Erick Schmitt Asked To Read At Ordination Mass
When Deacon Christopher Droste was planning his ordination Mass, he had the opportunity to choose the readings and the people to do them.
His choices were wide open. He could have chosen a family member or a life-long friend.
But he didn't.
What he did speaks volumes about his perception of love, and mercy, and forgiveness.
He chose St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians for the Second Reading, the one that speaks of "the mercy shown us," and letting "light shine out of darkness."
To do the reading, he chose a young man from Posey County named Erick Schmitt. They're about the same age, and distantly related, but they aren't childhood friends or cousins.
In fact, they met while Erick was a prisoner at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle.
Back in 1998, high on a cocktail of drugs, Erick, 19, entered a Moto Mart convenience store in Vanderburgh County, shot and killed a clerk and wounded a customer.
The murder was captured on surveillance video, and Erick was quickly arrested and convicted of reckless homicide for the shooting death of Charlie Simpson. He was given a 75-year sentence, and he immediately began serving that sentence in the Carlisle prison, about two hours from his family home in Posey County.
Over the years, he completed every educational program offered at the prison, earning a bachelor's degree in human services. He also started reading the Bible and praying. He joined a Bible study in the prison, and sometimes when the priests or lay ministers couldn't be there to facilitate, he started leading the studies himself.
And then he found a wonderful friend.
Ina Kay Simpson, the widow of Charlie Simpson, started writing to him. She urged him to turn his life around, and she told him that she had forgiven him for the murder of her husband. When she drove to the prison for their first face-to-face meeting, she told the young man that she thought he could change the world by telling other young people about the dangers of drug use.
She started to actively campaign for an early release from prison for Erick, believing "he's a changed man." In November of 2010, a sentence modification hearing was held in Vigo Superior Court in Terre Haute. In 2012, Senior Judge Michael Eldred granted Erick an early release from his sentence.
On July 11 of that year, Erick was released from prison, after serving 14 of his 75-year sentence. He was 33 years old.
He is now on home detention with electronic monitoring through the Posey County Community Corrections program, with a release date of September 2016. He must also serve 10 years on probation and submit to drug screens.
Erick says of those dark years in the prison that God placed some incredible people in his path.
Two of them were Zoe and Dick Cannon, members of the prison ministry group in the Vincennes Deanery. They visit the prison faithfully, and while there they brought a seminarian with them. His name was Christopher Droste.
He and Erick struck up a friendship of sorts. Erick said, "We grew up pretty much in the same area. I knew his family, and he knew mine.
"I told him my story, and my realization of what I needed to do with the rest of my life. He talked about what he wanted to do with his life. He was still discerning the call" to priesthood.
"We stayed connected. We wrote letters, and he came to visit a few times after that."
Shortly after Erick's release from prison, his new friend Christopher asked Erick if he would be a part of his ordination Mass. "He called me on the phone, and said it was going to be a special day for him, and that he wanted his friends and his family to be a part of it. He said he wanted me to be a part of it, to read a reading.
"I was floored."
Christopher gave Erick a copy of the Scripture reading for the Mass. In it, there is the word "mercy." Erick believes of Christopher "he sees me for what I've become, what I'm trying to work towards." That acceptance has taught Erick about man's ability to be merciful, about "being merciful as God is merciful. He [Christopher] is the epitome of that."
Erick was worried, at first, about the possible backlash of him being a part of the ordination Mass, noting there was a lot of controversy about his early release from prison. "He [Christopher] discerned my heart, I guess. The whole mercy and forgiveness is astounding.”
The reading also had the phrase "Let light shine out of darkness," a perfect metaphor for Erick's life. "For me to grow in the way I have, now I can bring that light to other people. And he is the same way. Our calling is to pass that light on to others. God has blessed us both with light, and it's not ours to keep."
When he said "yes" to reading at the ordination Mass, Erick said, "I was honored. I was thrilled. I was nervous. I knew I would be standing in front of a church filled for a very special occasion."
As he watched his friend last Saturday morning, he saw him "choke up and I did as well. The significance of the whole ordination, I knew something very powerful was going on."
Of newly-ordained Father Droste, he says, "He's been a huge inspiration to me. He's so compassionate and he's so intelligent. I know he will be that to so many in the diocese.
"His love of Christ and his love of the Church and of serving the church -- it's an amazing calling on his life. I know he will make an outstanding priest," Erick said, adding, "to have someone with my past do this -- it makes a statement."
