Franz Jägerstätter, who was killed for refusing to fight for the Nazis, will be beatified on Friday, October 26. There are at least 2 Worcester-area events honoring him on that day. At 1pm at Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts, at the Zecco Audiorium, there will be a screening of the Jagerstatter documentary “The Refusal,” followed by a discussion. Then at 7:15pm there will be a mass celebrated by Fr Bernard Gilgun at the Mustard Seed, 93 Pleasant St, Worcester, Massachusetts. After mass (8pm) we’ll be watching “The Refusal” there. All are invited to these events.
If you are planning a Jagerstatter event or teaching about him, here are some useful resources.
Holy cards: These can be ordered from the Catholic Peace Fellowship. They’re asking a 25-cent donation per card. There’s a funkier card available from Pax Christi for $1.25.
I’m distributing the CPF version of the holy card around Worcester.
DVD: You can order a DVD of the Jägerstätter documentary “The Refusal” from the Center for Christian Nonviolence for $5. I haven’t seen it yet.
Handouts: The Catholic Peace Fellowship has two handouts, in PDF format. In Sign of Peace vol 2.3 (pdf) is the article “In Light of Eternity: Franz Jägerstätter, Martyr.” They also have a lesson plan: Following Christ in a Radical Way: Conscientious Objection and the Story of Franz Jägerstätter (pdf).
Articles: The Wikipedia page on FJ could be much better. I believe that the standard book on FJ is Gordon Zahn’s In Solitary Witness.
I took many of these links from the Catholic Peace Fellowship. I hope the other Pie and Coffee editors will revise this article as they see fit.