Karen is a 14-year old student at a Catholic school run by priests who always preach love, tolerance, understanding and respect. But, like any other bourgeois institution, the representatives of the Vatican don’t practice what they preach.

During the school year, her parents went to many parent-teacher meetings where they were told she was doing well in her classes and in the school in general. But at the end of the year they were told that Karen didn’t pass her courses. Startled by this, they made inquiries and finally discovered why she failed: because Karen didn’t believe in God. In the same class, several students who were found drunk in class passed to the next grade. When the parents confronted the priest in charge, he said that the drunk students believed in God and therefore they were being given another chance. But Karen, a young CHALLENGE reader, was denied that second chance.

Karen and her family have always been very analytical, critical and rebellious against the inequalities of capitalism. Karen has debated many times with fellow students and teachers about aspects of PL’s line on the fight against sexism, nationalism, low wages paid to workers, police brutality, etc. This was the real reason she was attacked by the priests.

The racist, fascist double morality preached by the Church and all bourgeois institutions will continue as long as there is wage slavery. This and many other attacks just reinforce our commitment to build PLP as an international communist party to fight for a society where religion and all other reactionary ideas won’t be the opiate of the masses. Our work among young students and workers is ensuring that that day comes sooner rather than later.

A Comrade, Colombia