St. Anthony Messenger: St. Francis Builds

Mike Johnson had his own law firm. The house, the jacuzzi, the tennis court. He sat on 13 boards and committees. His dream? To become a judge. That was five years before. Now it was his first day inside El Abra—a maximum-security prison tucked into a valley in the Bolivian Andes. The journey of Brother Mike Johnson, OFM, from successful lawyer to Franciscan friar arose from a pattern in his life: his vocation expanding as he ventured outside his comfort zone. But nothing had stretched him like this.

El Abra was raw, harsh, the kind of place where the weight of despair settles in the air. “The whole place just felt desolate,” he remembers. “Prisoners were wandering around, looking wasted. I’m guessing many of them were. There wasn’t much else to do back then.” Upon first stepping foot inside El Abra, every fiber within Brother Mike hoped it would be a onetime visit. “If I came back, what was I to do?” he reflects on the feeling of helplessness in a place so heavy with despair...

Read the remainder of this feature in the July/August 2025 issue of St. Anthony Messenger HERE. This is the sixth article in a series that shares stories of people, ministries, or organizations that are doing healing work in the world.