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PAGE 4 — The Southern Cross, January 8,1970
Published at Waynesboro, Ga.
Most Rev. Gerard L. Frey, D.D. President
Rev. Francis J. Donohue, Editor John E. Markwalter, Managing Editor
Second Class Postaqe Paid at Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Send Change of Address to P. O. Box 10027, Savannah, Ga. 31402
Published weekly except the second and last weeks
in June, July and August and the last week in December.
Subscription price $5.00 per year.
Monsignor Toomey
With the death of Monsignor John D.
Toomey, not only the Catholic Church
in the Diocese of Savannah, but the
people of South Georgia have lost an
understanding, concerned and dedicated
friend.
Monsignor Toomey was a priest in the
truest sense of the term. While never
forgetting that he was ordained to feed
the People of God in very special ways --
by imparting to them the Good News of
Salvation and by bringing them spiritual
sustenance in the Sacraments, he was
especially mindful of the priestly
ministry he received with Baptism -- as
we all have - of providing witness before
all men of the saving presence of Christ
in a world which often seems so alien to
all He represents.
It was that consciousness which
carried Monsignor Toomey to horizons
transcending denominational lines --
horizons wide enough to embrace all
men as brothers and as citizens of both
the City of God and the City of Man.
So, while he loved the Liturgy as an
expression of the corporate worship of
his brothers and sisters in the Roman
Catholic Church and as a dramatic and
meaningful method of engendering and
encouraging response to the Gospel
imperatives of genuine love for God and
follow men as His most dear children, he
carried his own Ministry into the
market-place where men of all races and
religious beliefs searched for ways to live
at peace with one another in a spirit of
justice and brotherhood.
The difference between the racial
climate of Savannah in 1963 and 1970 is
great. Neither whites nor blacks would
relish a return to 1963. No man in
Savannah is more responsible for the
improvement than Monsignor Toomey.
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The era of transition from the
polemics which set Christian against
Christian to the ecumenics which have
drawn Christians of different
denominations into common cause as
they seek to establish the rule of Justice
in modem society coincides with the
years of the Second Vatican Council and
its aftermath. But, in Savannah it also
coincided with the ministry of Monsignor
Toomey in the ecumenical endeavors of
the Diocese of Savannah.
Monsignor Toomey’s greatest
monuments are in the hearts of all whose
lives are the better for having known him
and his Priestly Ministry. But the
tributes offered by religious leaders of
many denominations and the progress
thus far in the field of human rights in
Savannah are the clearest indications
that in his death, men who cherish the
ideal of Peace on Earth among men of
Good Will have lost a devoted champion
and a warm friend. Let them now
commend him to the Love of the Master
he served so well. May he rest in
well-earned and eternal peace.
The Rusk Affair
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The recent antics of Governor
Maddox and a minority of the State’s
Board of Regents over the appointment
of former Secretary of State Dean Rusk
to a post in the University System are a
clear indication that the academic affairs
of the University system should removed
from the machinations of politicians and
political ‘cronyism.’
Neither the Governor nor Regent Roy
V. Harris, who led the opposition to
Rusk’s appointment, was able to adduce
a single objection to the former
Secretary of State’s credentials as a
valuable asset to the University program.
Those who opposed him did so for
reasons which have nothing at all to do
with his ability to contribute to the
States educational efforts. All disagree
with what they believe to be the political
philosophy of Mr. Rusk. In addition, Mr.
Harris, dean of the State’s race-baiters, is
still choking on an inter-racial marriage
in Rusk’s family.
The prerogatives of the Board of
Regents ought to be limited by the
General Assembly to strictly
administrative functions of the
University system, with the appointment
of professors assigned to some
responsible organization representative
of the Academic community. The
present system of appointing professors
makes about as much sense as
dock-workers voting on who should be
named to captain the ships they load.
CIVIL RIGHTS STORM COM1NC
T he B ackdrop...
By John J. Daly, Jr.
Has the House of Representatives dealt the
civil rights movement a major defeat by
declining to scrap the 1965 Voting Rights Act?
Or, did the House merely recognize that
progress in voter registration of Negroes in the
Deep South has earned a lifting of the
“punishment” of the 1965 law.
These are the principal arguments which will
e m e rge when
Senate debate
begins, probably in
late March, on a
bill approved in the
House by a narrow
208 to 203 margin.
And it could be a
lenghty debate
because some
liberal Senators are threatening to filibuster.
The 1965 law grew out of national anger at
police clubbing of civil rights marchers in
Selma, Ala. Since passage, it has helped put
more than 1,000,000 Negroes on voters’ lists in
the Deep South.
The law, due to expire in August, 1970,
provided that in states where less than half of
the voting age population voted or were
registered in 1964, literacy tests and similiar
devices-often used to block registration
attempts-would be suspended and Federal
“examiners” would be sent in to register
qualified persons. It also forbade states subject
to the act to change voting laws unless cleared
with the U.S. Justice Department or the U.S.
District Court in Washington.
The Nixon Administration has proposed a
substitute. It would eliminate literacy tests in
every state where they exist, but it would also
drop the provision that states must clear
changes in voting laws with Federal authorities.
To deal with states that attempt to change
voting requirements in a manner that would
discriminate, the Nixon subsitute provides that
the U.S. Attorney General challenge the state in
court.
Civil rights advocates are centering their fire
on the last provision. They claim it is weak
because it would take years to strike down
voting registration changes on a case-by-case
basis.
Some advocates of a simple extension of the
existing law, such as Rep. Emanuel Celler of
New York, chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, are uneasy with the power the
Nixon proposal would assign to the Attorney
General. He alone would decide what changes
in voting practices would be contested. He
would also decide when Federal examiners
would be sent in to supervise elections; they
would no longer enter automatically under
terms of the law.
Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott of
Pennsylvania, who opposes the Nixon
substitute, reportedly has urged the President
to agree on a compromise measure. His action
has come against the background of predictions
of a tough battle in the Senate when the bill
reaches the floor and of strong resentment
among Negro and other civil rights leaders.
As one indication of the heat building up on
the Senate, Clarence Mitchell, chief lobbyist for
the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, has spoken of feelings as if
“the Klan was on the floor of Congress voting
to lynch the Negro at the polls.”
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A TIME FOR REFLECTION
It Seems To Me
Joseph Breig
Our tenth grandchild
(thanks to God) has arrived
safely Baptized James
Andrew. First child of our
second son, James Paul, and
of his wife Mary.
Sometimes we refer to
Jim’s wife as Marystiver,
running her maiden name all
together, so
that we’ll
know which of
our Marys we
are talking
about.
In addition
to Marystiver
there is Mary
my wife, and Mary my sister,
and our daughter Mary and
her daughter Mary Jo - plus
sundry other Marys among
relatives and acquaintances.
It is somewhat the same
way with the name Joe.
There are Old Joe (me) and
Young Joe, our first son, and
his (and Ann’s) son Joey, and
various others.
The birth of a grandchild
invites one to a moment of
reflection.
Five children we have.
And 10 grandchildren. And in
due time, no doubt, there will
be great grandchildren, and
great great grandchildren, and
so on to the end of time.
Folks do a lot of talking
nowadays about being
relevant, being involved,
helping to shape the future,
and all that.
Mary and I are helping to
shape the future--no question
about that. We are involved.
We are relevant. The world
will be different for our
having passed this way.
Three of our children are
teachers - and if the hand
that rocks the cradle rules the
world, so does the hand that
writes on a blackboard in a
classroom.
A son is in business
administration; and business
has something to say about
our tomorrows. And a
daughter is the wife of an
editor, a mother of five, and
an apostolic Christian activist.
Five children . . . Ten
grandchildren ... I think of a
book on a shelf in our living
room -- a thick book listing
the descendants of Jacob
Hochstetter.
Jacob Hochstetter was my
great great great grandfather.
He was a member of the
Dunkards (a religious group
much like the Amish or the
Mennonites) and he came to
our shores before the
Revolution in search of
religious freedom.
His descendants number in
the many thousands las do
the descendants of other
ancestors of mine-the Breigs,
the McKenzies, the Patons).
They are scattered all across
this continent, influencing
their communities,
influencing America,
influencing the world.
_ , . v
Who ' but God can ever
measure the immensity of the
role of such forebears in
forming and developing this
astonishing nation in which,
despite our failings, “all men
are created equal and are
endowed by their Creator
with the right to life, liberty
and the pursuit of
happiness”?
I look at Mary my beloved
wife, and I think of our
children and grandchildren
and the numberless others yet
to come, and I reflect that
you can’t beat something
with nothing.
You can’t beat existence
with non-existence.
From the time when the
Creator blessed Adam and
Eve and commissioned them
to be his co-creators by
multiplying and filling the
earth and civilizing it, the
future has belonged-and will
ever belong-to those who
bring forth, and those who
help to educate, the sons and
daughters of God and of men.
You can’t beat somebody
with nobody.
This is the latest style, Sisters. It’s called
the maxi-skirt.”
Plight Of
Biafrans
(This is the third in a series of articles by Irish-born
Father Dermot Doran, C.S.Sp., now on a fact-finding
mission to Biafra. Father Doran was one of the first
persons to break the blockade of Biafra-the
secessionist Eastern region of Nigeria-in order to
provide food and medicines for civilians in the area.
He is an adviser to U.S. Catholic Relief Services.)
BY FATHER DERMOT DORAN, C.S.Sp.
(NC NEWS SERVICE)
OWERRI, BIAFRA - The Nigetta-Biafra
war has many tragic facets for the population in
the blockaded enclave. Villages not directly
under military siege must face the daily task of
feeding and rehabilitating refugees who have
fled from combat areas.
Among the many places I have visited during
my current fact-finding mission in Biafra are
Urua-Akpan and Mbutu-Okohia. Areas of the
Urua-Akpan township were on the brink of
being overrun by Nigerian forces when I visited
there for three days, Nov. 23-25. Mbutu-Okohia
is a major crisis area in terms of relief for
refugees, and I observed the plight of relief
workers there during my three-day visit in that
area, Nov. 29-Dec. 1.
The parish of St. Mary’s Urua-Akpan is
surrounded by the Imo River in the
southwestern portion of Biafra. It is also a
battle zone in the two-and-half-year war
between Nigeria and Biafra. Since March, 1968,
Nigerian troops have flanked the parish on
three sides, periodically bombarding it with
heavy artillery and mortar shelling. The
121,000 inhabitants of the parish had grown so
accustomed to the situation that they paid little
attention to the front-line trenches of the
defending Biafran troops or the presence of the
front-line Nigerian troops a mere one-and-half
miles away.
The three St. Patrick Fathers who man the
mission, like their people, had learned to live
with the situation and continued to minister to
their parish regardless of the nearby machine
gun fire and usually inaccurate mortar shells.
The feeding of 41,000 refugees who fled
from Port Harcourt 20 months ago-and who
have since had to relocate as many as five times
before finally settling in the Urua-Akpan
area-was being handled efficiently by Father
Sean Doggett of Dublin and Father Patrick
Walsh of Wesport County Mayo.
Another colleague, Father Anthony Cronin
of County Clare, was progressing undisturbed
with the care of his 80,000 parishioners. That
was until the morning of Nov. 24, at 4 a.m.
The stillness of the night was shattered by
the sound of heavy shelling. Although louder
and more consistent than usual, it attracted
little notice at first. Fathers Walsh and Doggett
arose at 5:30 a.m. and left the mission house
around 6:30 to travel some miles away to say
Mass for the people as they had been doing.
Father Cronin remained at the mission center
to say the morning Mass there.
By 9 a.m., however, heavy machine gun fire
and mortar fire was coming nearer and a
Biafran soldier advised Father Cronin that it
was better to evacuate as the Nigerians had
broken through at a point two miles from the
mission house and were heading on a course
which could cut off the mission.
Because the other priests were still out at the
stations, the intrepid Father Cronin got on his
bicycle and, armed with a pair of Japanese
binoculars, went off down the road to see for
himself. A half-mile away, he met the Biafran
front-line troops retreating. They had little
amunition and the Nigerians were so heavily
equipped that it was simply hopeless to remain
in their trenches. So they had decided to fall
back to more secure ground while
reinforcements were coming.
Knowing this, Father Cronin returned to the
mission house and advised all his staff to go
into hiding until the situation became a little
clearer.
At 10:30 a.m. the two other priests returned
from their Masses to the accompaniment of
flying bullets. The fighting was now only a few
hundred yards away and all three had scarcely
time to pile into the car and get away as bullets
shattered the mission windows.
They drove on a parallel course to the
Nigerian troops until they reached the next
mission-some eight miles away-where they are
now resting until the fight for Urua-Akpan is
settled. The only worldly goods Father Cronin
managed to bring with him were his breviary,
passport, binoculars and a bottle of Irish
whiskey!
The Mbutu-Okohia area consists of eight
towns situated about 17 miles south of Owerri,
the present provisional capital of Biafra. It
covers an area of roughly 60 square miles. The
whole area has witnessed changing fortunes
during the war with Nigeria. A large section of
the area was overrun by the Nigerian forces in
1968. Within the past few months, Biafran
troops have pushed them out and reclaimed all
but two of their eight towns.
The local people who fled the area at the
advance of the Nigerians last year have all
returned and are attempting to rehabilitate
themselves. This is providing a most difficult
task. Their farms have been laid waste by two
armies. Their homes and property have been
either burned or destroyed. Their efforts at
reconstruction are made to the accompaniment
of whining shells and deadly thuds of
mortars-grim reminders of the proximity of the
front lines.
Life must go on however, and the people of
Mbutu-Okohia, with the help of Caritas
Intemationalis, the international Catholic
charities organization, are making some small
progress.
(Continued on Page 6)