Fahringer, Catherine 1922-2008

Catherine Fahringer (née Compton) gained local and national recognition as a full-time activist and author promoting the separation of church and state. Catherine Compton was born in 1922, the daughter of a career military man who died serving his country in World War II. In the early 1940s Catherine married Fred Fahringer, also a military serviceman. The couple lived in several areas of the United States as well as abroad in Japan and France before settling in San Antonio. The Fahringers had two children, a son and daughter. The daughter died in young adulthood.

Catherine became actively involved in advocating freethought in 1988. Fahringer, along with Don DeNatale and Jeffrey Levan, co-founded Freethought Forum as a San Antonio chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation based in Madison, Wisconsin. Fahringer served as sole director of Freethought Forum from its beginning in 1988. The local chapter’s purpose was to defend a wall of separation between church and state, specifically taking stances against organized school prayer, prison ministries, courtroom oaths, and tax supported preaching. Freethought Forum also sought to educate people about atheist and agnostic terms and beliefs. Members of the organization met monthly during the early years of the organization, and began distributing a monthly newsletter in 1989. However, due to lack of volunteers and funding, Freethought Forum combined with the San Antonio Secular Humanist Association (SHASA) in 1991 for local meetings, programs, and dinners. Freethought Forum members received the SHASA newsletter, Alternate Approach, in place of Freethought Forum’s newsletter. Combined, the two organizations averaged a total of one hundred members. Each group maintained ties with their respective national organizations for support in protesting church/state violations, issuing press releases, and organizing larger activities. Fahringer dropped her membership with SHASA in 1996 in light of conflicting views.

Fahringer drew attention to several issues regarding the separation of church and state in San Antonio. On behalf of her chapter, Fahringer produced and hosted a weekly public-access television program on cable called “Freethought Forum”. In addition, Fahringer heightened awareness of church and state issues by actively writing letters to media sources. Fahringer sent letters of praise, complaints, requests, and information to editors and columnists of newspapers and magazines, television and radio personalities, political leaders, schools, community leaders, businesses, and other organizations. Fahringer’s freethought efforts were featured in a 1991 article, “Portrait of an Atheist”, in the San Antonio Express-News Magazine.

Fahringer’s efforts resulted in several accomplishments on behalf of freethought. She obtained a proclamation by the Mayor of San Antonio for a Freethought Week in October of 1994, and for the display of a “Freedom From Religion” banner hung across Broadway Avenue. In addition, Fahringer organized a protest against the Mayor’s prayer breakfast in 1991, and a “Rally for Reason” in 1994. Fahringer also persistently attempted to air a 60-second freethought commercial featuring Freedom From Religion Foundation founder, Dan Barker. After none of the four major San Antonio stations accepted the commercial, Fahringer consulted the Federal Communications Commission. The commercial was never aired in San Antonio, however. Fahringer also worked to remove banners displaying religious symbols from San Antonio lampposts, to remove prayer from public schools and universities, and to move voting booths out of religious institutions. Other interests of Fahringer’s include abortion and gun control issues.

On the national level, Fahringer served as secretary for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and regularly contributed articles to their national publication, Freethought Today . Fahringer also appeared on the Sally Jesse Raphael show entitled “Lost and Found Religion” in 1990 with Dan Barker and Nancy Harris of the national organization.

Catherine resided in San Antonio and was involved in freethought issues and the Freedom From Religion Foundation until her death in 2008.

From the guide to the Catherine Fahringer Papers MS 60., 1926-2008, 1979-2008, (University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections)