Former law dean is now a prison chaplain; upcoming book chronicles his work
A former law dean is now pursuing a higher calling.
David Link, who served for 24 years as dean of Notre Dame Law School, is a “priest with a passion for prison ministry,” the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram reports.
Link was ordained as a Catholic priest in 2008 after the death of his wife of 45 years, according to a 2009 profile by the Inns of Court. Now he is ministering to imprisoned criminals in Indiana.
An Elyria, Ohio, author, Maura Zagrans, has written a book about Link that is scheduled for release in August. The book title, Camerado, I Give You My Hand, refers to the poem “Song of the Open Road” by Walt Whitman.
Zagrans shadowed Link during his prison visits and writes about the inmates he counsels. “I talked to so many people,” Zagrans tells the Chronicle-Telegram. “And I was repeatedly blown away by Father Dave. Even if they never get out of prison, he tells each one of them they can be better people. He tells them they matter. I don’t think a lot of these men have ever heard that before in their lives—to hear someone say they mattered.”
