Former Missouri Catholic Conference (MCC) Lobbyist Rita Linhardt passed away peacefully at the age of 74. Rita served for thirty-four years with the MCC.
After teaching for thirteen years, Rita joined the MCC in 1988. Rita wasted no time in vocalizing her passion for social justice, writing an article for the St. Louis Review in 1989 on why executing adolescents is wrong. In the years that followed, Rita continued expressing that passion, writing about substance abuse treatment programs, Medicaid, inmates’ rights, gambling, elderly inmates, and the rehabilitation of offenders in the community.
When Pope Saint John Paul II visited St. Louis in 1999, he asked Governor Mel Carnahan to have mercy on Darrell Mease, who was scheduled to be executed. The next day, the governor commuted Mease’s death sentence. “It was certainly a surprise,” Rita told Catholic News Service. “I think this gives us a wonderful opportunity … to pause a little bit and reflect on the death penalty. We have always felt all along that the more you educate people on the death penalty, the less inclined they are to support it”.
Rita worked on many issues at the MCC. After more than a ten-year effort, Rita and other organizations succeeded in 2001 in persuading lawmakers to approve a death penalty exemption for those with intellectual disabilities. Other legislative accomplishments to which her work contributed included keeping private prisons out of Missouri, “ban the box,” clemency for Patty Prewitt, expungement, “raise the age,” and juvenile life without parole.
For every impending execution, Rita would write a clemency letter and conduct vigils. During her tenure at the MCC, the Missouri bishops issued five statements condemning the use of the death penalty. Rita was also instrumental in coordinating lobby days, working to override the ban on partial-birth abortion, and organizing much of the Annual Assembly.
Rita was not only the “go-to” voice for decades on social justice issues; she was also the quiet, steady leader working in the background, not seeking recognition for herself. She was the calm, thoughtful, intelligent voice helping to lead the MCC behind the scenes. She lived her faith, not only in her role at the MCC, but in her everyday life. Rita’s legacy is found not only in the laws she helped change, but in the countless lives she touched through her compassion, conviction, and unwavering faith.
Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let Your perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.