Lincoln, Neb., Mar 31, 2019 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- If you ask a Nebraskan how the historic floods over the past few weeks have affected them, they are likely to count their blessings, and to tell you that it could have been worse.
They’ll thank God for sparing their lives, rather than curse him for the destruction of their homes or the washing away of their cattle.
It’s not, so much, a reflection of the severity of the disastrous flooding (which covered a third of the state at its peak, and will likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars in property, crop and livestock losses), but rather a reflection of the faith and indomitability found in many a Nebraskan soul.
“We in Nebraska, we come together,” Tony Hergott told CNA. Hergott is the Disaster Relief Chairman for the Knights of Columbus, and has been coordinating groups of Knights to assist in some of the hardest-hit communities in Nebraska, including his own hometown of Columbus, which sits just north of the Loup river right before it meets up with the Platte.
“The biggest challenge we have as Nebraskans is – there’s a lot of pride in Nebraska. People don’t ask for help. You get up, you dust yourself off, you change your clothes, and you fix it – and then you go and help your neighbor, and that’s just the way it is,” Hergott said.
Many people won’t ask for assistance, even if they badly need it, until they are done taking care of their neighbors, he added.
“Its gut-wrenching and heart-warming at the same time,” he said.
On Wednesday, March 14, heavy rains piled on top of already-heavy snows to create the perfect storm of flooding conditions. Rivers and waterways throughout the eastern part of the state overflowed their banks to historic levels, washing away roads, homes, bridges, livestock, and anything else that stood in the way.
To lay down his life for his friends
Fortunately, evacuations and the quick responses of emergency workers resulted in very few lives lost to the floods in Nebraska, though at least one life was lost while trying to save the life of another.
James Wilke, a farmer near Columbus, set out on Wednesday with his tractor, guided by emergency workers, to try and save the life of a motorist stranded in the flood waters on a country road.
When Wilke drove his tractor out over a bridge on Shell Creek, the bridge collapsed under the weight of the tractor and the pressure of the floodwaters, sweeping Wilke and his tractor downstream. Wilke’s body was later found downstream, near his own farm, reported the Omaha World-Herald.
Hergott said that while Wilke was not a Knight of Columbus, he was a “faith-filled man who…embodied all that it is to be a Knight, in service to his brother. ‘I am my brother’s keeper.’ He went out to try to save one life and in return gave his.”
“When you see things like that, it moves you,” he said.
Hergott said the Knights of Columbus immediately reached out to the Wilke family to offer financial assistance and support.
The Knights also sent groups out to the hardest-hit communities in the area, including North Bend, where they talked to families, handed out food, water, cleaning supplies and gift cards, and hosted a fish fry for the other emergency responders and volunteers.
“It’s a Catholic community over there, we wanted to make sure that the Catholics had non-meat to eat on a Friday in Lent,” he said.
“When we were cooking fish and everyone was sitting down to eat, people were joking around like nothing ever happened,” he said. “I mean it’s like your dinner table where you talk and you tell your stories, your good times and bad times, but it’s family time.”
Hergott said the flooding in Columbus and the surrounding areas has been catastrophic, though they are only just beginning to get the full gist of exactly how much property has been damaged or lost.
Some of the greatest needs going forward are going to be hot water heaters and furniture, as well as financial assistance for rebuilding, he said.
He also asked for prayers.
“In North Bend a lady told me, ‘well, all we can do is pray’. And I said, ‘no, the greatest thing we can do is pray’. Don’t downgrade praying, that is the greatest thing. Somebody told me that years ago, and I’ve used that ever since,” he said.
“It’s just stuff that we lost.”
Carol Waldow is a 73 year-old Nebraskan from Bellevue who also spoke of the importance of prayer.
On the day the floods came, Waldow was ordered to evacuate her home by emergency responders.
“I just said: Dear God, what am I supposed to do? And he said: Get out!”
Waldow escaped with her husband and their two poodles. Their home, which sat in a development right next to Offutt Air Force Base, was destroyed.
Waldow and her husband moved in with one of their sons and his family. They’ve already found a new, closer parish to go to in the interim (St. Wenceslaus in Omaha) and are signing the lease on a new, small apartment “so we’ll have somewhere to lay our heads.”
Waldow said that while thinking of her losses can sometimes make her “weepy,” she knows that she still has all of the most important things.
“It’s just stuff that we lost,” Waldow told CNA.
“I didn’t lose my faith, I didn’t lose my family, and I didn’t lose my friends. You know, and I really wasn’t living for all that stuff anyway, I’m living for better rewards in heaven. I’m not living for those knickknacks and pictures and things like that,” she said.
Waldow said she hoped the flood would be a good reminder to everyone that “we don’t live forever.”
“The things that we have are all gifts of God anyway, and we need to remember that to God we shall return, and it’s only through his blessing that we have life anyway,” she said.
When she’s tempted to feel sorry for herself, Waldow said she gets out her Magnificat and says her prayers.
“It’s just such a blessing that I have my faith, because without my faith and my family and my friends I’d have nothing anyway. It just brings me closer to God,” she said.
“We can’t always choose the kind of Lent we will have”
The levels and severity of the flooding was unlike anything most Nebraskans have seen in the state in their lifetimes.
“It came on so fast; I talked to a lady who was in her 90s, and she said that the only flood that was near this was in 1943, so it was kind of a once-in-a-hundred-years type of situation,” said Father Tim Forget, who, like many priests in rural Nebraska, is the pastor of two parishes – St. Jane Frances in Randolph and St. Mary in Osmond.
And, like many rural priests that Wednesday, Forget ended up being stranded away from his parish when the floods hit. Forget, who normally lives in Randolph, drove to Osmond that Wednesday to celebrate Mass and to hold adoration.
But soon after making the trip over, he realized: “Wow, this is really getting bad quick.”
Parents started calling to get their kids from school, and Forget opened up the normally-vacant Osmond rectory to teachers and families who couldn’t get back home. Then he tried to make the trip back to his Randolph rectory, but ended up rerouting to Norfolk, a nearby town, due to the numerous road closures.
Forget said his parishes “thankfully” didn’t sustain any damage, while the Catholic school had some water in the basement. Some parishioners homes were not as lucky.
Despite the damages, “there’s been a lot of positive people, it’s a very tight Catholic parish,” Forget said.
In a reflection in his March 31 bulletin, Forget wrote: “Small town Nebraska has a lot to teach the outside world about coming together and helping. We can’t always choose the kind of Lent we will have but we can choose what we will do when it comes to us. In so many ways I see all of you being such amazing examples of what it means to be a Christian family.”
Fr. Bill L’Heureux is another rural Nebraska priest whose life was made more interesting by the flooding, as he pastors four parishes in northeastern Nebraska: St. Lawrence in Silver Creek, St. Peter and Paul in Krakow, St. Rose of Lima in Genoa, and St. Edward in St. Edward.
After the floods, he offered to help another priest in a nearby parish with adoration.
“I told him I had to go through two time zones, the Pony Express, one Indian reservation and three check stations to get there,” he joked. “It’s kind of fun.”
Every weekend, L’Heureux celebrates one Mass at each parish. Except now, he is cut off from his St. Edward parish due to washed-away bridges and closed roads.
Like in Osmund, St. Edward was able to open up the vacant rectory to host some families who were driven out of their homes by the flooding until they could make more permanent arrangements, he said.
“I’m just so proud of everybody stepping up and helping each other out and taking care of their neighbors, it’s all the stuff we preach about on Sunday,” he said, recalling the Gospel passage about the fig tree bearing fruit.
“I’m just the gardener,” he said.
About 70 miles to the east of the Silver Creek area, the city of Fremont turned into an island after the floods cut off all roads and bridges leading into town.
Fr. William Nolte, pastor of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Fremont, had to be flown back into the town from Omaha after getting stranded during the floods.
“I called my principal and said hey, if you know anybody who has a plane or a helicopter so I can get out of here, whatever it costs, I’m going to need to get back. Within 15 minutes I got a call that it just so happened that a neighbor four doors down flies to work and he had flown in that day and gave me a ride back. It was very providential,” he said. “So it’s amazing how God has been taking care of his family down here.”
Nolte said people in the Fremont area are bracing for the long-haul; recovery from the floods could take months and in some cases years.
“This is not just a one week, two week, one month problem. This is going to be a problem, but an opportunity to take care of one another – this is going to be a several-year opportunity. And so they’re bracing for that,” Nolte said.
Father Kizito Okhuoya is the pastor in the towns of Niobrara and Verdigre, which bore some of the worst of the brunt of the floods when the nearby Spencer dam failed March 14.
“The words I use are devastating, shocking, overwhelming, just unbelievable,” he said.
“People who have lived here all their life have never seen anything like it, some people recall that there was a flood in the ’60s, but it’s nothing close to what they experienced this time around. We were kind of blindsided because nobody saw this coming,” he said.
While the parishes were spared any major damage, many homes were lost or damaged, and farms that had been in families for generations were wiped out. Chunks of ice swept in by the floods made much of the area nearly impassable before they melted.
“Parishioners lost a lot of their possessions,” Okhuoya said. “People lost collectibles, sentimental things, people lost a lot of stuff.”
But people from neighboring communities have stepped up to help, he added, sending crews of people to clean up mud, or pump out water, or haul trash out of flooded basements.
“It’s been unbelievable the generosity, the outreach, the kindness, the compassion that people have shown us, it’s very humbling for me to see all that,” he said.
The Archdiocese of Omaha has a special collection for flood relief, and he said he’s been getting calls of spiritual and material support from many places throughout the country.
Okhuoya said the clean-up process has been “very emotional”, as people come to terms with the scope of the losses they’ve suffered, so he teamed up with the Methodist pastor in town to offer an ecumenical prayer service where people were able to pray together and read God’s word, he said.
“In my weekend homilies since this happened, I’ve been pushing messages of hope and of God’s love, a message of gratitude. A message that maybe there are lessons here, that God wants us to rethink our priorities and focus on the things are important, because like I said in one of my homilies, sometimes we quibble and fight over nothing. But when this flood hit, nobody was fighting,” he said.
Small towns can sometimes have a way of letting small divisions fester over time, but it shouldn’t take a disaster to bring people together, Okhuoya said.
“Why can’t we stay this way? Why do we have to allow things like this to happen to force us to create that connection and to care and to show compassion? Why can’t we just always do that? We don’t need all these calamities to push us to where we can show that kind of compassion always,” he said.
“So why can’t we learn the lessons and always be the best we can be, as Christians, as Catholics, as citizens of this country, and do the best to work with each other, and do whatever is good, whatever is honorable, or whatever is going to touch the lives of people. For me … I think that’s what I am learning.”
[…]
Not at all surprising.
As best I understand the faith, Jesus was the most inclusive person in all of history. Anything that attempts to minimize his presence is exclusionary, not inclusionary.
Jim : I don’t believe you understand the Faith. Simply read any of the Gospels –I’m reading John right now –I’m halfway through. Jesus is without doubt not inclusive! On the contrary he is exclusive. Read for yourself. Read just one Gospel through. he is very hard on the Jews particularly. He calls them liars and refers to their Father as the Father of lies ( Satan , the devil ). he also refers to their synagogue as the “synagogue of Satan”. Does that sound exclusive to you ? Hear what He and the apostles have to say about Sin and False Religions. –It’s not pretty !
Dennis–Jim is right, although your point is not irreconcilable with his. Jesus was the most inclusive person in the sense that he calls everybody- and the most exclusive in that he calls them to ONE truth. A Catholic school can accept members of all faiths, but with goal of evangelization in mind!!!
Dennis: Jesus was a Jew. He,his mother Mary and father Joseph were also Jews and lived Jewish lives. Jesus was not referring to Jews in general but to the Pharisees and Sadducees who did not love their brothers and sisters. Jesus taught love for everyone. He preached to the gentiles, not just Jews. He wanted everyone to “love God with all their heart, mind, and soul, and to love their neighbor as themselves.”
This is just nutty. Jesus never condemned the Jews at all. He was a Jew, and he said not a jot of their law would be changed. You apparently failed biblical interpretation 101
Jesus most certainly condemned the leaders of the Jews. Calling them children not of Abraham as they claimed but the Devil – which is why they pushed Pilate to crucify him.
You miss the point, Dennis. Jim was just hoisting them with their own petard.
Jim, it is not “either or” but “both and”. I teach at a Catholic school in the Bay Area and we are proud to have a strong Catholic identity and we are inclusive and respect all people of different faiths. That’s how we can evangelize others, by witnessing to our inclusivity but without compromising who we are; just like Jesus did.
you will 0% identifying as Catholic if you keep this up. Chase the almighty dollar and you will pay the price in souls.
I would imagine that non Catholics are sending their children thee BECAUSE it is supposed to be a Catholic School and all that represents in this crazy world. Why ruin it for THEM?
GREAT POINT!!!
To be more welcoming to the growing number of non-Catholic students? Or a sell out to the world and a turning away from Christ? More likely the latter.
Yes.
Your thinking matches mine.
Very likely the later and it is nothing other than the later.
An Enemy, (abet widespread contraception/abortifacients), has done this..
1. Loss of Faith.
2. Few children.
3. Non existent religious teachers.
4. Rise in costs.
5. Private school sought for worldly gain.
Are we supposed to be surprised?
I agree. This is, to me, anti-Catholic behavior, masking as ” all-inclusive’ rhetoric. This is very sad, that people are allowing them to remove the statues. Where will it end?
A few points – there is no mention here of which saints were removed. Second, it seems a bit silly to speak of Dominican values when the school has clearly forgotten its Dominican “mission” which is to have classes that evangelize the faith. It is more likely that the school has fewer Catholic students because it cares less about promoting Catholicism and hence can make the poor excuse that no one is interested in certain classes about what the school itself seems to have lost interest in long before. Third: just some friendly advice – can the director of marketing and hire a Latin teacher.
Your thinking matches mine.
“‘The Dominican values are still being taught (at the school) every minute, but there are lots of other families that have been coming to the school. How do we reach out and embrace everybody who wants this Dominican education?…how do we continue Catholic education and have lots of different families of different backgrounds?’ she said.” The answer is a no-brainer for anyone possessing an apostolic spirit and normal Christian discernment. Those who do not possess this spirit and whose identity is less than Christocentric have no business running a Catholic school–indeed, no right under Heaven, human mandates notwithstanding. If a group of Cathar or Waldensian parents had approached St. Dominic and the nuns at Notre Dame de Prouille about educating their children response despite reservations, the response would have been clear: Unambivalent joy with loving effort to win their hearts over to the Catholic faith. Fundamental Dominican values are the same as they were 800+ years ago. … Purpose?: LAUDARE-BENEDICERE-PRAEDICARE. By what means?: CONTEMPLARE ET CONTEMPLATA ALIIS TRADERE. Centering on and handing on what?: VERITAS In what manner?: VERITATEM FACIENTES IN CARITATE.
Thank you, father. The state of Catholic Schools is very painful. If they indeed would have the spirit of St. Dominic they do welcome all students but not to keep them in darkness and under the yoke of falsehoods and heresies but to the Truth and Life of Christ Our Lord.
I totally agree.
Amen ! Alleluia! May Jesus Christ be praised!
As a Dominican Friar I am deeply distressed that a Catholic institution has chosen to succumb to the pressures of our secular society, which wants to deny the objective truth, Veritas, that God is present among us. Statues are a constant reminder that God is with us. Centuries ago stained glass windows were erected to tell the story of Christ when an agrarian-peasant community could not read. In this moment in our history when we are living in a post-Christian culture these statues represent a continuity with our past, in other words our TRADITION. The beauty of these statues are meant to lift our minds and hearts to God and the things of heaven. We need these sacramentals to inspire us to things above rather than what is on earth when our culture is slipping into depravity. In my opinion, those who have made this decision on behalf of inclusivity are seeking to promote a private school focused merely on placement in secondary schools of higher education. This is totally inconsistent with their desire to promote inclusivity. Inclusivity has nothing to do with test scores, advancement, and the cost of private education. I was a pastor with a school of 800 children. Not every child was Catholic but they were not offended by the Christian symbols, theology classes and celebration of mass. They and their parents knew what to expect when they enrolled them in a Catholic school. This is true inclusivity when children of different faiths can appreciate the similarities and differences among them while searching for the truth about themselves and God and what God desires for them. In the four years that I was there a number of the children along with their families converted to the Catholic faith. A little child shall lead them. Please pray for the conversion of these school administrators and for our country.
Amen.
And the non-Catholic families continue to enroll their children because…? The cafeteria’s menu is superior? The Friday Seafood selection is to die for? Are the 80%-ers unappreciative of the connection between Catholicism and a superior education, assuming that still exists at San Domenico?
The Great Apostasy …anyone???
When the basin of Man comes, will he still find faith on earth?
The Catholic parents will do nothing. They will roll over and accept this betrayal and pay 30K/yr anyway.
The Catholic parents will whine and cry but will not remove their children from this secular school.
So, they get what they deserve and their priests and bishop will remain silent with a variety of excuses for doing so.
I hope I am very wrong here. But I doubt it.
Unfortunately, this type of watering down of the Faith and Catholic environment has been going on for decades. The only major reason that I can see for parents of means, in sending their children to one of these in-name-only-Catholic-schools, is that a diploma from there still appears reputable and a way in to elite colleges and a comfortable life. If a student went into the school as a Catholic, it is highly unlikely that he or she would leave it Catholic. The world is all about feelings and inclusiveness these days. This is more important that gaining Heaven by the Cross.
A look behind the scenes of the lives and background of the major donors of the school would probably reveal a lot in the reasons behind these actions.
$30K per year? I looked up tuition at the school, you’re right.
Aren’t Catholic schools, especially high schools, becoming “private schools for the wealthy with 1 or 2 children?”
Are they really catholic anyway?
Experience taught me Catholic Medical Centers turned over to secular management that eventually the only semblance remaining of Catholicity is nominal. The name of the med center. Dominican Fr Seid is correct. I studied at the Angelicum [Pont U of St Thomas Aquinas] in Rome that had beautiful statues scattered about campus. And there were non Catholic students including a Turkish Muslim or two. No complaints whatsoever. What better way to unobtrusively convey the faith. San Domenico School is example of secular sellout of Christian values for secular values and increased cash. The Dominican Sisters nonetheless are at fault as were the Franciscan Sisters at the Catholic medical that turned management over to seculars. Shirking their responsibilities for greater comfort. The thirty pieces of silver has wide currency.
Fr Morello, thank you for your observations and your frequent appearances online in favor of the faith. I hope that your negative experience at the Angelicum was not within the past 10 years. If so, I will speak my confreres there at the next opportunity. I can attest that at least the American Dominicans presently assigned there to teach are zealous, spiritual friars who know and love God and are not the least bit PC. I am of the view that it is fine to have some Muslims studying at a Catholic school as long as (1) we are evangelizing them–which, sadly, has to be very discreet for reasons that we all well know; and (2) we are challenging them strongly in the classroom if their true motive is to obtain knowledge and credentials to undermine the universal Faith. We should be greedy for the souls (‘ salvation), not their tuition money.
Thanks Fr Seid. I was at the Angelicum from 99 to 02 and there were no issues whatsoever regarding the Faith, statues and so forth. In fact they had a daily Mass that many students attended and a beautiful liturgy. As said in Swahili [following my doctorate I taught at a seminary in Tanzania] Asante Sana.
Re-reading your comment Fr. Morello, I see that your intention can be read in two different ways. I apologize for the mistake if you were actually conveying the idea that non-Christians, including Muslims, receive a positive and helpful witness through the presence of vibrant Catholic art and that non-Christian students don’t necessarily have the problem that a certain kind of misguided “progressive” Catholic assumes.
Correct. It was positive.
“Cecily Stock, Head of School, told the Marin Independent Journal that the removal of sacraments from the curriculum was on account of a lack of interest from families, not an attempt to erase the school’s Catholic identity.”
But it will still do so quite handily thank you.
It seems to me that no one need bother in an attempt to “murder” Christianity in the West, its already committing suicide by slow strangulation.
Why do we even bother any more? Just wrap it all up and close it all down and put a for sale sign in front. Catholic church – had a good run, closed due to poor management.
What a way of thinking worth the deepest Garbage can!
“…the head of San Domenico School, Cecily Stock, claimed the decision was made “to make sure that prospective families are aware that we are an independent school.””…I trust that the Archdiocese will terminate any and all financial support so the school may be truly “independent”
So these parents who chose to send their children to a catholic school did not take that into account when making their decision whether or not to attend? I am thankful parents are speaking up against this creeping policy to remove all catholic references.
They have slowly over the years removed statues and now when it has gotten to the point of threatening catholic identity people have spoken up. I have yet to hear from the sisters who are still involved although less so than in years past.
I think there needs to be a full replacement of the administration as well as the board of directors if they believe being catholic means not being inclusive.
The first words of the article tell you what the problem is: “Over the last few years we’ve had fewer Catholic students as part of the community and a larger number of students of various faith traditions. Right now about 80 percent of our families do not IDENTIFY as Catholic.” Where else do we see this language? You can change your “identification” for gender, religion, whatever, as you wish. “Now I’m a ‘Catholic,’ now, I’m not! Presto-chango! It’s magic! I can ‘identify’ as anything I want, just by calling myself that! I’m a man! I’m a woman! I’m a ‘Catholic!’ I’m a pagan!” More grotesque confusion in the Bay Area.
“Take away the supernatural and what remains is the unnatural.” – G.K. Chesterton
“Tolerance is the virtue of man without convictions.” – G.K. Chesterton
“It is not that when men cease to believe in God they will believe in nothing, they will believe in anything” – G.K. Chesterton
“Take away the supernatural and what remains is the unnatural.” – G.K. Chesterton
“Tolerance is the virtue of man without convictions.” – G.K. Chesterton
“It is not that when men cease to believe in God they will believe in nothing, they will believe in anything” – G.K. Chesterton
“Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ.”
-Venerable John Paul II
Saint Thomas More said, “I do not care very much what men say of me, provided that God approves of me.”
“God does not require that we be successful only that we be faithful.” – Mother Teresa
Excellent.
“Deny Me before men and I will deny you before My Father.”
Imagine suggesting to the owner of a Kosher Deli that he serve ham sandwiches because many of his customers aren’t Jewish. How do you suppose he’d respond? “What, you can’t get ham at the Subway down the block?” The job of a Catholic School is to provide a Catholic education to its students. If they object to the “Catholic” part of that education (which embraces more than simply course material, but environment as well), there’s certainly another place those students can go that will not offend their religious sensibilities or those of their parents. Are none of those responsible for the operation of San Domenico School invested in CATHOLIC education? Unless they are, perhaps they should consider opening a Charter School that disassociates itself from the Dominican tradition, which is clearly about communicating the mysteries of the Catholic faith to its students.
You should be telling your students ALL of them this is a CATHOLIC institution. We will be teaching CATHOLIC religious education, be aware that ALL your children no matter what religion they are– will be learning the Catholic principles including sacraments. If you want to be a private secular school go for it– the Dominican Nuns should then have no part in it. They should be ashamed.
It ought to offend the non-Catholics to have the school think that removing statues that are part of the catholic identity of the school will help increase their sense of being welcomed. If I were to have my children attend a school with a different tradition I would respect that they value that tradition and wouldn’t expect or want them to diminish it for my sake. Perhaps it is the non-Catholic parents that need to step up and educate the school leaders!
It’s sick to remove the saints from the school. In our local area we had a problem with the local “Catholic school ” when they removed Latin for Chinese and had a art teacher come who draws profane and blasphemous images of our Lord that would be far too horrible to mention on this blog. When the art teacher’s profane art was brought up to the local Catholic authorities from a concerned parishioner, the parishioner was verbally yelled at in turn and rebuffed. The Catholic school wanted the money and didn’t give a care about that “art teacher” and their profane drawings of our Lord because the art teacher had a connection to big bucks for the school…
I think we need to be very Catholic at our schools, if someone takes offense at our saints then they can take themselves onto some other school.
Pray a rosary…. make a difference.
It seems as if Francis’ warnings against prioritizing money and a business mindset in the running of churches is falling on deaf ears in some quarters. Though that was inevitable ; surely, some parish administrators will ‘take it on board’.
Georgetown Univ. Jesuit of course did the same thing. It happened about the same time students in Poland were protesting to have crucifixes brought BACK into their classroom. When the Son of man returns will he find any faith on earth?
When I was a freshman at Dominican University (then Dominican Cllege of San Rafael) and in the process of coming back to Jesus and into the Catholic Church after getting involved in Buddhism and Hinduism with not so good results, I found great comfort in finding crucifixes in every classroom. I would often focus on the cricifix when anxious or afraid. That was in 1994. A year later, as I understand it, the Domenican Sisters of San Rafael who still had some say in the administration of the school, authorized the removal of all crucifixes across the campus. The reason given? To be inclusive and sensitive to those not of the Catholic faith. At the time a former Catholic turned Buddhist was the head of the School of Religion. I was reprimanded for removing posters promoting Planned Parenthood “services” from the stalls of a student restroom. I elected not to attend my graduation ceremony as they invited a widely known pro- abortion woman to be the commencement speaker. Pray for us all to remain faithful to Christ and to share faithfully the truth He came, suffered and was crucified for so that all might live.
An astonishing story. You really have my sympathy, and my admiration.
Surely, the low Catholic attendance at the school is all the more reason for the statue to remain there. It’s not exactly in your face proseltyzing, ina ny case. Just a subtle background presence, which is more than merited on any account.
No. This is not a result of complaints froom other religious groups, but the work of the Usual Suspects : the militant atheists.
Am I the only person left with the impression that these nuns seem to have no conception of the meaning of the word, ‘mission’, or ‘witness to a religious faith’. Christians have never done either by joining agnostics and atheists in their absence of faith.
Most of the Apostles were crucified, rather than ‘cave in’ to the status quo. That they are Domincan sisters seems all the more incomprehensible. It’s not as if the pupils are being actively proselitysed, either.
They seem to little understanding of the long-term effects of all manner of witnesses to the faith. In adolescence many devout children will lose their faith, but return to it later, often being able to reassess what they had learnt, when older and more mature in their understanding.
‘proselytized’ ! Sorry.
People need to stand up against this tyranny before we completely lose our free speech rights.
This “removing of statues” because of the many religions present is also the reason statues, bibles, pictures of christ, 10 commandments, and all the other religious displays are removed from public schools. They can’t favor one religion.
Yeah, but I’m reasonably sure a Catholic school is allowed to favor Catholicism.
Which statues were removed? This is a fundamental fact that has been omitted.
Sadly the millions of murdered Native Californians wont ‘t see the irony of how wealthy jews took over this school.
Oy Vey!