Catholic Church missed a chance to teach forgiveness
By Jim Galewski / Just Jim

Last week an unmarried fifth-grade teacher at a Catholic school in Wabasha, Minn., lost her job because she disclosed she was pregnant.

There are few items that make more appealing headlines than when the Catholic Church stumbles. As this story spread across the nation, every reader picked a side. Most sided with the young woman who chose to be honest and forthright with her employer. She signed a Catholic Christian Witness Statement when she took the job. Her bosses told her she didn’t live up to the statement because she had premarital sex. She was asked to resign and she did.
There is no denying this teacher broke an agreement she signed to be an example of Catholic values. The message she got from her employer showed that the Catholic Christian Witness contract is a one-way street.

If this young woman had chosen to quietly have an abortion and keep quiet about the pregnancy, she’d have a job today.

By being honest, her employer asked for her resignation leaving this pregnant woman with no job or health benefits. What an opportunity this school had to demonstrate a forgiving Christian example. It didn’t have to condone her behavior, but acknowledge that sinners deserve forgiveness and support. The school chose to symbolically stone her.

Given the labor laws of the state, I doubt if this moral contract holds any merit. At age 23 and emotionally stressed to find out she is pregnant, this young woman chose to reach out to her Catholic community. Instead of support she was turned out. The right decision wouldn’t have been easy, but we’ve seen it exercised often when priests stumble.

This woman chose to do the most Christian thing possible. She is choosing to carry this baby to full term.

As a Catholic, my faith has taken a beating as the news of how badly bishops of 50 years ago handled priests who abused children. We are expected to follow the old Catholic axiom of pray, obey and pay.

This lesson is a bitter pill. There was a better solution than to cast this young woman and her unborn child out into the streets. The Catholic Church should be a shining example of compassion and understanding.

This lesson showed us none of that.

Be a patriotic spender

Have you decided what you are going to spend your tax rebate check on? Everyone who files a tax statement will be getting a sizable check — from $300 to $1,600 — in the late spring or early summer.

And our president wants us to spend it.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve run your credit cards to the maximum; we’re hearing that you should do the “American thing” and fuel the economy with your rebate check.

The nice refund checks we’re all going receive in a few months might as well come from the Easter Bunny. This money that is being given to all of us will come from our grandchildren. The action puts the government deeper in debt, and our generation can never pay this back, even with increased taxes. So here we go again — “Don’t tax you … don’t tax me ... go tax that guy behind the tree.”

Of course, this boneheaded idea is getting bipartisan support. It is an election year, after all.

So don’t be un-American. Get out the catalogs and make your list. Christmas is early this year. Our economy needs you to spend, so don’t you dare put any of that money in the piggy bank.

MnDOT wants Huff Street

The Winona City Council is going to send a letter to the Minnesota Department of Transportation telling them the idea of rerouting Highway 43 to Huff Street is a bad idea. MnDOT has indicated it favors a new Mississippi Bridge west of the existing interstate bridge using Huff Street as the new location of the bridge. The new bridge will be four-lane, and that would mean Huff Street would have to be widened.

I live on Huff Street, so I have a vested interest. I also share the street with about 15,000 cars daily and hundreds — if not thousands of pedestrians going to and from Lake Park.

On an aerial map, I can see why MnDOT would choose the Huff Street route. For Winona, Huff Street has become a main connector from the city and the Winona State University campus to our main recreational area.

Using this street as a main thoroughfare for the rest of the world to pass through the city will gut this community and steal one of our most popular and attractive streets.

Let’s hope the city can turn MnDOT’s deaf ear. Huff Street as the new Highway 43 may be the most efficient route, but we’ll all lose a favorite route to the lake, and pedestrian traffic will have to go elsewhere.

Galewski is the retired editor and Opinion page editor of the Winona Daily News. His views don’t necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper. If you have an idea or tip about a Winona issue, call Jim at (507) 452-3960. His e-mail is editor@luminet.net.

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