Good things are happening in our work to make the story of Franz Jagerstatter better known in the USA. As of now, few know about the struggle of conscience, the evolution of Franz to be a soldier of Christ rather than a soldier trained and devoted to killing. Here are a few things we have been doing to raise the consciousness of America Catholics and people of all faiths:
- We had vigils at 16 United Statescathedrals this past Lenten season. At each of the dioceses we prayed and fasted and gave out flyers telling of Franz.
- We created a web site www.franzprayforus.org
- We wrote a play—Franz Jagerstatter—and hope to see it acted out soon—perhaps this year.
- We encouraged and advised one of our group (Fr Roy Bourgeois), to go ahead with plans to do a documentary on Franz. Just last week, Fr Roy returned from St Radegun and the video should be ready for English speaking audiences this coming September or October.
- We will have Franz Jagerstatter tables at two major events this year, the Pax Christi annual meeting (this year in Philadelphia) and the annual Ft Benning, School of the Americas Watch event in Georgia (November 21-23), Over 25,000 were there last year and that many or more will be there this year.
- Our Franz Jagerstatter group will meet on June 5th at Interlaken, NYat Cayuga Lake. We hope to have a telephone conference phone and if so, perhaps you in Austria can be part of it.
gec, Gilroy
