A spiritual awakening

By Sharmane Adams |  The Catholic Compass  |  January/February 2022

For more than two decades, Dale and Susan Recinella have been involved in Prison Ministry in Florida. Dale, a Catholic Lay Chaplain on Florida's Death Row, and Susan, who offers ministry support to families awaiting the execution of a loved one, have brought the light of Christ to those who live in darkness.

On Sept. 28, 2021, Dale was honored by the Pontifical Academy for Life at the academy's general assembly in Rome, where he was awarded the first Guardian of Life Award. According to the Pontifical Academy for Life website, the award is intended for those who have "distinguished themselves in their private and pro­fessional lives for significant actions in support of the protection and promotion of human life." During his acceptance speech, Dale said he and Susan consider themselves as having many "baptismal godchildren" on death row. Often, Dale asks the inmates why they want to become Catholic and they tell him, "Because that's the Church that wants me." 

Dale, who holds a juris doctor degree from the Notre Dame University of Law School and a master's in theological studies from Ave Ma­ria University's Institute for Pastoral Theology, worked as a high-powered lawyer in the mid-'80s, handling Wall Street finance in Florida. Susan, a psychologist specializing in trauma and severely mentally ill patients, received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Nova University in Fort Lauderdale. 

During this time, the Recinellas were living the American dream - until a personal encounter with Christ changed everything. While on a business trip, Dale became very ill with a bacterial infection. He spent several days in the hospital as his major organs were shutting down. The couple had lost all hope. 

"My doctor came into the room and told Susan to sit down. He then told me to get my affairs in order," Dale said. The doctor proceeded to tell him that he would be dead by midnight. "When the doctor left, I kissed Susan goodbye. I still remember that like it was yesterday," he said, choking back tears. "Our pastor, Father Mike Foley from Good Shepherd Parish, gave me the sacrament of the anointing of the sick." 

Dale couldn't keep his eyes open and fell into a deep sleep. "At some point in the night, I opened my eyes and realized another person was standing in the room. The person in the room looked just like the Sacred Heart of Jesus picture that hung in my bedroom as a child. His heart was on fire, and he was glowing. He had tears coming from his eyes with both of his hands up. He said, 'Dale, what have you done with my gifts?' I said, 'What gifts?' He detailed my skill sets - all the blessings of my childhood, all the blessings of my cul­ture, the blessing of Catholic school, college." 

For Dale, the moment did not feel like a judgment, but the response in his mind was defensive. He thought about how well he had provided for his family through the years and how their future was financially secure. In reply, Jesus said, "What about all my people who are suffering?" Dale said, at that moment, he saw all of his previous choices as selfish. "I knew what he was calling me out for, and I looked at him, pointed and said, 'I promise you, give me another chance, and I will do it differently.' The experience ended," Dale said. 

The next memory Dale had was opening his eyes the next morning and realizing he wasn't dead. The fever and bacterium were gone - a recovery the doctors had not believed possible. Several years later, the bacteria infection was identified as Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eat­ing bacterium caused by deadly food poisoning. 

Heeding Jesus' call, Dale and Susan committed to liv­ing a more simplified life and serving those who suffer. The couple got involved in death-and-dying ministry. The Recinellas ministered to the homeless who had AIDS and cancer. They also ministered through Good News ministries in Frenchtown, a neighborhood in Tallahassee. 

In 1990, Dale was asked by a Department of Cor­rections chaplain to be a prayer partner to terminally ill inmates with cancer and AIDS at his prison. "What  I didn't have the courage to tell him was I had never been in a prison. I had financed huge prisons on Wall Street all over the country, but I never had a desire to go in one," Dale exclaimed. "I get claustrophobic on an elevator. There is no way I was going into a prison with­out any ability to get out without someone letting me out. I told him that God would not ask me to do that." 

He called Susan to let her know what had just hap­pened. To Dale's surprise, he came home to a family meeting with Susan and their children. Each one of them had their Bibles open to Matthew 25. As they quoted Jesus in the Gospel saying, ... naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me," Dale was convinced that God was asking him to do this. 

"When Susan and I felt that God was telling me to go into prisons and he called both of us to minister to people with a terminal illness, we were really seeing our lifestyle and our choices from a different vantage point," Dale said. 

Later, Dale was asked to minister to inmates in isola­tion and on death row. Dale realized he could not minister to death row inmates while practicing law. He decided to give up his practice but keep his law license active. 

Now a lay chaplain to 320 inmates on Florida's death row, the largest death row popula­tion in the United States, Dale has no regrets. Susan became involved in death-row ministry when she learned about the grief and suffering the families experienced while their loved ones were awaiting execution. 

"The most important thing I have learned about working with the families of those individuals on death row is that they were often much like me. I could identify with never having imagined that someone in your family would be involved in a murder and find themselves on death row. The families often come from the same Christian faith that I do, or the same type of parish, or the same socioeconomic level," Susan said. 

The Recinellas find strength in their ministry through daily prayer and devotion, the sacraments and spiritual direction from a trusted priest. 

"Susan and I told God, 'We'll show up. Give us the words, take dominion over our heart, keep any thoughts that would interfere with loving this person or giving them your love' - and God answers those prayers. It's Jesus in the Holy Spirit that transforms them on the inside. It's an inside job,"' Dale said.