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PAGE 2 — The Southern Cross, November 28,1968
BY POVERTY LEADERS
Charities Urged To Use
Power To Change Society
BY ANNE M. COLLINS
PITTSBURGH (NC) -
Leaders of poverty groups
urged the National
Conference of Catholic
Charities (Nov. 19) to use its
power to change the system
that “helps the rich get richer
and the poor get poorer.”
pool of labor in the South.
It was “on the blood of
these slaves,” he said, that the
U.S. reached the takeoff
point, and added that “from
the beginning, U.S. society
has been built on the
exploitation of one group by
another.”
Speaking on the theme
“Poverty in a Democratic
Society,” the Rev. Andrew
Young, executive vice
president of the Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference, told some 1,300
Catholic Charities officials
attending the national
convention here, the United
States has a mythology about
poverty.
He said there is a myth
that Puritan, New England
virtures of thrift and hard
work created the capital
necessary for the United
States to reach the economic
‘‘takeoff point” in
industrialization. This, the
Rev. Young said, is not
true--the economy included
50 million slaves providing a
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There still is slavery, the
Rev. Young said, but it has
switched from individual
ownership of slaves to
collective ownership. The
slave from the planatation has
bfYn moved to the ghetto,
?, a liable for the use of
anyone wishing to draw from
a pool of cheap labor.
Now, he said, a ghetto
child in Chicago receives
$240 for his education, while
$900 is spent on a child in
the Chicago suburbs of
Winnetka or Evanston. The
Rev. Young said another
myth implies the ghetto child
is incapable of learning.
He claimed poverty has
kept the U.S. undemocratic,
because of the systematic
disenfranchisment of Negroes
in the South. This, he said
resulted in rural Southern
Congressmen being able to
acquire seniority and to
exercise a disproportionate
influence over legislation in
the U.S. The holding of
power by these “19th
century men,” the Rev.
Young said, is why U.S. cities
are in such bad condition.
There is not one city in the
U.S., he noted which has a
decent rapid transit system,
despite U.S. technological
development.
The Rev. Young said the
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poor fear genocide, because
automation is making them
less and less necessary to
society.
The SCLC leader said
“we’ve seen the end of the
poverty program.” He
expressed fear that Headstart
programs, now run by
churches and parents in
Mississippi, will be turned
over to the state board of
education, “which
perpetuates a racist culture.”
Poor people, the Rev. Young
said, watch their bright young
men-those with the ability to
complete college-end up in
prisons because they are too
bright. He said that “our
prisons are filled with bright
men from minority groups
between the ages of 18 and
25.”
The Rev. Young said
history is moving at 100 miles
an hour, while President-elect
Nixon wishes it to stand still.
By history, he said, “I mean
the movement of God in
history.” The question being
asked is “can this nation be
saved,” the Rev. Young said,
but soon it will be “can this
world survive?”
Dr. George A. Wiley,
director of the National
Welfare Rights Movement,
said that “we have poverty
because of people who are in
centers of power who
consciously want to keep
people poor.”
The answer to this, Wiley
said, may be to “change the
hearts and minds of those in
power.” He said to help the
poor,” we must assist them to
acquire what they need to
become a countervailing
power.” He noted the U.S.
bishops have supported the
concept of family allowances,
but said the country’s years
away from such a provision.
Presently, he said, people on
welfare receive less than $1
per day for their children,
when they actually need $4
or $5 a day to provide basic
necessities.
One thing wrong with past
battles against poverty and
discrimination, Wiley said, is
liberals thought they could
fight these battles “for poor
people,” instead of helping
the poor to get power to help
themselves.
Father Ralph Beiting, dean
of Mountain Missions,
Lancaster, Ky., said: “You
talk about poverty in the
ghetto, and I tell you that
people in the ghetto have
something, whereas people in
Appalachia have nothing.”
He said that at least there
is anger in the ghetto and the
urban poor have spokesmen
from their own ranks. But, he
said, ‘‘who speaks for
Appalachia?”
‘‘When I leave
Appalachia,” he continued,
“I see how well off the poor
are in other places.” In
Appalachia, he added, welfare
is for only the blind or
handicapped. It is a sad thing,
he said, to see a social worker
say to a healthy man, “I wish
you were blind or mutilated,
for then I could help you.”
People talk of dying cities,
Father Beiting said, “and I
tell you Appalachia has
already died.” Father Beiting
asked, “have you ever heard
of a riot in Appalachia?”
“You don’t find angry
people in Appalachia,” he
said, “you only find sad
people.”
Father Beiting criticized
Church leaders for taking
personnel from the rural poor
and sending them to the inner
city. He said Appalachia
needs “your leaders, your
young people who have ideas
and enthusiasm.”
‘‘We call ourselves
Catholic,” he said. “We are
not, and we haven’t been in a
long time.” In Appalachia, he
said, one finds “the least of
Christ’s brethren,” and has
done nothing for them.
Father Beiting said:
“There are one hundred ways
you could help, but the least
get nothing.” He pleaded
with the Catholic Charities
officials to send young people
into the rural area.
WASHINGTON - President Johnson turns to address five Army heroes to whom he presented the
country’s highest decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor, in a White House ceremony Nov.
19. Left to right: Spc 4 Gary G. Wetzel, 21, Oak Creek, Wis.; Spc 5 Dwight H. Johnson, 21,
Detroit; Sgt. Sammy L. Davis, 22, Martinsville, Ind.; Capt. James A. Taylor, 31, Ft. Knox, Ky.;
and Capt. Angelo J. Liteky, 37, a Trinitarian priest and Army chaplain. The President told the five
men honored that he would rather share their possession of the Medal of Honor than to be
President of the U.S. (NC Photos)
WOULD AFFECT ALL STATES
HEW Secretary Proposes
Easing Of Welfare Rules
BY JOHN R. SULLIVAN
WASHINGTON (NC) -
Wilbur Cohen has assured the
world that he will not go
gently into that good night
which inevitably descends on
cabinet members during a
chance in adminstration.
Cohen is President Lyndon
B. Johnson’s Secretary of
Health, Education and
Welfare, and soon to be a
refugee from the incoming
Republican administration.
He will not be forgotten
for, while Richard Nixon sat
in Key Biscayne, Fla., and
considered Cohen’s successor,
the Department of Health
Education and Welfare
proposed new rules for relief
recipients which would
eliminate the detailed
investigation which they now
undergo before receiving
assistance.
Instead, relief applicants
would be placed on the rolls
after signing a statement of
need. Spot checks would
replace the investigations
which now must be made of
each case.
The proposed chance
would affect all 50 states, and
would not require
Congressional approval.
Federal welfare officials
estimate that welfare case
workers spend between 70%
to 90% of their time
investigating the eligibility of
relief applicants. In addition,
the special investigative staffs
now necessary-Washington,
D.C. has 91 investigators,
three times the number in the
nation’s three largest
cities-could be cut back.
Those most affected,
however, would be the
welfare recipients themselves.
Under the present rules, they
must make application and
then-no matter how great the
need-wait from two days to a
week until the need is
certified. When they are on
the rolls, they must still
submit to more
investigations, including
unannounced visits at any
time of the day or night, to
see that they are still eligible.
Msgr. Lawrence J.
Corcoran, head of the
National Conference of
Catholic Charities, which has
long lobbied for changes in
the welfare system, called it
“a very desirable thing in our
present welfare system.”
He added that it is also
necessary “if we’re truly
going to have a system which
recognizes the dignity of the
individual and his basic
rights .... and if progress is
going to be made in devising
an efficient system of
delivery of assistance.”
Although there was hope
in these voices, the
ruling-scheduled to go into
effect next July 1 — is sure to
encounter some rough days in
Congress. Said one Solon,
“there’s still quite a distance
from proposing a policy and
actually having it
implemented.”
While Congressional
approval is not needed, new
legislation could prevent the
rule from becoming effective.
Such action, while not
predictable, is hardly
unlikely. Sen. Robert Byrd of
West Virginia, head of the
Senate Committee on the
District of Columbia, has
maintained for years that
most welfare clients are not
eligible for benefits.
He produced a study
several years ago which
claimed that 59% of D.C.
welfare recipients were
ineligible, and forced the
District to nearly double its
investigative staff.
Other Congressmen had
repeatedly expressed alarm in
the growth of U.S. welfare
expenditures--from $3.8
billion in 1960 to $7.8 billion
in 1967--and last year
criticized the Supreme Court
when it struck down two
favorite tools for keeping
welfare rolls down: the
residence requirement and
the “man-in-the-house” rule
which restricted payments to
women and children.
The most alarming
increase has been felt in one
category-Aid to Families of
Dependent Children. In 1950,
this accounted for
one-quarter of all public
assistance programs in the
U.S., and was only one-third
of the Old Age Assistance
payments.
By 1965, AFDC was more
than one-third of the total,
and had nearly drawn equal
to the Old Age Assistance
program. This year, it will be
the largest single public
assistance program.
That growth has prompted
two reactions-a movement
for establishment of a
completely new system of
family-aid, such as the
negative income tax, family
allowances or guaranteed
income, and increasingly-bit-
ter denunciations of all
welfare programs.
ST. SIMONS BAZAAR - At the November Meeting of St.
Williams PCCW (St. Simons), plans were finalized for the
Christmas Bazaar to be held at the County Casino on December
4th. Featured will be Handcrafts, an old-fashioned Christmas
Tree, White Elephants, Baked Goods, a Garden Shop and dozens
of other added attractions. Lunch will be served from 11:00 AM
to 2:00 PM and a chicken supper from 6 to 8:00 PM. Shown
here is Father Joseph A. Costello, pastor of the new parish
(formerly a mission) of St. Williams. Father Costello is from
Waycross, and enters into the enthusiasm of the workers,
inasmuch as the total proceeds are to go to the erection of a
new rectory and parish hall, construction of which it is hoped
will be started before the end of the year.
Cohen’s latest action, since
it would have its effect just as
Richard Nixon’s
administration is taking over
in Washington, represents a
direct challenge to the new
President and Congress to
pursue either course-and
soon.
That challenge comes
more from the political
implications than from the
direct effect on state welfare
programs.
Most Rev. Gerard L. Frey, D.D. President
Rev. Francis J. Donohue, Editor John E. Markwalter, Managing Editor
Phone 234-4574
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BISHOPS APPROVE
Interim Norms
For Seminaries
WASHINGTON (NC) -
The National Conference of
Catholic Bishops has
approved further guidelines
for the renewal of seminaries
according to the plan of the
Second Vatican council. The
bishops authorized release
and publication of the texts,
to serve as interim norms for
renewal until the seminary
program has been completed
and final approbation
received from the Sacred
Congregation for Catholic
Education.
Previous guidelines have
outlined the seminary
program for high schools and
most of the program for
colleges. The newly approved
directives deal principally
with the theologate-pointing
to a renewal in spiritual
formation, community life
and discipline, and pastoral
training. In addition, the
college siminary program has
been completed with the text
on curriculum.
Still under study by the
Bishops’ Committee on
Priestly Formation are the
curriculum renewal and
administration policy in the
theologate; guidelines in these
areas are expected to be
proposed to the National
Conference of Catholic
Bishops by April, 1969,
completing the U.S. Bishops’
seminary program.
The college curriculum
guidelines state that the chief
aim of formation at this level
of siminary training is to help
the candidate for the
priesthood “mature as a
liberally educated human
person, committed to Christ
and to the service of his
neighbor.” They point out
that the central study of a
humanistic education is the
study of man himself in the
context of world history and
culture. A strong emphasis
must be given to the training
of the student in philosophy.
In addition, such
education requires an
introduction to the
behavioral and social sciences,
the history of man and his
cultural heritage and a
theological reflection on
man’s nature and destiny.
Such education demands also
an appropriate skill in the
communications media and
the creative arts.
Spiritual formation in the
theologate is described as a
process of growth and
development toward priestly
maturity. This is seen as a
readiness to serve the People
of God by communicating
His Word and Sacrament and
by forming community.
Thus, in addition to growth
through prayerful reflection
on God’s Word and through
sharing in the Eucharist,
today’s seminarian must grow
through “an experience of
the Church.”
The bishops see an
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expanded role for seminary
faculties in that-beyond their
teaching-the priests will
contribute to individual and
group guidance and
reflection.
The Community Life and
Discipline section of the
program emphasizes the
development of a
well-defined personal
responsibility within an
atmosphere of balanced
freedom. Just as seminaries of
the past served the needs of
their ages, today’s seminary
hopes to develop priests who
have matured in the exercise
of initiative and personal
responsibility.
Seminary goals include
virtues prized among
Americans, such as
teamwork, adaptability, and
tolerance of another’s faults
and limitations.
Although pastoral
orientation characterized the
whole body of seminary
guidelines, in the Pastoral
Formation section the
bishops issue a particular call
that a supervised field
education program be
established in every
theologate. The program
envisions a kind of laboratory
of practice, involving the
learning by identification and
practice that has
distinguished internships in
other professions. The field
education director, trained in
supervision, is to have full
faculty status; and the
program is to be constructed
as an integral part of the
curriculum.
The guidelines were
developed by the Bishops’
Committee on Priestly
Formation under the
direction-until his death last
July 22-of Bishop Loras
Lane, of Rockford, Ill.
Through workshops and
meetings of advisory
committees, and through
tentative texts sent by mail
for written evaluation and
correction, hundreds of
representative seminary and
lay personnel across the
country contributed to the
texts finally agreed upon by
the bishops.
The fact that the
guidelines are “interim”
-operative until the program
has been completed-will
allow the entire U.S.
seminary, priestly and lay
community to offer
suggestions and corrections
before the final text is sent to
Rome for definitive approval.
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