Holy Land Pilgrimage, We Belong to Christ
posted by Father Kevin C. LouisPlease prayerfully remember our former parishioner, Sister Mary Veronica of the Divine Indwelling (in the world Katie Buss), who on July 16 completed one year of the novitiate of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Alabama. The community was officially established in 1962 by Mother Angelica who, of course, also founded the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). The community's charism – or particular supernatural character, goal and spirit – bestowed by the Holy Spirit and confirmed by the Church is offering prayers and sacrifices for the salvation of the whole world. As their name indicates, the life of prayer of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration is specially centered on adoration of our Lord present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. God's blessings on Sister Mary Veronica and all the members of her community!
Have you ever thought of visiting the Holy Land – to see and pray at the places made holy by Jesus Himself and that are spoken of in the Bible? Father Robert Schaller – former Pastor of Saint Peter now serving at Saint Elizabeth in Holmen – and I are leading such a pilgrimage February 8-18, 2009. We are the spiritual guides for the pilgrimage celebrating the Holy Mass each day. A growing number of parishioners from Saint Elizabeth and our own Saint Peter have already committed themselves to this spiritual tour. The number of pilgrims is strictly limited so that we can all travel together on one bus thereby creating a more intimate atmosphere conducive to a prayerful absorption of all that we will see and experience. Some of the highlights include visits to Caesarea Philippi (now known as Banias) where Jesus declared to Simon, "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church", Cana in Galilee where couples may renew their marriage vows, Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity, as well as Jerusalem where we will walk the Way of the Cross (Via Dolorosa) and visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Of course, this only scratches the surface of the magnificent and moving sights to be seen and places to offer prayers! The cost of $2799 includes airfare, expert native Christian tour guides, many meals, and lodging in first class hotels. For a complete itinerary and more information please consult the brochures available in church or at the rectory or contact Father Louis.
In the next five years our parish anticipates having to address a number of issues with regard to our physical plant including the increasingly dangerous buckling of the carpet in the church proper and the sanctuary (which is very obvious now in the humidity of our Wisconsin summer), the hazardous deteriorating bricks and concrete between the garage and the church, the incredibly wasteful heating system in the rectory, and the security of our magnificent church (which has been vandalized three times in recent weeks!) – to name just a few. We will only be able to solve these problems if each and every parishioner generously participates in the We Belong To Christ Campaign now being conducted in our parish. Complete and return your pledge card immediately. If we do not hear from you we will be contacting you personally.
Each year June 30 ends one fiscal year and July 1 begins the next. We ended the 2005-2006 fiscal year in financially catastrophic fashion being $112,848.76 in debt. You will recall that thanks to a most generous grant from Bishop Listecki (through the Diocesan Annual Appeal) and absolution of the remaining debt by the Dean of the Stevens Point Deanery, we broke even. We ended the 2006-2007 fiscal year with a $39,090.00 surplus, although that was very misleading insofar as we again received a substantial grant from Bishop Listecki (through the Diocesan Annual Appeal) as well as the proceeds from an incredibly large estate. As of June 30, 2008, we have ended our 2007-2008 fiscal year $26,600.00 in debt. In all likelihood, we will be required in short order to take out a loan in order to pay off this debt. We were fortunate again this year to receive a grant from Bishop Listecki (through the Diocesan Annual Appeal), but significantly less parishioners remembered Saint Peter in their wills and in memorials of loved ones compared to recent years. As soon as humanly possible, we will be publishing the financial eport for this year's picnic as well as the parish fiscal year report.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!
Father Kevin C. Louis
A Busy Summer at Saint Peter Parish
posted by WebmasterThank you to all of those who took part in the filming of television Masses last week. Thanks to the lectors, altar servers, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, Patrick Burkhart and all the musicians as well as those who made up the congregation. Look for us on TV as the Masses will be broadcast on August 31 and September 7! Thank you, too, to the men who took part in our inaugural event in observance of the Jubilee Year of Saint Paul (June 28, 2008-June 29, 2009). Our recent gathering geared specifically to men began with the praying of Evening Prayer and listening to an extended homily on Saint Paul and how he is a model for living the vocation of being a "real" man, a man of God, as well as a husband and father. Phil Lawson then gave some very practical suggestions how men can prayerfully observe this Pauline Year. We then adjourned to Emy J's for ice cream and good conversation! Keep an eye on the bulletin as we will soon have a similar event specifically geared towards the women of the parish.
Thank you for your prayerful support during this past year as I participated in the certification program in Catholic bioethics sponsored by the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It has proven to be a very rigorous program – much more demanding and time-consuming than I had anticipated. Recently they sent me my grades for the "classroom" (via the internet) portion of the course (94 out of 100) and the final oral examinations (190 out of 200). This week I will turn in the last of the course requirements – my thesis on the moral evaluation of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET). By the end of the summer the Center will notify me if I passed and thereby receive their certification as a bioethicist.
As I have mentioned to you before, I keep track of the number of confessions I hear – a habit I got into thanks to Father J. Floyd Dwyer who was Rector of the Cathedral of Saint Joseph the Workman, my first priestly assignment. During the period of July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, I heard at Saint Peter Parish an amazing 3679 (that is not a typo!) individual confessions. It is a joy to be kept so "busy" reconciling sinners to God and His Church!
Recently something happened that I have never experienced in 19 years as a priest. As you will recall, each parish is required to have a Fund for Works of Charity, an account that is separate from all other parish accounts and that is not commingled with other parish funds or with the Mass Offering Account. Into this Fund are deposited gifts that parishioners specifically designate for this purpose. But the bulk of money in this Fund comes from the offerings that parishioners make on the occasion of the celebration of the sacraments (for example, Baptism or Matrimony) or other sacred rites (for example, funeral) apart from the Mass offering or "intention." In turn, I disburse monies (but never cash) from this Fund to assist the many needy people who come to the rectory each week seeking help. So many times over the years those who received assistance assured me that they would return shortly to repay what was given to them. Not one person has ever kept their word and come back to return to the Fund that which was given them. That is, until this past week! A parishioner had an unexpected and substantial expense with regard to his vehicle and I arranged for payment of the bills through the Fund for Works of Charity. At the end of the month, as he had promised me, he returned to the rectory and repaid in full what had been given him. No doubt the Lord will bless this young man for his honesty and integrity!
In the next five years our parish anticipates having to address a number of issues with regard to our physical plant including the increasingly dangerous buckling of the carpet in the church proper and the sanctuary (which is very obvious now in the humidity of our Wisconsin summer), the hazardous deteriorating bricks and concrete between the garage and the church, the incredibly wasteful heating system in the rectory, and the security of our magnificent church (which has been vandalized three times in recent weeks!) – to name just a few. We will only be able to solve these problems if each and every parishioner generously participates in the We Belong To Christ Campaign now being conducted in our parish. Complete and return your pledge card right now. If we do not hear from you we will be contacting you personally.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!
Father Kevin C. Louis
The Areopagus 7-21-08
posted by Phil LawsonWorld Youth Day concluded yesterday with Pope Benedict celebrating Mass with 350,000+ young people from 170 countries in Sydney, Australia. WYD continues to be an amazing event fueling countless vocations and sparks of Faith. I don’t know that there is any other gathering in the world quite like this—where else can young people, of all different ethnicities, nationalities, interests, etc, gather together, united in Peace and Goodwill?---all united under one banner and purpose—Jesus Christ and His Church.
The event (which occurs over the course of a week) concludes with an all-night vigil where the young people camp out and then participate in Mass with the Pope. The organizers had set up an area for the young people to go to Confession during this time. There were so many people seeking the sacrament that additional priests were brought in and were literally setting up plastic chairs to hear confessions.
See the full story here: WYD—priests setting up “emergency” confessionals..overwhelmed by the numbers.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world-youth-day/overwhelming-demand-for-confessionals/2008/07/19/1216163225930.html
Bishop Listecki (LaCrosse Diocese) recently spoke at our Theology on Tap series. At one point he addressed the alleged “spiritual renewal” going on in this country. He pointed out that there will be no authentic or true renewal until people start going to confession—and thereby face their sins—the first step to overcoming them.
Our own pastor, Fr. Louis, developed the habit of keeping track of the number of confessions he hears. He recently revealed that from July 1st 2007 to June 30th 2008. he had heard 3,679 individual confessions. Not bad for a parish priest!
Taking all the above together reveals further signs of hope and the fruits of John Paul the Great’s “New Evangelization.”
Phil’s Tidbits:
Today is the memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1619). I came across this beautiful quote from one of his sermons about the effects of the Word of God:
“For the word of God is a light to the mind and a fire to the will. It enables man to know God and to love him. And for the interior man who lives by the Spirit of God through grace, it is bread and water…For the soul is a spiritual treasure of merits yielding an abundance of gold and precious stones. Against the hardness of heart that persists in wrongdoing, it acts as a hammer. Against the world, the flesh and the devil it serves as a sword that destroys all sin.”
Like this past weekend’s Gospel reading about the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-42), we see the 2 sides of the coin. For those with God—He is comfort, mercy, and peace. For those against God—He is hammer, sword, and fire. There is no middle ground. Choose wisely!
American Medical Association attacks pharmacists’ conscience rights
The American Medical Association attacked pharmacists’ right to refuse to dispense contraceptives, including those which may cause abortion, at its June 11-14 Board of Trustees’ annual meeting.
The AMA‘s Board of Trustees told members that:
"AMA supports legislation that would require individual pharmacists and pharmacy chains to fill legally valid prescriptions or to provide immediate referral to an appropriate alternative dispensing pharmacy without interference.”
It further stated the following:
"A pharmacist's deliberate refusal to dispense a drug on religious, moral, or ethical grounds, i.e., pharmacist conscientious objection, has been most often associated with Plan B, the emergency contraceptive, and has received considerable attention in both the lay media and in medical journal commentaries. Of all of the reasons why a pharmacist might not dispense a legally valid prescription, conscientious objection is the only one that places a pharmacist's personal views in potential conflict with the best interests of the patient."
Via: Pro-Life Wisconsin
At our local Theology on Tap, one of the speakers was a pharmacist who addressed conscience issues involved with his profession. It was an eye-opening presentation. While doctors are legally protected from being forced to perform any procedure that violates their conscience, pharmacists do not.
As a faithful Catholic, he had to come to terms with this while still in pharmacy school. He ended up choosing to be a hospital pharmacist, wherein he would not be put in situations where he’d be forced to violate his conscience. Likewise, he makes it a point to inform his employer immediately about his beliefs. Thus far, as a young pharmacist, he has been able to practice his profession in accord with his conscience.
Stories like the one above are cause for concern.
One possible solution to the difficulties caused by the above and the rapid advances in life-destroying technology, i.e. abortifacient drugs:
New Trend of Pro-Life Pharmacies Responds to Incursions on Pharmacists' Consciences
By Tim Waggoner
WASHINGTON, June 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A recent trend involving pro-life pharmacies opening up across the U.S. has sparked a debate about the relationship between employees' consciences and patients' rights.
Pro-life pharmacies have surfaced in response to the growing amount of abuse received by pharmacists who have refused to fill prescriptions for life-stopping medication or products, such as contraception and condoms, because doing so would conflict with their consciences.
As reported by the Washington Post, Karen Bauer, president of Pharmacies for Life, stated that these pharmacies allow a "pharmacist who does not wish to be involved in stopping a human life in any way to practice in a way that feels comfortable."
Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel at the Thomas More Society, is representing a pharmacist who was fined for refusing to fulfill a patient's request for contraception.
"The United States was founded on the idea that people act on their conscience - that they have a sense of right and wrong and do what they think is right and moral…Every pharmacist has the right to do the same thing," Brejcha said.
Critics or pro-life pharmacies believe that these pharmacists have a duty to provide "medical care" to all patients and are acting in a discriminatory way.
Yet, according to the Washington Post, advocates of pro-life pharmacies also point to the right of employees to express their opinions in a pluralistic society and preach of the dangers of contraceptives.
"In general, I think product differentiation expressive of differing values is a very good thing for a free, pluralistic society," said Loren E. Lomasky, a bioethicist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. "If we can have 20 different brands of toothpaste, why not a few different conceptions of how pharmacies ought to operate?"
"We try to practice pharmacy in a way that we feel is best to help our community and promote healthy lifestyles," said Lloyd Duplantis, owner of Lloyd's Remedies in Gray, LA. "After researching the science behind steroidal contraceptives, I decided they could hurt the woman and possibly hurt her unborn child. I decided to opt out."
Currently, California, New Jersey, Illinois and Washington State require pharmacies to fulfill all prescription requests or to at least point a patient in a direction where their "needs" can be met. Numerous other states are in debate on whether or not to follow suit.
The City named after Saint Francis, continues to take pot shots at the Catholic Church. See the story below:
Via: WorldNetDaily:
FAITH UNDER FIREMajor U.S. city officially condemns Catholic ChurchInstructs members to defy 'Holy Office of Inquisition'
Posted: July 15, 20088:48 pm Eastern© 2008 WorldNetDaily
A San Francisco city and county board resolution that officially labeled the Catholic church's moral teachings on homosexuality as "insulting to all San Franciscans," "hateful," "defamatory," "insensitive" and "ignorant" will be challenged tomorrow in court for violating the Constitution's prohibition of government hostility toward religion.
Resolution 168-08, passed unanimously by the City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors two years ago, also accused the Vatican of being a "foreign country" meddling with and attempting to "negatively influence (San Francisco's) existing and established customs."
It said of the church's teaching on homosexuality, "Such hateful and discriminatory rhetoric is both insulting and callous, and shows a level of insensitivity and ignorance which has seldom been encountered by this Board of Supervisors."
As WND reported, Resolution 168-08 was an official response to the Catholic Church's ban on adoption placements into homosexual couple households, issued by Cardinal William Levada of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican.
The board's resolution urged the city's local archbishop and the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to defy the Vatican's instructions, concluding with a spiteful reminder that the church authority that issued the ban was known 100 years ago as "The Holy Office of the Inquisition."
The resolution also took a shot at Levada, the former archbishop of San Francisco, saying, "Cardinal Levada is a decidedly unqualified representative of his former home city, and of the people of San Francisco and the values they hold dear."
The anti-Catholic diatribe had been challenged in U.S. District Court on similar grounds, but District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled in favor of the city, saying, in essence, the church started it.
She wrote in her decision, "The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith provoked this debate, indeed may have invited entanglement" for instructing Catholic politicians on how to vote. This court does not find that our case law requires political bodies to remain silent in the face of provocation."
She ruled that the city's proclamation was not entangling the government in church affairs, since the resolution was a non-binding, non-regulatory announcement.
Since no law was enacted, she ruled, city officials – even in their official capacity as representatives of the government – can say what they want.
"It is merely the exercise of free speech rights by duly elected office holders," she wrote.
Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, which is appealing the District Court decision on behalf of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and two Catholic residents of San Francisco, disagrees with Patel's decision.
"Sadly, the ruling itself clearly exhibited hostility toward the Catholic Church," he said in a statement. "The judge in her written decision held that the Church 'provoked the debate' by publicly expressing its moral teaching, and that by passing the resolution the City responded 'responsibly' to all of the 'terrible' things the Church was saying."
Thomas More attorney Robert Muise will present oral arguments in the case tomorrow morning in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
"Our Constitution plainly forbids hostility toward any religion, including the Catholic faith," he said.
"In total disregard for the Constitution, homosexual activists in positions of authority in San Francisco have abused their authority as government officials and misused the instruments of the government to attack the Catholic Church. Their egregious abuse of power has now the backing of a lower federal court. … Unfortunately, all too often we see a double standard being applied in Establishment Clause cases," Muise said.
Thomas More attorneys argued in the District Court case that the "anti-Catholic resolution sends a clear message" that Catholics are "outsiders, not full members of the political community."
The cultural, and now political, straight-arm to adherents of the Christian faith in San Francisco has been increasingly public in the last two years. Just one week after the anti-Catholic resolution was passed, the San Francisco Board issued a similar resolution against a mostly evangelical group.
Following a gathering of 25,000 teens at San Francisco's AT&T Park as part of Ron Luce's Teen Mania "Battle Cry for a Generation" rally against the sexualization of America's youth culture by advertisers and media, the board spoke out formally again.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution condemning the "act of provocation" by what it termed an "anti-gay," "anti-choice" organization that aimed to "negatively influence the politics of America's most tolerant and progressive city."
Openly homosexual California Assemblyman Mark Leno told protesters of the teen rally that though such religious people may be few, "they're loud, they're obnoxious, they're disgusting, and they should get out of San Francisco."
The Chronicle also reported a San Francisco protester against the evangelical youth rally carried a sign that may sum up the sentiment: "I moved here to get away from people like you."
The Thomas More Law Center hopes the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will decide in the case of Resolution 1680-08 that even if a large portion of the community is at odds with a religion's views on homosexuality, the government cannot be used as a weapon to condemn religious faith.
Currently, as WND has reported, Colorado and Michigan are tackling the question of whether the Bible itself can be vilified as "hate speech" for it's condemnation of homosexuality, and Canada has developed human rights commissions, which have decided people cannot express opposition to homosexuality without fear of government reprisal.
God bless you!
Phil Lawson
For the latest info on St. Peter’s, check out the parish website: www.saintpetercatholic.com
(You can also find old editions of the Areopagus here)
The Areopagus is a regular email for adults that includes various reflections, tidbits, news and events. Hope you find it fruitful!
If you would like to be added to this list, send an email to lawsphil@gmail.com
On the other hand, if you would like to be removed, send an email to the same address indicating that.
The Areopagus 7-17-08
posted by Phil LawsonMy family and I moved to the country last summer—and are loving it---nonetheless, we had to chuckle when we received a flier from one of the local Lutheran churches advertising: “Drive your tractor to Church Sunday.”
Welcome to the country life!
Phil’s Tidbits:
There have been a number of stories concerning abuse/desecration of the Eucharist. The story below gives the details on those.
Attending Mass at an out of town parish this weekend, we saw one parish’s solution to these forms of sacrilege. At the time for Communion, the 2 side doors at the front of the Church were closed, and an usher was stationed at each one. They were there to ensure the people who received Communion actually consumed the Blessed Sacrament. (It didn’t hurt that one of the ushers happened to be a fairly large fellow with a Harley Davidson t-shirt on!) Nonetheless, they were unobtrusive, and had I not been simply a visitor, probably would not have even noticed their presence. Another possible solution would be to restore the practice of receiving Communion on the tongue only. Incidentally, Pope Benedict XVI has said this is his preferred way of distributing Communion.
As far as the story below---this professor obviously has no clue what he’s talking about. The blogger at The Curt Jester http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/index.html , himself a former atheist, stated that his response is simply to pray for this gentleman—a sentiment that we do well to imitate.
Minnesota professor encourages theft and desecration of Eucharist
Morris, MN, Jul 11, 2008 / 07:09 pm (CNA).- A Minnesota professor and science blogger has said he will personally desecrate the Eucharist and publish photos of the desecration on the internet if any of his readers acquire a consecrated Host and mail it to him. "I'll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare," he has written.
Paul Zachary Myers, an associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota at Morris, made the threat while commenting on a University of Central Florida incident in which a student senator stole and held hostage a consecrated Host from a June 29 Mass.
In the Florida incident, student senator Webster Cook presented himself at Sunday Mass to receive the Eucharist. According to wftv.com, Cook said he intended to take the consecrated Host back to his seat to show a curious friend. After being stopped on his return to his seat, he put the Host in his mouth but removed it upon sitting down.
He said a church leader grabbed his hands and tried to retrieve the Eucharist, after which he left with the Host. Cook filed an official abuse complaint with the UCF student court, while Catholic students filed other complaints alleging Cook engaged in disruptive conduct.
Cook stored the Eucharist in a Ziploc bag for a week and then returned it last Sunday.
"I want to thank the individuals who explained the emotional and spiritual pain my possession of the Eucharist caused them to experience," Cook wrote in a letter to the church, according to wftv.com. "They have demonstrated that the use [of] reason is more effective than the use of force."
He said some people had threatened to break into his room to retrieve the Eucharist. A spokesperson for the Diocese of Orlando said the diocese does not condone the threats but is happy Cook returned the Host.
Professor Myers criticized the incident in a derisive July 8 post on his science blog Pharyngula, hosted at scienceblogs.com. He also solicited his readers to acquire consecrated Hosts.
"Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion wafers?" Myers wrote. "…if any of you would be willing to do what it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I'll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare. I won't be tempted to hold it hostage… but will instead treat it with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web."
Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, on Thursday said that Myers' blog could be accessed through a link on the University of Minnesota Morris web site. He noted that Myers' remarks could be in violation of the university's code of conduct, which requires faculty to be "respectful, fair and civil" when dealing with others.
Donohue also stated the Catholic League was contacting the Minnesota legislature because the university is a state institution.
"It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ," he said. "We look to those who have oversight responsibility to act quickly and decisively."
While a July 6 Google cache of the University of Minnesota Morris biology faculty listings showed a link to Myers' Pharyngula blog, the link was removed as of Friday morning. According to Baylor professor Francis Beckwith, writing on the blog "What's Wrong with the World," the internet archive at web.archive.org shows that the University of Minnesota Morris biology faculty page had linked to Pharyngula since at least November 9, 2006.
Source: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=13208
Anecdotal and experiential evidence seems to indicate that Christian men are better husbands and fathers---it’s nice to see statistics that further back up the claims.
Study Shows Christianity Makes Men Better Husbands and Fathers
By Tim Waggoner
VIRGINIA, June 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a research brief this month, Bradford Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, analyzed three national studies in order to discover if "there is any evidence that religion is playing a role in encouraging a strong family orientation among contemporary American men?" His research led him to conclude that men who regularly attend Christian services are engaged in happier and stronger marriages and are more involved in the lives of their children than men who do not.
"70 percent of husbands who attend church regularly report they are 'very happy' in their marriages, compared to 59 percent of husbands who rarely or never attend church," explained Wilcox, who also said that the studies indicated that wives experienced more marital happiness when their husbands attended regular religious services.
This is likely one significant reason why the studies showed that married couples who attended regular Christian services were approximately 35 percent less likely to divorce then those couples who did not.
Wilcox's research also looked at the effect religion has on the relationships between fathers and their children.
Fathers who attended regular Christian services spent an average of two more hours a week engaged in youth-activities with their children than fathers who did not attend regular services. Christian fathers also spent more one-on-one time with their children and were 65 percent more likely to hug and praise their children.
The studies also found that children born inside of wedlock had much more "involved, affectionate, and consistent relationships" with their fathers. This is an important statistic given Wilcox's findings that church attending men are more likely to have children inside of wedlock then non-church going men.
Wilcox concluded his research brief by strongly advocating the positive effects that religion has on husbands and fathers: "This brief provides an array of evidence indicating that religion is an answer to the male problematic - that is, the tendency of fathers to become detached, emotionally or physically, from their children and the mothers of their children. I find that fathers who are religious, and who have partners who are religious, are - on average - more likely to be happily married, to be engaged and affectionate parents, and to get and stay married to the mothers of their children."
To see the full research brief:
http://center.americanvalues.org/?p=75
Germany continues to crack down on homeschoolers….
German Homeschooling Parents Sentenced to Three Months in Prison
By Tim Waggoner
June 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The parents of a homeschooling family in the German state of Hesse have each been sentenced to three months in prison for the crime of homeschooling their seven children.
According to a staff attorney for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), the sentence was issued to Juergen and Rosemarie Dudek after the federal prosecutor, Herwig Muller, said last year that he was dissatisfied with the fines the couple had already paid for homeschooling their children.
As reported by WorldNetDaily (WND), staff attorney for the Home School Legal Defense Association, Mike Donnelly, was appalled by the decision.
"Words escape me, it's unconscionable, incredible, shocking." He then affirmed, "They will appeal of course."
He concluded by summarizing the actions of the prosecutor: "You guys are rebelling against the state. We're going to punish you."
Homeschooling is illegal in Germany under a law dating back to the Hitler era. Homeschooling families in the country have faced increasing persecution in recent years, with police in several cases physically transporting children to school and even removing one teenager from her parent's care.
A spokesperson for the German homeschool advocacy group, Netzwork-Bildungsfreiheit, commented on the mandatory public school attendance laws, which deem homeschooling families to be in breach of the state's criminal code.
"It is embarrassing the German officials put parents into jail whose children are well educated and where the family is in good order," wrote Joerg Grosseleumern. "We personally know the Dudeks as such a family."
WND also reported that Judge Peter Hobbel, who originally imposed the fines on the parents, criticized the school system for denying the requests of the parents to have their "private school" recognized.
In a previous WND article, it was noted that the Dudek's wrote a letter to the HSLDA regarding a new law that gives German authorities the right of "withdrawal of parental custody as one of the methods for punishing 'uncooperative' parents." The law is essentially enacted when "child abuse" is suspected. Conveniently, German courts have consistently deemed homeschooling a form of child abuse.
"The new law is seen as a logical step in carving up family rights after a federal court had decided that homeschooling was an abuse of custody," read the letter signed by Juergen Dudek.
In a blog, Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany, attempted to defend these new developments, saying the government "has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion."
Arno Meissner, the chief of the government's local education department, has also promulgated the government's intolerance of homeschooling families, confirming they will continually rely upon the mandatory school attendance law.
And lastly some pointed humor via last Sunday’s homily. The pastor was seeking to underscore the need to confront our sins before it’s too late. Recall the Gospel reading discussed various types of soil and the growth they produce (Matthew 13:1-23).
A husband is lying on his deathbed with his wife by his side. He looks at her and feeling his life ebbing wants to confess his faults, saying “I’ve cheated on you numerous times, I’ve lied to you, I’ve drank away my wages, I’ve been a horrible husband to you all these years.”
To which his wife looks down at him sweetly, and says, “It’s alright dear, I know,, just relax and let the poison work….”
Moral of the story, don’t wait until it’s too late to honestly confront your sins…and change!
God bless you!
Phil Lawson
For the latest info on St. Peter’s, check out the parish website: www.saintpetercatholic.com
(You can also find old editions of the Areopagus here)
The Areopagus is a regular email for adults that includes various reflections, tidbits, news and events. Hope you find it fruitful!
If you would like to be added to this list, send an email to lawsphil@gmail.com
On the other hand, if you would like to be removed, send an email to the same address indicating that.
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