After the Riot Report
THE columns of our weekly newspaper have been rightly
heavily larded with the facts of the National Advisory
Commission on Civil Disorders and the various pro and con
reactions which were the aftermath of this shattering blow to
any attitude of racial exploitation.
We think the digest of the report given in these columns
last week was clear evidence of the urgency for action.
We believe that commissioners and deputies of law and
order agencies will study their role in the handling of racial
matters. However, for ourselves, the average citizen with the
average responsibility of Catholic mindedness, the question
faces us, “What are we going to do?”
The prophets of doom on racial social justice give fore
boding warnings that the months concluding these bright spring
days will indeed terminate in the proverbial “long, hot sum
mer.” A cartoon depicts a housewife looking out her window
into the inner city neighborhood. Moved by emotional dread
of the news media, she comments to her husband as he com
placently reads the sports section: “It’s scary. We talk about
the riots we are going to have this summer as if there is nothing
we can do about it!”
We hope that you have not wrapped last week’s fish in the
editorial columns of this paper but will ponder over the choices
we have in. facing these crises which confront the nation. The
only one acceptable to the ideals of America will require an
unprecedented effort. As Harry Golden remarked this week
when he spoke to Catholic seminary students in the Middle
West, the solution will surpass the effort and expenditures of
the Marshall Plan, which put commercial and political Europe
on its feet.
The report made 18 recommendations, all of them brief and
to the point. We have not seen any appraisal or digest of the
federal report so well put as the one which appeared in these
columns last week.
We must, as Catholics, break through the complacent un
concern toward the inner city and poverty and racial prob
lems. The hour is striking when we must wake up unmistakably
to the close relationship between being Christian and Catholic
and being actively concerned with such problems.
No doubt the general indifference and neglect of the issue
during the past hundred years has put a latent racism in us
all. This must be rooted out of our personalities before we can
be whole-heartedly and sympathetically involved with better
community relations and rapport.
The Catholic Church throughout our land has given wide
notice of serious determination that these recommendations will
be high on the agenda of sociological concerns of the Church.
We have only four months until we face the summer crisis
again. We think that the lessons and indoctrination of the
Lenten lectures throughout the principal areas of the Diocese
must be continued to give a correct conscience and to direct
constructive action along improved race relations and op
portunities.
The Press and the Schools
THE present status of the Catholic parochial school system
as well as the relevancy of the Catholic press is sharing a
mutual spotlight these days, focusing on operational costs, com
munication rapport and professionalism of the personnel.
The Catholic News Service out of Washington tells us this
week of schools being closed for this fall semester and of grades
being dropped in the elementary curriculum. Bishop Sheen of
Rochester ordered a new policy for his diocesan paper which
he would rather discontinue. “I believe that the daily page
bought once a week in the^ secular press at advertising rates
is the Catholic press for the future,” he said.
JWe think that there are certain factors in these evalua
tions that are not as yet cited and at the same time are con
scious to us.
Let’s first look at the report on the schools. In the case
of most of reported school closings the enrollment figures are
given as very low. If this is true, then the question is to be
asked, “What is the over-all reason for this particular school
to be in operation?” Some schools are intended as a missionary
endeavor which automatically necessitates subsidy and a faculty
which recognizes its aim. Whether this be a school in the area
of the foreign or home missions is to us a vital factor. A school
located in a saturation Catholic community must have a dif
ferent status of appreciation. We know that mission is mission
everywhere as long as souls are present, but the administration
seems to us quite different.
In many Catholic neighborhoods that are being affected
by school closings we have reason to believe that there were
four of them located within a possible five-block area. It is not
unusual in many northern communities to have an “Irish,.
German, Polish, Lithuanian or French” parish plant within one
block of each other.
Many of these schools had eight grades taught by four
nuns with double classes. Standards of State education haye
wisely caused the union of neighborhood parochial schools into
one unit of eight separate grades. While it is true the closing
of schools include the continued shortage of Sisters, declining
enrollment, difficulty of obtaining lay teachers and the fi
nancial inability of some parishes to support the school, now
the factor of rising state teacher accreditations must also be
faced.
One of our Sisters recently received a bachelor’s degree
after 12 years of summer school and one year of college resi
dency. She did so with honorp^Tbis evidences the fact that given
See Editorials, page 6A
«.
25tb Anniversary
~ (J. S. CATHOLIC^
—nOHATlOHS
In Current Thought
Nuns Reject 'Faceless Wonder'
Role Says Sister; Paternalism
Must Recognize Personalities
New Orleans — Nuns no longer see any value in being the
“faceless wonders” of the Church in America, a Sister told the’
Conference of Major Superiors of Men here.
Sister Aloysius, assistant provincial of the Sisters of St. Joseph
in New Orleans, said nuns are committed to service to others —
“but we do insist that our service be personal.”
She spoke (March 12) at a dis
trict meeting of the Conference
of Major Superiors of Men,
which departed from past prac
tice in inviting not only bishops
but representatives of the Con
ference of Major Superiors of
Women and lay members of the
National Councils of Catholic
Men and Women.
“We want to cooperate with
our bishops,” Sister Aloysius
said. “We want to pour our
selves out in meaningful, per
sonal service to others. But we
do insist that our service be per
sonal; we no longer see^any val
ue in being the nameless, face
less wonders of the American
Church.”
Patronal Attitudes
Referring to the U.S. bishops’
recent joint pastoral, in which
the bishop’s role was presented
as that of a father, she said: “If
the bishop sees his role as fa
ther of grown children, fine.
“But if the father imagery en
courages the bishop to regard
his flock as youngsters in rela
tion to him, we must object. It
is impossible for men and wom
en to co-labor effectively if their
status as adult persons is not
recognized and appreciated.”
Bishop Gerard Frey of Savan
nah, one of 15 bishops attending
the meeting, presented results
of a survey on relationships be
tween diocesan and Religious
priests in his diocese. The study
showed the need for greater
participation by Religious priests
in the official and social life of
diocese.
There has been little or no
lay participation in the Church
five years after the council, said
John P. Sisson, Southern Field
Service director of the National
Catholic Conference for Inter
racial Justice.
Social Mission
The Church has been slow to
exert leadership in many areas,
he said, and “nowhere is the
slowness more apparent than in
the field of race relations. Lay
men will not follow blindly in
areas where the Church has not
ctutomarily exerted* leadership.”
Discussion which followed the
100% PARISH
Holy Redeemer Parish at Kill
Devil Hills on the outer banks
was the seventh one in the
diocese to submit the parish
family total subscription to the
weekly North Carolina Catholic
newspaper. The editor express
es his appreciation to Father
Joseph Klaus and to his parish
ioners for this cooperation.
panel presentations centered on
making the most effective use of
Brothers, Sisters and priests,
and the lack of dialogue be
tween superiors and bishops.
To get the most effective use
of Religious assigned to a dio
cese, they should be left in that
diocese for at least five years, it
was said. Many bishops felt
strongly on this, noting that if a
priest, Brother or Sister is
placed in a supervisory position,
then moved a year later, this
work is not only ineffective but
negated.
Catholic education also came
under fire, with discussion cen
tering on the amount of man
power needed to staff parochial
schools and how these people
could effectively be used in oth
er roles.
One recommendation urged
assignments of Brothers and
Sisters to schools from a dioce
san level rather than giving
them a school to themselves.
Communications Lack
Archbishop Philip M. Hannan
of New Orleans noted that “a
great deal of collaboration is go
ing on between various orders
and the dioceses, but we don't
advertise it enough.
“Also, a great deal of what
may appear to be a lack of coop
eration is often nothing more
than a lack of manpower.”
In a paper prepared for the
conference, Archbishop Paul J.
Hallinan called for further re
forms in the liturgy, stressing
that such changes should come
from a grass-roots level. The pa
per was read by Father Henry
C. Gracz, secretary of the At
lanta -arehdiocesan -liturgy com
mission.
Committee Publishes
Norms for Parochial
Structure Reforms
Baltimore — Cardinal Shehan
has recommended reorganiza
tion of all parishes here to in
clude a board of corporators,
advisory board and parish coun:
ciL
The recommendations were
drafted by a special committee
which the cardinal set up 18
months ago to seek methods of
revitalizing parish life. They are
set forth in a booklet being dis
tributed to archdiocesan priests
for discussion at a conference
on April 2.
Entitled “Guidelines for Par
ish Councils and Advisory
Boards,’’ it provides instructions
for forming an organizational
structure “devised to harness
the various talents, skills and
manpower in the parish.”
This structure is made up of
an advisory board, council and
board of corporators.
According to the booklet the
structure “has been in success
ful operation for over a year”
in five parishes of the archdio
cese.
All parishes in the archdio
cese have already been legally
incorporated under Maryland
law since May, 1963, and each
is a separate legal entity.
Each has its own officers who
include Cardinal Shehan as
president, the Auxiliary Bishop
as vice president, the pastor as
secretary-treasurer and two lay
men as corporators.
3-Point Action
The parish council recom
mended in the guidelines would
be composed of a representative
from each recognized lay organ
ization, the parish representa
tive to the Archdiocesan Coun
cil of Catholic Men, and five
members elected from the par
ish at large.
The purpose of the council,
according to the guidelines,
would be to coordinate parish
activities, avoid duplication and
be a forum to which the parish
A.C.C.M. representative would
report on programs proposed by
Cardinal Shehan to the A.C.C.M.
It would also be “the vehicle
which the pastor may use to ex
press to the parish some specific
projects, ideas or areas of action
which he desires to foster.” In
addition it would serve as “the
machinery which encourages the
release of ideas from the parish
ioners to the pastor.”
The guidelines suggest that
the council meet monthly and
invited all members of the par
ish, including nuns and clergy
to attend.
The parish advisory board
“should be distinguished for its
professional competence.” The
concept behind this body is “to
delegate to outstanding mem
bers of the parish those respon
sibilities and duties which pre
viously had been burden solely
of the pastor.”
NORTH CAROLINA CATHOLIC
Weakly Newspaper
fif Raleigh Diocese
Second Clast postage paid at Hunting
ton, Indiana.
Entered at the Post Office in Hunting
ton, Indiana, U.S.A. at the rate of
postage provided for in Section 1103 of
the United States Act of October 3.
1912 and of February 28, 1925.
Editor
Rev. Frederick A. Koch
Address: Bos 9503
Raleigh, N. C. 27603
TeL 919-833-5295
March 31, IMS
Vol. XXIII, No. 24