Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 56 No. 24
Thursday, June 19,1975
Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
EXPLAIN PROJECT-ANSWER QUESTIONS
Self-Study Teams Visit Savannah Deanery Parishes
During the month of May members of the Self-Study Steering Committee (SSSC) of
the Savannah Deanery visited various parishes throughout the Deanery. SSSC teams
presented programs to parish councils and school boards to explain the self-study and
to answer questions.
Some of the more pertinent questions asked of the team members and the answers
thereto are presented here as part of the established policy of the study committee to
keep the members of the Deanery informed.
What are the goals and objectives of the SSSC?
The goal of the committee can best be explained in terms of its mission and this is
to simply be an instrument to aid the church in the Savannah Deanery in
implementing a process of planning and evaluation. There are no specific objectives
attached to this goal; there is only the goal bringing into existence effective pastoral
planning.
How were the members of the SSSC selected? Why doesn’t our parish have a
representative on the committee?
Based on recommendations of the priests of the Savannah area and the Savannah
Deanery Pastoral Council, a steering committee of 15 members was formed to direct
the program. The criterion used in their selection was not to achieve any kind of
geographical or institutional balance. The selection was made rather to bring to bear
on the self-study the talents and experience of a variety of persons representing
Bishop James Augustine Healy
IN IRELAND
Fr. Barry Ordained
The Reverend Francis Barry, from
Tara, County Meath, was ordained to
the priesthood for the Diocese of
Savannah on Sunday, June 8.
Father Barry was the only candidate
to be ordained for the diocese this year.
Bishop Raymond Lessard travelled to
Ireland especially for the event which
Fr. Francis Barry
took place at the Church of Sts. Petpr
and Paul, Dunboyne, County Meath.
Diocesan priests present at the
ordination with the Bishop included
Msgr. Daniel Bourke and Father John
Kenneally.
Father Barry is the son of the late Mr.
and Mrs. Edward Barry who formerly
lived in Bally roan, County Leix. He is
one of eight children.
Father Barry attended Mt. Melleray
Seminary in Cappoquin, County
Waterford, and did his theological
studies at St. John’s College, County
Waterford. Father Barry spent the
summers of 1971 and 1974 v/orking in
Savannah as a seminarian. This past
summer he was assigned as a deacon to
St. Joseph’s Church in Macon.
Father Barry is scheduled to arrive in
the diocese later this summer at which
time he will receive an assignment from
the Bishop.
With the ordination of Father Barry
to the priesthood, the Diocese of
Savannah now has one remaining
seminarian in Ireland studying for the
diocese.
different areas of life in the community. The membership is composed of 10 lay
persons, two religious women and three priests.
How long will the self-study take? When should it be finished? Hasn’t the
committee moved rather slowly?
The work of pastoral planning involves grassroots participation, involvement by
each and every member of the Deanery. Such a process can be a slow moving one. As
for the work of the SSSC, it is envisioned to be relatively short term. However, the
process of pastoral planning and evaluation will be an ongoing one throughout the
Deanery even after the committee has-completed its work.
Has the Bishop indicated to the SSSC any specific objectives that he wants the
self-study to achieve? Have any decisions been made?
The answer to both questions is No. The Bishop has only charged the SSSC with the
task of implementing a process of self-study and planning, a program that will help the
local church see itself as a whole and enable it to approach its problems and
opportunities as a total catholic community. Because is is a self-study, with the
emphasis on “self,” the decision making process must involve the total community.
This process is now only in the beginning stages.
Why was an outside consultant retained to run the study?
A consultant was hired, not to “run the study,” but to serve as an advisor to the
SSSC in implementing the planning process. Father Robert Howes, who was retained,
is nationally renowned for his expertise and experience in the area of pastoral
planning. Because of his background and know how, it is expected that he will make
an important contribution to a successful self study. Father is a member of the
Executive Committee of the National Pastoral Planning Conference and also
Consultant to the Diocese of Charlotte, N.C. and Diocese of Saginaw, Michigan.
What will the parishes be allowed to do in the way of plans and programs as well as
construction projects for their own parish before the results of the self-study are
finalized?
The Bishop has imposed a moratorium on any deferable building construction in the
Deanery through August 1976. At present this is the only restriction that has been
placed on plans, programs or construction.
How will we know what the study is doing? Who will inform us and how?
The Self-Study Steering Committee plans to make every effort to report fully its
progress. By the study’s very nature it will involve every catholic in the Deanery and
by virtue of that involvement, communications will be established. Steps already taken
to inform the Deanery public include open meetings of the SSSC which have moved
from parish to parish, regular reports to the Deanery Pastoral Council, progress reports
to Pastors, visits to parish councils and school boards, and the publication of news
releases.
Georgian Was First Black American Bishop
BY GR ACE CRAWFORD
Macon News Staff Writer
i rorn a wooded h.L in *+
on a plantation overlooking the
Ocmulgee River comes the dramatic
story of an Irishman and a slave girl -
and their remarkable children.
One of them was the first Georgian to
become a Catholic bishop and America’s
first black Catholic priest and bishop.
Another was the only Negro ever to be
named president of all-white
Georgetown University in Washington.
A third son built Boston Cathedral
during his pastorate there. Still another
became a famous sea captain around
whom Jack London is believed to have
based his adventure story, “The Sea
Wolf.” And two daughters became
Catholic Sisters, one making notable
contributions in the field of education.
This is not the story of a slave owner
and his consort, but of Michael Morris
Healy, a dark haired young Irishman
who loved and married Mary Eliza
Smith, a Georgia born mulatto slave girl
and honored her as his sole and lawful
wife.
the strict sense, the union was declared
valid by the Roman Catholic Church
because of the absence of a priest in the
f„e-Civil War year of 1829 and because
Georgia law forbad such interracial
marriages.
THE FULL STORY of the Healy
family apparently was unknown to
Middle Georgians for more than 130
years.
It was the persistence of Rev. Albert
J. Foley, a Jesuit priest working on his
doctorate in sociology that resulted in a
book about Bishop James Augustine
Healy, his brothers and sisters, his
parents and their determination that
their children should be brought up as
free citizens, not as slaves.
Father Foley’s “Bishop Healy:
Beloved Outcast” first was published in
1954 and was the subject of a nationally
televised program emanating from NBC
Radio City Music Hall in New York
with a script by television writer, Rod
Serling. But only a few Macon Catholics
read, or even heard of the book, and no
one can determine whether the program
was carried by area NBC affiliates.
Although a common law marriage in
Announcement was made this week
that the Rev. Andrew T. Doris, pastor
of St. Joseph’s Church, Augusta, has
been transferred from that pastorate
and will assume the position of
Associate Chaplain of St. Joseph’s
Hospital, Savannah.
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard also
announced the appointment of the Rev.
Brinstan Takach, O.S.B. (on faculty of
Benedictine Military School), as
Administrator of Saint Anne’s Mission
Church, Richmond Hill.
A few days ago, the man who 25
Also made public were the following
appointments for deacons of the
diocese:
Rev. Wayland Brown, assigned to St.
Teresa of Avilia Church, Augusta.
Rev. Robert A. Cushing, assigned to
St. Joseph’s Church, Macon.
Rev. Benedict Swiderek, assigned to
St. Benedict’s Church, Savannah.
years ago journeyed from New Orleans
to Jones County to spend .several
months researching the Healys, was
back. Sunday, June 8, Father Foley led
a group of Macon Catholics and clergy
by way of the River North property to a
spot about 300 yards from the grave of
the Irishman and his wife.
IN A SHORT ceremony, a bronze
marker mounted on a large field stone
was dedicated in memory of the Bishop
of Portland, Maine and his family. The
occasion, according to the Rev. Michael
Delea, pastor of St. Peter Claver
Catholic Church, marked the
anniversary of Bishop Healey’s
ordination. The plaque was the gift of
Archbishop Thomas Donnellan of the
Atlanta Catholic Archdiocese and
Bishop Raymond Lessard of the Diocese
of Savannah. The service was attended
by more than 200 persons.
A few days ago, Father Foley, now
affiliated with Spring Hill College in
Mobile, Ala., was telling of his delight in
finding “such a wealth of information”
about the Healys in the Jones County
Courthouse when he came to this area
in 1950. “There was shelf upon shelf of
records and documents,” he said, noting
that many were in Healy’s own
handwriting, showing that the Irishman
from County Roscommon in 1823
acquired in a land lottery 1,300 acres of
rich bottomland on the Ocmulgee in the
area now surrounded by the Piedmont
Wildlife Preserve. Other reports and
inventories Healy filed enabled Father
Foley to reconstitute an exact picture
of life on the Healy place.
An elderly storekeeper in the area
helped him find the ruins of the
plantation, and finally the unmarked
graves positively identified by several
elderly, longtime residents of the area.
THE LARGE LOG home in which
the Healys lived was handsomely
furnished, Father Foley determined,
and the Irishman owned more than 100
books, taught his children to play the
flute and the fiddle and instructed them
\ in their school work.
Later, he sent his sons North to
Quaker schools, realizing under Georgia
law, they would assume slave status
since he could not emanicipate his wife.
But Healy made a will, assuring that his
money would be transferred out of
Georgia, then appointed a New York
friend as guardian.
Two of his sons, Hugh and Eugene
died and the tenth child, also named
(Continued on Page 3)
Clergy Assignments
MARKER HONORS BISHOP HEALY - Father Albert S. Foley, S.J
author of the book “Bishop Healy: Beloved Outcast,” stands by a ne
marker which was unveiled in a ceremony on Sunday, June 8, at 2 P.M., i
the River North development in Macon. The bronze plaqn
commemorates the 100th anniversary of the consecration of Bishop Jam*
Augustine Healy, the first black Catholic bishop in the U.S. and is place
on the site of the Healy plantation where Bishop Healy was born. Tli
marker was contributed jointly by The Bishop of Savannah and tli
Archbishop of Atlanta and was placed with the cooperation of Mr. Robei
Adams, developer of River North which occupies part of the 1600 acre
which was the Healy plantation in the 1800’s. Father Foley came t
Macon from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama to officiate at tli
ceremony which was attended by some 200 interested Maconites.
Chapel Will Be Dedicated
To Father 4 Tim’ Flaherty
The Chapel in the Rectory at Sacred Heart Church, Savannah, which has recently
been redecorated, will be dedicated to the memory of Father Timothy Flaherty on
Saturday, June 21st, following an Anniversary Mass at 5:30 in the Church.
Father Tim served as Associate Pastor at Sacred Heart for many years and, after his
retirement, lived at the Rectory where he frequently used the Chapel.
He taught Religion at Sacred Heart School while he served in the Parish and is
remembered with affection by many Savannahians.
Father Tim’s many friends are cordially invited to the Anniversary Mass and Chapel
dedication.
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