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Fr Jack McCaslin's Federal Court appearance Dear Friends of the Omaha Catholic Worker, Fr Jack McCaslin's Fed. Court appearance on April 12 at 2:00pm was both pretty ordinary and great all at the same time. It is always a blessing to be with Fr. Jack in court for nonviolent peace witness to the Gospel. Jack was not in his best health, But still very present to the purpose and meaning of his court appearance , but with a raspy voice and not able to hear everything. So he used some head phones to hear what the judge was saying and asking when they were offered to him. Most of the arraignment was taken up with a lot of procedural things, with the Judge asking Fr Jack lots of questions about his plea of "guilty" and the acceptance of that guilty plea. Once the plea was accepted the prosecutor recommended a sentence of $300 fine and no jail time because of Fr Jack's poor health. Judge Thalken mentioned that he received 2 letters on Jack's behalf from Martha Hennessey ( Dorothy Day's granddaughter) and from the Baltimore CW folks at Viva House. Judge Thalken also received reports re: Fr Jack's health and treatments and tests coming up in April and May from his doctor's. Judge Thalken reminded Fr. Jack that he thinks that Civil Disobedience is wrong and will never work. The judge reminded Fr Jack that he has a privilege in using the " pulpit for spreading his message" and using legal protest would be much better than illegal protest. Fr. Jack in simple humility only said that " I do not want to pay a fine" and "I do this to the betterment of the world". Jack was supported by 15 supporters including 2 brothers and 1 sister, and several of Catholic Worker friends and priests. The judge sentenced Fr. Jack with 3 years Probation, $300 fine to be paid in $50 monthly installments as a requirement of his probation, and conferred with the prosecutor that because of health concerns that jail time would "not be appropriate". All was said and done in 45 minutes and we were all celebrating and heading home. Jack was satisfied. In a related concern Mark Kenney was given an April 27 report day to start serving his six month sentence at the Duluth Federal Prison Camp. You can start writing
to Mark after April 27 at: Marie and Mark Kenney will take a short vacation trip visiting friends and relatives in Minnesota before and then Marie plans to drop Mark of at the Prison on the appropriate day. That's all folks - for updates contact: Omaha Catholic Worker
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