Catholic Schools Week: Kairos prison ministry makes impact on Watterson teacher

Math teacher Paul Petrella has been a regular team member for Kairos retreats for seniors at Columbus Bishop Watterson High School and last September took a leap into a different type of retreat ministry.

He spent four days at the North Central Correctional Institution in Marion as one of 42 volunteers on a Kairos retreat for 42 inmates.

Because it was his first Kairos prison retreat, he was assigned as a table servant for a group of six men.

“The first guy I met was in there for murder,” Petrella said. “The first night every volunteer gets connected with an inmate to welcome them. It was like God sent this guy to me.

“He was about 6 foot 4 and like 260 pounds, and I said to him that he had to have played football, and that generated the conversation because he had played in college.

“He was the nicest guy I ever met. I could tell he already knew Christ, I could tell he was a believer. Just knowing that it’s so hopeless in there, I could see that he really relied on his faith.”

Petrella’s assignment was to serve the attendees drinks and meals, clean up and tend to whatever was needed at the table of six prisoners.

“They didn’t want to be served,” he said. “They’re not comfortable with it. They’re in there for all of these years and they have to survive on their own, so this was an adjustment for them. Just interacting with these guys and serving them I had a couple of guys open up to me and told me things I don’t think they would have told me if I hadn’t been a servant.”

Petrella said one of the prisoners was on year 13 of a 15-year sentence and he had been trying to get into a Kairos retreat for the past eight years.

“He finally got in,” Petrella said. “It shows you the power of the program that he still wanted to attend after eight years of trying.

“Of the six men at my table, one rededicated his life to Christ and two gave over their lives to Christ. God knows their hearts. I think there was true transformation. 

“One guy said he tried to kill himself before prison and was feeling that way in prison. He decided he was going to attend Kairos and check it out, and he’s one of the guys who gave his life over the Christ. How powerful is that?”

Petrella said they’ve had two reunions already and the former football player is the first person he goes to see, but not just to talk football. 

“He’s a Bengals fan and I’m a Browns fan,” Petrella said with a smile.

“The coolest thing is to go back and see these guys again. All of them said they felt like the people who came in from the outside showed them real love. Many of them grew up without parents or a parent who was terrible to them. We didn’t want anything from them, just to show them God’s love.”

Petrella’s attendance at the Kairos prison reunions has dropped off until the end of the college wrestling season. His two youngest children, twin boys Joey and Michael, wrestle for Baldwin Wallace University, their father’s alma mater. Michael won the 2023 Division III national championship at 149 pounds and Joey was a national qualifier. Petrella himself was a national champion for Baldwin Wallace at 177 pounds.

Now in his 45th year teaching with the last seven at Bishop Watterson, Petrella also served as Columbus Bishop Hartley High School’s head wrestling coach from 2001 to 2004 and 2007 to 2010. He is currently helping coach the Hartley youth program in which a grandson, Miles, is participating. Petrella’s oldest of six children, Kevin, has been the head coach at Hartley since 2010 with his dad serving as an assistant until recently.

“What I found dealing with kids – and my wife has helped me with this – is to keep it simple,” he said. “Don’t complicate the message in what you’re trying to do because we can be our own worst enemy by making too hard for someone to understand.

“I’ve always enjoyed Kairos here at Watterson because they’re powerful. We tell kids we can’t tell you about Kairos, you just have to experience it. The prison Kairos was the same in that respect but even more powerful. 

“I think why God’s put me into this position is to build relationships with young people and Kairos is building relationships with young or old. I wasn’t always good at that, trust me. I had a rough start in teaching because I didn’t always understand what it took. I feel that building relationships is what has given me an in to sharing the Gospel with them. If you don’t have a relationship with someone, they won’t be open to it.”

Petrella’s message to the little wrestlers he coaches and the high school students he works with is simple.

“The first thing I tell the little ones is ‘I love you and I do the things I do because I love you,’” he said. “’When I get on you, it’s because I love you, and when I encourage you, too.’ I try to convey that message to the high school students as well.

“Most kids, even the ones I have to give a hard time to get them going in the right direction, they know I care. That’s the Holy Spirit working.”