John “Jack” Francis Sullivan Jr. (Photo courtesy of the Sullivan Family)
‘Uncle Jack’ left an endearing mark on the hearts of Hawaii’s women inmates
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
“Do you know anybody else like him?” asked Jaqueline Barney, prison minister at St. John Vianney Parish in Kailua. It was more an exclamation than a question.
To be sure, there was no one like John “Jack” Francis Sullivan Jr. He was many, many things to many, many people, particularly in his role as “Mr. Soccer” for his tireless promotion of that sport in Hawaii.
But to a special group of people, he was Uncle Jack.
They are the inmates of the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua where he was respected and deeply loved. And now sorely missed. Sullivan died in a Kaneohe care home on May 12 at age 86.
It was about 10 years ago that Sullivan approached Barney after Mass in the St. John Vianney Parish parking lot and asked if he could join her in her ministry to the inmates of the Women’s Community Correctional Center. It was hardly a new ministry for Sullivan. He had done it for decades, but times had changed and there was training to catch up on.
“It was a passion he had,” Barney said. “He always wanted the women to have a better life.”
It might seem that a Boston-bred Irishman would be out of place in a local place of incarceration. Barney tried to explain the Sullivan charm.
With a leprechaun’s twinkle in his eye he would introduce himself to the women by asking, “Eh, what school you go?” the classic local icebreaker delivered in Boston-accented pidgin.
His knowledge of Hawaii schools, school sports, team names and team mascots amazed and disarmed the inmates, Barney said.
The woman inmates all have a defensive “wall,” she said. “Jack had a way to break that down. He worked on remembering every face.”
Sullivan’s attention “warmed their hearts.”
“To these women he was Uncle Jack, Pastor Jack, Father Jack,” she said. “He taught them how to give to each other, even if it is only a smile.”
“‘Give them a smile,’ he would say. It doesn’t cost you anything and a smile can change you in a minute from being down to being happy.”
“So many of them never had the opportunity to grow,” Barney said. “Jack never gave up on them.”
“He was a loving man, a caring man, a devoted person,” she said. “The more in trouble you were, the more he would reach out. He would not give up.”
Holiday hamburgers
Sullivan and retired Deacon Walter Yoshimitsu, also of St. John Vianney, go way back in prison ministry at both the youth and woman facilities. The heart of their ministry was the weekly prayer service, but, as the deacon recalled, Sullivan always pushed for more, like a monthly Mass, like soccer games in the gym.
At Christmastime, Yoshimitsu remembers, he would go to McDonalds and buy hamburgers for all of the youth inmates and then, dressed as Santa, hand them out.
Yoshimitsu said that holiday hamburgers led to the Office for Social Ministry’s annual Star Light Star Bright Christmas party for the women and their children.
“The woman really loved him,” he said. “He always had a story to tell and a joke. He was a good storyteller.”
Yoshimitsu said that, for people as dedicated as Sullivan, one would normally find a personal reason for their devotion, as a motive for their commitment.
“But I don’t know of any such connection for Jack,” Yoshimitsu said. “He just cared out of love for the women inmates. He just thought that the women needed to be ministered to.”
Paulette Vernay, program coordinator for the diocesan prison ministry, said Sullivan was a “fatherly figure for many of the “girls” at WCCC.
“He watched them grow up and knew their stories of suffering. His heart was so big and full of compassion. They knew that when they were in trouble, Uncle Jack was always there to help them out.”
Father Thomas Gross, former pastor of St. John Vianney, said “the women deeply appreciated the fact that he regularly brought the Eucharist to them and shared his faith with them.”
“Jack was always very humble about his ministry and did not expect recognition or thanks for it,” Father Gross said. “He did it out of love for the Lord and for those struggling to reform their lives.”
A rare human being
Sullivan’s last pastor, Father Peter Miti, called him “a special and rare human being, a true trooper and steward in the Lord’s vineyard.”
Ministering to the incarcerated “brought solace to his heart,” he said.
Sullivan invited many to join him in this ministry, including Father Miti, who soon after his ordination in 2007 was celebrating Mass and hearing confessions at the women’s facility.
The pastor also helped Sullivan coach the inmates at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility.
In his final years, as his legs began to fail him, he still insisted on driving to the prison himself, Barney said.
“His love was strong even in his time of weakness,” she said.
“He would shuffle his precious feet through the parking lot, through the gates, through the locked doors every Sunday until the day he could not get out of bed,” she said.
Sullivan wanted so much to be with his incarcerated friends for their weekly prayer service, Barney said.
“And during the service, when Jack could not stand, two women, one on each side, would lift him up so lovingly, holding onto his frail little arms.”
And though he could have sat down, “he allowed them to hold him up, to love him back.”
“With pride they lifted him up,” she said.
Sullivan’s acceptance, always with a smile, Barney said, was a gesture of humility and affection.
Sullivan spent his last months in a rehab center, which had a strict no-visitors policy under coronavirus pandemic rules. But Barney was able to convince the staff to allow his pastor to give him the sacraments.
“Three days before his passing, and I was able to administer the sacrament of anointing of the sick to him,” Father Miti said.
“The legacy of his stewardship is definitely endearing, inscribed in the Book of Life and in the clouds forever,” he said.
Sullivan is survived by his wife of 58 years Mary Katherine, children Colleen, Kevin, Kathleen and Kiley, five grandchildren and two sisters.
Besides his ministry at Hawaii’s correction facilities, he was president of the Hawaii Business Service Corporation and a real estate broker. He helped organize the Hawaii Chapter of the Associated Youth Soccer Organization, and coached many school and community teams including the Special Olympics team.
Sullivan also served on many community boards and was the recipient of numerous awards. He was inducted into the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
Services are pending.
