Keeping It Catholic -

Puzzle Pieces

 


Join our Faith, Family and Home Education Support Group!

Click to join KeepingItCatholic  

Just click and enter your email address to subscribe to the moderated Keeping It Catholic Faith, Family and Home Education list. While our emphasis is on home education, we naturally discuss and examine matters pertaining to the Catholic faith in our own lives, pray a continuing Rosary Novena for KIC members, and more.
Please Note: If you are Catholic, homeschooling or thinking of it, please join us! New subscriptions and all messages are subject to approval of the moderator and/or assistants.  



NACHE - A Date Problem

 

 

On the NACHE website, there is a letter allegedly written and sent to the 1997 Round Table of Catholic Home School Leaders meeting. Whether or not this is the original letter appears doubtful.

At any event, NACHE asked Laura Berquist to read this letter aloud at the meeting. While at the actual Round Table meeting, she had second thoughts and declined. Whatever was contained in the original NACHE missal sent in 1997 was not read at the RT . The organizer of that particular meeting decided it would serve no purpose, especially as NACHE decided not to attend. No one, except the organizer, read the original NACHE letter.

 

Over a year later, NACHE decided to publish this letter on their website.

 

There's one problem.

 

Dated November 5, 1997, NACHE's letter refers to events that did not occur until April 1998.(specifically, the Mothers Watch article). There is NO mention of an addendum to the original.

 

For two years, NACHE has NOT made any date corrections to this particular letter.

 

Incidentally, this same letter was sent to Katie Moran (CHSNA) in early June 1998 via email from Mary Hasson. The same discrepancies exist, except that NACHE presented it entirely in letter form, and not broken up in links.

 

The question remains, then: How can NACHE's 1997 letter reply to events that did not occur until April 1998??? The only reasonable conclusion to draw is the following: The letter dated November 5, 1997 which now appears on the NACHE website cannot be the original sent to the Round Table.

To see this discrepancy, go to http://www.nache.org/novfax97.html

Note the date the letter was allegedly written. Then...Scroll down to the link "Sex Education" and note the references to the Mothers Watch article which was not published until April 1998.

 

 


NACHE's Useful Links?

Although NACHE claims to provide all kinds of info on Catholic homeschooling, for over one year, they had just one link. As of June 18, 2000, their single link was to TORCH. Within months after this website pointed out that singularly interesting fact, NACHE updated their links page. Homeschoolers might find their explanatory note and their newer links just as "interesting." What's still missing? We can think of two ideas: Links to the five most well-known Catholic homestudy program, for starters. And links to Catholic homeschool support groups or websites that have not yet succumbed or capitulated to TORCH or NACHE in some way. one http://www.nache.org/links.html  


TORCH Logo: The Family in Flames?

A homeschooling mother wrote KIC and commented that her child 's first reaction to TORCH's logo was to ask why there was a "family in flames"? This is not the first time that question has been asked.

Catholics will have to discern for themselves by viewing the TORCH site: http://www.catholic-homeschool.com


Articles on This Page

(Just click on each underlined link.)

 

The "New" NACHE: Bridge Under Construction

NACHE had no advisory board for years, but they do now. Is NACHE laying a foundation of "names" in order to build its bridge? In the Lent 1999 issue of The Catholic Home Educator , there were names spanning the "conservative-liberal" array on the fairly new advisory board.


Homeschoolers Say No to NACHE

An increasing number of homeschoolers are avoiding NACHE conferences, tapes, and speakers.


   

Homeschoolers: Why We're Not Happy with NACHE

 Homeschool leaders and families report give reasons why they are not happy with NACHE.


Priest Resigns from TORCH

John H. Miller, CSC, PhB, S.T.D., publisher/editor of Social Justice Review resigned from the TORCH St. Louis after the chapter's president made an apparent allegation of schism to him and other members who wouldn't comply with her wishes.


"Official" (enforced?) homeschool program?

Might current sacramenetal guidelines be the preparation for a future, "enforced" homeschool program for Catholics?


Dialogue with the Diocese - Is It Prudent?

TORCH members alarmed about the group's officer iniating dialogue on homeschool guidelines contact KIC.


No Previous Experience Wanted!

 Learning Lesson: Remember when Monterey, CA homeschooling parents were manipulated by diocesan personnel? It was reported in the October 1995 issue of Catholic World Report. Has TORCH learned the lesson?


Rome Didn't Deny It!

The Pope's and Vatican officials's comments to Round Table delegates about Catholic homeschooling.


Diocesan Tricks of the Trade

Learn how to read and interpret phrases found in "homeschool" sacramental guidelines.


Beware: Faith and History Quiz

 Why is so much of your personal information needed for a simple Catholic quiz contest? 


Protestant flavored-but-Catholic-owned

homeschool magazine and book company

Catholic Maureen McCaffrey purchased controlling interest in S-Squared Products, the parent company of the evanglical Homeschooling Today Magazine. Miss McCaffrey also operates the Catholic-owned publishing company Lost Classics Books. Three years later, both the magazine and book company still flourish with a strong fundamentalist flair.


 

 

The "New" NACHE -

Bridge Under Construction

NACHE's (National Association of Catholic Home Educators) seven board members have given their organization a little face lift. As reported earlier both on this site and elsewhere, NACHE has announced its intent to pursue status as a "lay association of the faithful,"in order to be a "bridge" between homeschoolers and the hierarchy. KIC's earlier reporting was verified by NACHE itself in the Michaelmas 1998 issue of its newsletter, The Catholic Home Educator.

By the fall of 1998, the association printed a small advisory board to their newsletter masthead. With their new advisory board, it appears the NACHE "bridge" is well under construction. See the current list at the NACHE website. Why are these people "jumping on board"?

For Your Information: Scott and Kimberly Hahn, Michael and Teresa Aquilina, and Fr. Stubna, STD are now involved with NACHE. A new position was created for Kimberly Hahn as Chairman of the Board. As for the others mentioned here, all of them were members of the first meeting Pittsburgh homeschool study group. Those who continued with the group were Kimberly Hahn, Michael Aquilina, and Fr. Stubna (as well as others).

 

NACHE tries to claim ambiguity concerning guidelines - so the question remains: What message was NACHE sending when it asked those involved in Pittsburgh guidelines to "jump on board"?


Homeschoolers Say No to NACHE

An increasing number of Catholic homeschooling parents are saying NO to NACHE. They report they will avoid NACHE conferences, will not subscribe to their newsletter The Catholic Home Educator, will not purchase their conference tapes, and will boycott any of their board members who appear elsewhere as speakers. Others are writing to Catholic vendors who host tables at NACHE conferences and asking them to reconsider. These homechoolers feel it may be the only way to get the message through that NACHE is no longer serving the needs of Catholic homeschoolers.

 

 


Homeschool Families Report:

Why We're Not Happy with NACHE

 

 

When it comes to NACHE, more homeschool families and support groups report they are not happy with any of the following:

- NACHE's plans to be the "bridge" between homeschoolers and the hierarchy and their new association with Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore, MD to attain that end;

-NACHE's 1998 invitation to Fr. Kris Stubna of Pittsburgh, editor of the highly controversial Catholic Vision of Love, to give his side of "Pittsburgh Story" without likewise offering workshops from those homeschoolers who encountered serious problems in the Pittsburgh diocese;

-NACHE's acceptance and printing of an ad for the sex ed series Catholic Vision of Love (edited by the same Fr. Stubna),

-nor do they appreciate NACHE's refusal to apologize for the error in judgement.

 

If NACHE claims they only exist to serve homeschoolers, why are they not listening to parents and leaders from grassroots groups?

 

KIC is listening and the message we're getting from homeschoolers is clear: The majority of Catholic homeschool families do not want and did not ask for "representative" group to be a bridge to the hierarchy who offer reams of evidence they themselves are not obedient to the Magisterium or the Holy Father, to make decisions for them, to represent them or to speak for them.

 

Homeschoolers point out that....

-NACHE has no real membership; subscribers to NACHE's Catholic Home Educator are called "members."

-subscribers (members) are not ever asked to vote on any issues with which NACHE involves itself;

-homeschoolers are *not* allowed to vote for or against any of NACHE's plans;

-NACHE claims a willingness to dialogue, but what does that mean? They have demonstrated time and again their own definition of dialogue means working with people who will assist and support NACHE. On the other side of the coin, NACHE works very hard to discredit, dismiss, outcast or silence those who disagree with or correct them.

-NACHE has never been known to apologize for its mistakes. Their mistakes are either defended or else blamed on outside sources.

 -NACHE's board - all lay people - refuse to comply to the wishes of their spiritual director, Fr. John Hardon, S.J.

 


 

 

Priest Resigns From TORCH

Fr. John H. Miller, CSC, PhB, S.T.D. is the publisher/editor of Social Justice Review. He is a former Associate Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.

Fr. Miller was acting as spiritual advisor to TORCH (St. Louis, MO) but he resigned from the homeschool group in the summer of 1998. Local TORCH Chapter president Donna Meyers insisted that she, on her own authority, could claim to represent TORCH and write the St. Louis Department of Religious Education to thank them for guidelines - guidelines which were never officially signed by the bishop. Fr. Miller and the majority of TORCH members continued to resist this for almost an entire year while Mrs. Meyers continued to pressure members to give in to her wishes.

 At a summer 1998 meeting she again addressed the issue of writing a letter to the DRE in St. Louis. Fr. Miller said that Mrs. Meyers insulted those who did not agree with her views and labeled them as being "disobedient to the hierarchy" and, therefore, "in schism."

Because of the TORCH president's longtime insistence that she could impose her will upon the group, Fr. Miller finally called for a vote of Donna Meyer's resignation during the meeting. Mrs. Meyer insisted that such an action was not allowed. Fr. Miller then said he would resign himself. The TORCH St. Louis group disbanded for a time and then resurfaced.

"Torch is run by the elite. The rest must obey," said Mrs. Meyers at that last meeting which was taped. She further stated that, since a good number of the TORCH leaders are members of Regnum Christi (lay members of the Legionaires of Christ - LC), and are under personal spiritual direction of LC priests, TORCH is in direct contact with the Magisterium and thus, ipso facto, neither the TORCH group nor individual board members can be questioned or challenged. Mrs. Meyers casts a questionable light upon the LC's by this comment and also shows her ignorance of the Magisterium's true definition.

 

As reported earlier on this site, TORCH "Central" (as Mrs. Meyers calls it, meaning the "national board") has appointed a new leader who will attempt to reinstitute the TORCH St. Louis Group, continuing Mrs. Meyers' earlier attempts. The latest report is that Donna Meyers has since been asked to join the TORCH National Board.

 

On a related note: Fr. Miller congratulated Keeping It Catholic's Marianna Bartold for her "excellent articles" which brought to the public light of day the principles and actions of TORCH and NACHE. The articles were published in Mothers Watch and Catholic Family News.

 

  

Back to

Homeschool News

 

LinkExchange

 

LinkExchange Member