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PAGE 2—November 20,1975
USCC Keeps ‘Juggling’ To Assist Vietnamese Refugees
BY CLIFF FOSTER
WASHINGTON (NC) - In some ways
the U.S. Catholic Conferences’ (USCC)
refugee resettlement effort is like a
juggling act -- with one hand moving
refugees out of resettlement camps,
while the other places them painlessly in
the main arena of American life.
But how successful this “act” will be
depends on rekindling enthusiasm to
sponsor a refugee family that
accompanied the early days of the
resettlement effort.
The question facing USCC
resettlement officials now, said John
McCarthy, director of the USCC’s
Migration and Refugee Services (MRS),
is not if, but when the USCC will be
able to channel all its resources into a
full scale assimilation project.
Sponsorship is the key. Some 15,000
Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees are
still living at the Fort Indiantown Gap,
Pa., and the Fort Chaffee, Ark.
resettlement camps. One reason,
according to Arthur Roos, coordinator
of field services for MRS, is that many
of the remaining refugees are members
of large family groups -- the average size
of Indiantown Gap is 14 persons --
thereby making individual sponsorship
of the family a burden, if not an
impossibility.
Furthermore, he said, the crisis
atmosphere that generated many
requests for sponsorship in the summer
has cooled, and stories on the plight of
the refugees have slipped off the front
page.
He is worried that 15,000 people are
in danger of being forgotten.
Yet, USCC officials are still
optimistic that the refugees will be out
of the camps, by mid-December, a
deadline that has raised some eyebrows
on Capital Hill, for instance.
Their confidence hinges on the
success of a parish sponsorship drive.
Based on the theory that it is easier for
an entire parish to support a refugee
family over the first year of financial
and cultural disorientation than it is for
an individual to do it alone, USCC
diocesan resettlement directors are
making second efforts to obtain parish
sponsorship.
As of Nov. 3, the USCC, through
diocesan resettlement offices, has found
sponsors for 47,000 of the estimated
140,000 refugees and expect to resettle
9,000 to 12,000 of the remaining
15,000.
But once the resettlement is finished,
Roos said, “the problem really starts.”
McCarthy explained it this way:
“When we empty the camps, the job
is only half done,” he said. If the “last
visible scars of Vietnam” are to be
healed, he observed, the refugees will
need educational and vocational
training, medical attention, job
opportunities, and cultural and language
instruction on an on-going basis until
they regain the stability upset by the
war in Southeast Asia.
To meet these needs, McCarthy has
joined with federal administrators at the
Department of Health, Education and
Welfare to lay the groundwork for a
USCC-government task force that will
survey the areas where large numbers of
Vietnamese have clustered, and then
train local resettlement directors to plug
into the federal and state bureaucracy
for assistance.
The USCC resettlement office at Fort
Chaffee has jumped the gun on the
“Phase II” assimilation program with
what is believed to be a one-of-a-kind
Vietnamese-American radio station.
With funds from the USCC and
technical expertise donated by a local
CBS affiliate station, the Fort Chaffee
radio station has been operating since
October. Father Ted Kosse, director of
the Cleveland archdiocesan radio and
television department, is now “on loan”
to direct the project.
Staffed by American and Vietnamese
disc jockeys, the 10 watt FM station
broadcasts in Vietnamese, Cambodian
and English from six in the morning till
10:30 at night. Its bill of fare ranges
from English and American history
lessons, to employment opportunities
and sponsorship messages in effort to
bridge the gap between two cultures,
Father Kosse said.
“It’s doing a good job,” he said
proudly. “It’s very impressive.”
The radio station and the
USCC-government task force project,
are examples of what McCarthy termed
“finished the job in style.” Roos
explained it in a more graphic way:
“The shock of resettlement is like a
wound,” he said. “You don’t feel it till
the next morning.”
DISCUSS PORTUGAL - President Ford meets with
Cardinal Humberto Medeiros in Boston to discuss
problems of Portuguese-Americans and to talk, about
the U.S. position on the current political situation in
/ V DETROIT
Portugal. Cardinal Medeiros, who is
Portuguese-American himself, praised the president for
being “most gracious and interested in what was going
on.” (NC Photo)
Women’s Ordination Conference
DETROIT (NC) - Leaders of a
conference on women’s ordination to be
held here in late November have invited
the U.S. bishops to attend, “to address
the issue of equality in the Church,”
and to participate in “dialogue.”
The conference will be attended by
1.200 participants from 44 states.
In an open letter to the bishops, the
conference organizers, most of whom
are nuns, point out that “10 percent of
our women’s registrants” are holders of
“Masters of Divinity degrees or are
currently enrolled in seminary or
permanent diaconate programs,” and
that these women “have indicated a
personal desire for ordained ministry in
the Roman Catholic Church.”
Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin of
Cincinnati, president of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops,
recently issued a statement reaffirming
the Church’s traditional ban on female
ordination, saying the U.S. bishops did
not want to “mislead” anyone by being
silent on the issue.
Support Growing For
Resolutions On Food
BY JIM CASTELLI
WASHINGTON (NC) - Support is
growing for two congressional
resolutions aimed at easing the world
food crisis.
One resolution would proclaim
Thanksgiving Day a day of “Thankful
Giving,” encouraging Americans to
donate to agencies engaged in providing
food aid overseas.
A second resolution, declaring the
“right to food” a basic human right, is
more comprehensive, dealing with issues
such as domestic food programs and
support for full employment.
The “Thankful Giving” resolution,
initiated in the Senate by Sen. Hubert
Humphrey (D-Minn.) and in the House
by Rep. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), was
developed by the American Freedom
from Hunger Foundation. Passage of the
resolution js expected. , t it
The drive is being supported by seven
hunger relief agencies, including
Catholic Relief Services, CARE, and
Church World Services.
The sponsoring agencies have set up a
national mailing address - Thanksgiving,
Box 68, Washington, D.C., 20044 - for
contributions to the seven agencies.
Funds not specifically earmarked for
any one agency will be split among the
seven.
Other national agencies which have
joined the “Thankful Giving” campaign
include the B’nai B’rith, National Board
of the YWCA, the United Nations
Association of the U.S.A., Leadership
Conference of Women Religious,
American Jewish Committee, National
Presbyterian Center and the Episcopal
Presiding Bishops Fund for World
Relief.
The “right to food” resolution
originated with Bread for the World, a
Christian citizens’ lobby concerned with
world hunger. It was introduced by Sen.
Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.) and Rep. Donald
Fraser (D-Minn.). There are now 12
Senate and 30 House cosponsors,
according to a Bread for the World
spokesman.
Bread for the World has had requests
for more than a million flyers urging
support for the resolution through
letters to congressmen.
Humphrey, chairman of the Senate
subcommittee on foreign agricultural
policy, has promised heartily on the
resolution late this year.
Groups supporting the “right to
food” resolution include the Leadership
Conference of Women Religious,
Conference of Major Superiors of Men,
National Council of Catholic Women,
American Jewish Committee, Lutheran
Church in America, National Students
Association, Institute for World Order
and the United Nations Association of
the U.S.A.
The resolution calls for:
- “The right to a nutritionally
adequate diet” for every person
throughout the world.
- Use of this right as a “fundamental
point of reference” in deciding policy in
areas such as trade, assistance, monetary
reform and military assistance.
- Bringing all those eligible into
domestic food programs, insuring an
adequate diet for recipients and
guaranteeing “full employment and a
floor of economic decency for
everyone.”
- Increased aid to the world’s poorest
nations, with particular emphasis on the
rural poor.
- Increasing developmental and food
assistance of government and private
agencies toward a target of one percent
of total gross national product.
SILVER ANNIVERSARY -- An outdoor Mass in
light rain is the setting for the silver anniversary in
Nassau of the episcopal ordination of Bishop Paul
Leonard Hagarty, a native of the Dubuque archdiocese.
Archbishop Samuel Carter of Kingston, Jamaica,
preached the homily. Ordained a priest in Collegeville,
Minn., in 1936, Bishop Hagarty went to the Bahamas
the next year. (NC Photo)
Bishop Flores
BY DAN MORRIS
SPOKANE, Wash. (NC) - Recalling his own childhood in a migrant labor family,
Bishop Patrick Flores, auxiliary of San Antonio, Tex., made a plea here that migrant
families begin to “stay put.”
“In the name of God and in my name, too, ask them to stay put,” Bishop Flores
told participants at the Northwest Religious Education Congress here.
Pointing out that agricultural work is becoming increasingly mechanized and that
“there is no hope things will get better in migrant labor,” Bishop Flores stressed:
“There is no future in continual coming and going.”
He said the average migrant labor family is “125 years behind” mainstream America
in the areas of housing, health services, education, political involvement and
professional standing.
Migrant families which no longer follow harvest seasons across the country have
found a more stable life, he said, citing the example of “70,000 migrants who have
settled in Washington state, and already they have better homes, education, jobs than
their counterparts in Texas who continue to travel.”
The bishop said people ask, “What would they do?” and fear there would not be
enough jobs for everyone when migrants settle in their communities. He then cited the
Washington state example and referred to the Cuban and Vietnam refugee resettlement
efforts.
“We’re a crisis oriented people -- maybe it will take a few people starving to death
before the situation of the migrant laborer changes, he said.
As it is now, the bishop said, people’s attitude is, “Why should we worry about
them? They are only going to be here for a little while.
Urges Migrants To ‘Stay Put’
“Everybody’s problem becomes no one’s problem.”
The same criticism is true of Church programs in relation to the migrant family, he
indicated. Many children of migrant families are left out of CCD classes because trave
does not allow them to begin at the start of a year s program. The problem is
compounded by the fact that most migrants’ primary language is Spanish, not English.
“The migrant worker is often no better than some of the poor in other countries.
Bishop Flores said migrants need “help in developing,” but “not handouts.”
Referring to his own training as a seminarian, he said, “People did not give me alms,
but helped me discover my potential.”
Assistance must be “enabling” and “uplifting,” he said, or “the signs of hope
become the signs of crush,” destroying personal dignity.
Some bishops cite lack of funds to develop programs that meet such needs, an
audience member pointed out during a question period.
Bishop Flores responded by saying he had been able to secure financial backing for
programs to aid the Spanish-speaking and migrant laborer from private sources.
“I do not think I am a unique beggar . . . People are generous. If a bishop tells you
he doesn’t have the money, tell him to get it,” the bishop said.
During his address Bishop Flores recalled his childhood, describing how his family
had been forced to five in a barn where the cows normally stayed.
Conditions for the migrants have changed little, he said, citing the example of large
families living in small, one-room shacks without ventilation and with little light.
Temperatures may reach 110 degrees outside and 130 degrees in the shack, he said.
The bishop said migrants resist welfare, saying it can lead to a “crushed life.”
“Traveling is an outward and tangible sign of the pride of the head of the (migrant)
family,” he said. “They would rather do this than go on welfare . . . This is a sign of
hope, a healthy pride.”
Education looms as both a major goal and barrier for the migrant family, the bishop
said, citing statistics that 52 percent.of Mexican-Americans graduate from high school.
But, he added, of the 52 percent who do graduate, 86 percent have an education
equivalent to the seventh grade.
“What good is this when applying to college or for a job?” he asked. He blamed
language problems and families moving during the school term.
Often a Spanish-speaking child is labeled mentally retarded because he or she cannot
speak English, the bishop said.
“I am embarrassed to tell you that in San Antonio some of our monkeys have
air-conditioned cages.”
Poor living conditions lead to contamination and disease, he said.
Cultural differences are also a source of friction in school, he said, giving the
example of eating habits where many Mexican-Americans use a tortilla both as a food
and a utensil.
Making reference to massive U.S. programs to aid the hungry in other parts of the
world, the bishop asked, “Why are we afraid to show the poverty in America?”
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“I started using a knife and fork when I went to the seminary and they wouldn’t
give me a tortilla,” the bishop said, adding, “You should take a child where he is.”
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