soldier of Christ, fighting to gain entry to heaven, fighting the evil one; this is a call of substance, depth, and honor, which penitential professional criminals imprisoned for life can respond to if the teaching and history of the Church is presented with potency by deeply orthodox Catholics. An unusual cultural aspect of criminal/carceral world culture is the power and influence the elder exerts—almost tribal like in its potency—due to the simple fact that no criminal/prisoner hardly ever retires due to age. I have seen men well into their seventies and eighties who retain the physicality and intellectual heft of men decades younger. The benefits to the criminal/carceral world from the intercessory abilities of a prison saint would be immeasurable.