A recent Legislative Action Alert urges us to respond before August 15, this Friday. We are to contact Dr. Robert Schiller of the Illinois State Board of Education. The phone numbers are 866-262-6663 and 312-814-2220.
Help Defend Illinois’ Catholic Schools
On July 24 the Illinois State Board of Education decided to eliminate its state recognition process for non-public schools. Read “Catholic.” Since that decision, each Diocesan Office of Catholic Education and the Illinois Coalition of Nonpublic Schools has been urged to lodge formal protests and ask for reconsideration of this ill-advised decision by the Illinois State Board of Education.
Anyone with a brain stem knows most non-public schools are better than most public schools in turning out educated students, but secularization has become such a part of our godless society that decisions like this can be made and no one takes it amiss.
Well, here is your chance to set things right. Those numbers again: 866-262-6663 or 312-814-2220. Or submit your comments at the ISBE website or write: Dr. Robert Schiller, Illinois State Board of Education, 100 N. 1st St., Springfield, IL 62777.
State recognition of nonpublic schools is important for many reasons, among which is recognition by colleges and universities, scholarships and grants, teacher retirement programs, participation in IHSA athletic programs. So we don’t have much time — we suggest you call or send e-mail. Do it now. When we called the nice secretary said she was getting hundreds of calls and e-mails. Add yours.
Anti-Catholic Charles Schumer
Sen. Charles Schumer of New York is behind much of the anti-Catholic filibustering going on in the Senate to keep pro-life and Catholic Judges from being voted on by the full Senate. While we pray for his conversion every day, we don’t much like Charlie. We once told him he needed to brush up on the Bible and that we thought he should believe Christ.
Charlie suggested that I, like the Nazis, did not allow people to make up their own minds. I had brought up the Nazi image to remind him that Nazis allowed the killing of innocent people, much like abortion does. Schumer went ballistic and tried to give a patriotic speech to counter my statement and when the feminists in the hearing room began to applaud he halted and said “I don’t want applause.”
I replied, “You don’t deserve any.” Since that day Charlie and I have not been very friends but as I say, I pray for his conversion each day.
Robert Novak in a column Monday; says that while Sen. Ed. Kennedy is the backroom mastermind of the Democrats’ judicial strategy, Schumer is the point man. Schumer has raised religious questions in connection with Lon Holmes of Arkansas , Bill Pryor and others on the grounds that they have “deeply held beliefs” that would influence their decisions.
But Carl Anderson, chief executive officer of the Knights of Columbus protested the “deeply held beliefs” description in a July 30 letter to the Judiciary Committee, saying that these words constitute a prohibited religious test. Now other religious leaders are taking offense at Schumer’s code words used in his attempt to destroy judicial careers. Stay tuned.
Roeser: Women Support Abortion Restrictions
On Saturday, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Tom Roeser wrote on the steady growth of the pro-life movement, noting that the majority of women now want restrictions on abortion, but that the secular press is not reporting it. Roeser points out that fifty-one percent of 3,329 women surveyed last June either want abortion banned or limited to cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother. Support for restrictions on abortion is coming mostly from women.
