JSortf) Carolina Catholic
Edition of Our Sunday Visitor LVII May 26, 1968 Not 4 P.O. Box 9503
Subscription $5.00 10* per copy RALEIGH, N.C.
New Ecclesiastical Division of Florida
Province of Miami
Bishop McLaughlin
Takes Florida Post
On Sunday, June 2
Raleigh — Bishop Charles B.
McLaughlin, newly designated
Bishop of St. Petersburg, Fla., and
former Auxiliary to the Bishop of
Raleigh, has released dates which
will mark his concluding days in
North Carolina and his calendar
of events in Florida.
A parish reception tended him
by his parishioners of Our Lady
of Grace Church at Greensboro
and by the congregation of St.
Leo’s Church at Winston-Salem,
where he served as pastor at the
time of his consecration as Bishop
four years ago, will take place
Sunday, June 2, between 2 and 5
p.m.
Friends are cordially invited.
ON THE FOLLOWING day,
Monday, June 3, the diocesan
clergy will have a farewell day
with him. A Concelebrated Mass
will be offered at Sacred Heart
Cathedral here at 10:30 a.m. fol
lowed by a buffet luncheon at
12:30 o’clock.
Bishop Vincent S. Waters of the
Diocese will be host to the clergy
at his residence for the luncheon
which will be served there.
On Wednesday, June 12, Bishop
McLaughlin will attend the con
secration of Bishop-elect William
D. Borders at the Cathedral at
Baton Rouge, La. The Bishop
elect has been named as head of
the new Diocese in Florida with
1
Editor's
Desk
The editor of a Catholic'* news
paper holds his job for an average
»f seven years, someone told us
luring a period of socializing
while attending the convention
sessions of the National Catholic
Press at Columbus, Ohio, held
during the later part of last week.
As it had been 15 years since
we last associated among our
peers of the fourth estate there
were few personalities on the
scene whom we recognized. Pres
ent were editors representing 128
diocesan weekly newspapers, pub
lishers of many magazines and
authors of bools, as well as rep
resentatives from well-known
publishing companies.
The editor of the monumental
annual “Catholic Directory,” in
quired of North Carolina as he
was in service at Cherry Point
and Edenton. People whose
names we have read repeatedly
on the mastheads of newspapers,
magazines, or on the title page of
a book may very well be your
table companion at any of the
meal sessions during the conven
tion.
WE TRUST that the enthusi
asm, constructive thinking and
progressive movements in the
church to which we were exposed
during the convention will prove
of benefit to the editorial column
of our newspaper.
With the magic of the Whisper
Jets we left the convention 700
miles away and within a few
hours faced reality of the editor’s
desk.
We returned feeling that many
pf the crisis issues are more or
less events of the past and that
Sqc Editor’s Dcskf 8A
Convention in Columbus
Press Focuses on 'City of Man'
Columbus, Ohio — (NC) —
The Catholic Church today has
the opportunity “to give a mas
sive Christian witness to truth
and justice that she has not had
since the days of slavery,” a
Negro priest told a group of Cath
olic journalists here.
But it will miss the opportunity
unless it replaces sermons with
example and rhetoric with action.
The black priest was Father
Herman Porter of Rockford, HI.,
the convenor of the Black Cath
olic Clergy Caucus held in April
in Detroit. He spoke at the an
nual convention of the Catholic
Press Association.
The Black Clergy Caucus is
sued a statement at the end of
its two-day meeting which stated
that the Catholic Church is
“primarily a white racist insti
tution.”
FATHER PORTER admitted to
the newsmen here that the state
ment was not entirely accurate.
But it would be, he said, if the
word “primarily” were dropped.
“The Church does not exist to
promote racism as its first aim,”
he said, “but it certainly does
promote it as a by-product of
being part of a white racist so
ciety.”
But the point, he indicated, is
not worth arguing about. The fact
is that “there is a mood of skep
ticism prevailing among black
people when they regard the
present position of the Church on
the racial issue.”
Young black intellectuals have
written off the Church because
“they say the Church has writ
ten them off.” This alienation, he
said, has “reached a point of al
most total irrecondliation.”
THAT THE CHURCH has not
responded to the ghetto seemed
apparent to Father Porter in
these figures: 25 years ago there
were 800,000 Negro Catholics;
now, as the number of Negroes
has grown markedly, there are
somewhat fewer than one mil
lion.
“The Church’s response to the
racial crisis will determine
whether or not it will ever reach
those ‘other sheep which are not
of this fold,’ ” he said, and the
quality of its response will large
ly be determined by how well it
relates to these “other sheep.”
Why, he asked, do Catholics
who praised the Hungarian and
East Berlin freedom fighters of
the 1950s now condemn Negro
youths who want their freedom
and who are impatient with “the
See Press, page 8A
the Cathedral to be located at
Orlando.
ON THE DAY following, Thurs
day the 13th, Bishop Coleman F.
Carroll will be elevated to the
rank of an Archbishop and Miami
will be canonically established as
an Archdiocese for the related
dioceses of St. Petersburg, Or
lando and St. Augustine.
The installation of Bishop Mc
Laughlin as the first Bishop of
the new Diocese of St. Petersburg
will take place Monday, June 17,
with a Concelebrated Mass to be
offered in the newly designated
Cathedral of St. Jude in St.
Petersburg.
Concelebrating with him will be
the other Prelates of the Florida
Archdiocese and Province as well
as some representation from the
diocesan clergy.
On June 18, Tuesday, Bishop
McLaughlin will attend the in
stallation of Bishop-elect Borders
at similar ceremonies at St.
Charles Cathedral in Orlando.
ARCHBISHOP LUIGI RAI
MONDI of Washington, Apostolic
Delegate in the United States, will
officiate at the four rites sched
uled in Florida.
Being named the first Bishop of
a newly created Diocese “is quite
a challenge,” Bishop McLaughlin
said at his former parish at
Greensboro when he released the
news of his Florida appointment
by Pope Paul VI.
“I humbly accept but I do not
leave North Carolina without a
warm feeling for the people of the
State whom I have served for 27
years,” Bishop McLaughlin said.
Until being named to head a
diocese, Bishop McLaughlin was
pastor of Our Lady of Grace
Church in Greensboro and “Vicar
General of the Diocese of Raleigh.
BISHOP MCLAUGHLIN ex
pressed his pleasure at the cordial
reception given to him last week
as he made a hurried visit to St.
Augustine.
“The priests whom I met and
the people expressed themselves
in a most heartening welcome to
me,” the Bishop said.
The Cathedral at St. Peters
burg is a magnificent structure.
Built at the cost of $600,000, it
was dedicated five years ago and
has a seating capacity of 1,688
persons.
The nave is 120 feet long and
the Cathedral has a circular
sanctuary 56 feet in diameter and
See Bishop, page 8A
YOUNG AMERICANS HONORED — President Johnson shakes h»~l« (May 9) with William G. Glynn
III, 16, of Westbury, LX, N.Y., after presenting him with a Young American Medal at a White Haase
ceremony. Between them is 18-yearold Mary Lynne Donohue of Sheboygan, Wis., who also received the
honor. Glynn is a member of St. BrigM’s parish in Westbury, and Mary Lynne a member of St Clement’s
parish in Sheboygan. (NC Photos)