Letter to the Editor

Published: January 24, 2008

To the Editor:

On Sunday, Jan. 13, I attended a presentation at St. Jude’s Church on Blessed Franz Jaegerstaetter, an Austrian farmer martyred in 1944 for refusing to join the Nazi army. The hosts, Pax Christi of St. Jude’s, hosted the event and it was well attended (given that it was competing with football playoffs!). Two Pax Christi members attended the beatification in October and showed slides of the event and also a film on his life that was done for German TV in 1971. What a saint for our times! I would like to recommend that each and every church in the archdiocese have a similar presentation. The beauty of this saint’s life was that he followed his conscience despite the advice of his own church hierarchy. It’s a reminder to all of us that in the end we each stand before the throne of God alone and must account for our lives with a just God who knows our inner motivations. I found the story moving and profoundly relevant to our own time.

Maureen Beamer, Dunwoody