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PAGE 3—The Southern Cross, August 17,1978
History Of The Church In South Georgia
(Sixth in a series prepared by the
Savannah Dioceses Department of Christian
Formation.)
Parents of parochial school children
are asking today for tax credits to offset
the growing cost of tuition. They feel
justified in asking for some relief
because their tuition bills come in
addition to the tax dollars they pay to ,
keep the public school system going.
Few will remember that over a
hundred years ago Bishop Augustine
Verot, the third Bishop of the Diocese
of Savannah, had found a solution to
the problem. He entered into an
agreement with the government,
arranging for Savannah’s two Catholic
schools to become a part of the public
school system, supported by the
County.
For most of the school day a
regular course of elementary school
studies was taught, using text books
which were acceptable to Catholics. The
teachers were Catholic, and religion was
taught either at the beginning of the
school day or after the close of normal
school hours.
This arrangement became a model
for many other cities, where similar
agreements were drawn up. It remained
in operation until 1916, when Georgia’s
Attorney General declared it
unconstitutional.
Bishop Verot was a Frenchman, a
dynamic leader and an administrator of
great ability, who led the Diocese
through the horrors of the civil war
years and the difficult days of
reconstruction. He was deeply
concerned about the need for
educational efforts in the area.
In Macon, he encouraged the Sisters
of Mercy to become public school
teachers, and it was in the basement of
the old Assumption church (now St.
Joseph’s) that the Macon public school
system was founded.
In Columbus, four Mercy Sisters
from Providence, Rhode Island, after
fleeing from the dangers of war in St.
Augustine, arrived by ox-cart to found
St. Joseph’s School.
And it was Verot who brought the
Sisters of St. Joseph from France to his
Diocese, to take up the much-needed
work of education among the Black
population.
The civil war left most of the South
in a state of ruin, and Savannah Diocese
suffered along with the rest. Two
churches were destroyed - St. Mary’s, in
Camden County, and a new church in
Dalton. The AUGUSTA
CONSTITUTIONALIST, seeing the
state of devastation which existed
everywhere wrote:
“A dreadful shipwreck has covered
the face of foaming water with broken
fragments, to which millions of
half-drowned passengers are clinging.”
Many of these survivors were
former slaves, who found themselves
free but without jobs or homes, their
former masters unable to help them.
Verot, who had never supported the
Abolitionist cause, nevertheless realized
that the time had come to call upon
Catholics everywhere to do what they
could for the welfare of the newly-freed
Black population. In a pastoral letter
written in 1866, he expressed his views:
“These people have been kept
hitherto in ignorance, in view of perhaps
imaginary dangers, and an injudicious
legislation prevailed forbidding, under
the severest penalties known to the law,
to instruct them in reading and writing
and the plain branches of education;
now that unreasonable severity was as
detrimental to the country as it was
unjust in itself, for in the late struggle it
extinguished the sympathies of Europe
for the Southern States, and closed the
bowels of compassion for them.”
The law forbidding the teaching of
Blacks had sometimes been ignored,
even in the days of slavery. When the
Union Army came to Savannah in 1864
they discovered that Miss Jane Deveaux,
“a colored lady,” had been secretly
teaching colored children in the city for
upwards of thirty years, “undeterred by
any dread of penalties.” And as early as
1845, when the education of Blacks was
still listed as a criminal act, the Sisters
of Mercy had quietly opened their
school for negro children in Savannah.
It stood on Habersham Street, near
Charlton, and was taught by Sister Jane
Francis.
Determined to establish schools for
Black children in Georgia and Florida,
Bishop Verot recruited a team of Sisters
of St. Joseph, from France. He visited
their Motherhouse in Le Puy, asking for
volunteers. He needed eight sisters; sixty
volunteered, and the first group to come
to America was selected from that
number. Verot took a great interest in
these sisters and personally supervised
their studies in English after their
arrival, “so that they can get to work as
soon as possible.” A school was soon
established in St. Augustine, and in
1867 the Sisters opened their school in
Savannah, in a frame building within the
cathedral grounds.
The SAVANNAH REPUBLICAN
subsequently reported: “The Sisters of
St. Joseph are now teaching one
hundred colored children, and are only
prevented from teaching many more for
the want of sufficient school house
accommodation. They are quietly and
unostentatiously accomplishing an
immense amount of good amongst the
colored people of this city ...”
Times continued to be hard, for
blacks and whites alike, during the years
of Verot’s leadership. The number of
priests was still small, and it was almost
impossible for them to cover all points
of the Diocese, which covered one
hundred thousand square miles. More
and more Catholic Irishmen came to the
area with the building of the railroads
and settled throughout the State. Many
kept the Faith, but some joined other
denominations, because of the lack of
organized parish structure. Thus today,
particularly in rural areas, there are
families with Irish names belonging to
the Baptist or Methodist churches,
many of them unaware of their Catholic
forebears.
Despite these difficulties, and the
lack of financial resources, churches
continued to be built. St. Teresa’s
opened in Albany, Holy Trinity was
completed in Augusta, and 5t. Patrick’s
was established in Savannah.
Bishop Verot left Savannah in
1870, to take over the administration of
St. Augustine, which had been
designated as a Diocese of its own. He
was replaced by Bishop Ignatius Persico,
an Italian, who had been a Bishop in
India. Persico suffered from ill-health,
and did not stay long in Savannah.
During his two years as Bishop,
churches were established in Brunswick
and Darien. There had been Catholics
living in this coastal area for many
years, with a central mission located at
St. Mary’s. One of their first churches
had been a frame building on Jekyll
Island, with a congregation made up
mostly of freed slaves.
SOURCES:
“The Church in South Georgia,"
Coleman. “Rebel Bishop," Gannon. “History
of the Catholic Church in Georgia, " Adams.
“In the Shadow of His Wings,” Ahles.
College Of Cardinals Begins Work—
(Continued from page 1)
though few were cardinals at the time --
and in the world synods of bishops, held
in Rome every three years.
All are expected to come to Rome
at least annually to participate in the
yearly plenary assemblies of the various
congregations and commissions of
which they are members.
Finally, the vastly increased church
communications since John XXIII died
in 1963 have kept cardinals around the
world informed generally on where their
peers stand on key issues and what they
have been up to in their own regions.
All eight American cardinals who
will enter the conclave - American
Cardinal John Wright, prefect of the
Vatican Congregation for the Clergy,
officially informed fellow cardinals by
telegram Aug. 14 that he cannot attend
for health reasons - are participating
daily in the meetings (called general
congregations) of the college.
Cardinal John Carberry of St. Louis
was one of three cardinals chosen by lot
to be on the committee in charge of
constructing the cells and partitions
within the Apostolic Palace needed to
feed and house conclave participants.
Some conclave cardinals from
Western nations, say sources, are uneasy
about how they will fare during the
secret election. Many of the cells where
cardinals will live will not have private
bathrooms and many might not even
have running water.
Papal election rules say that cells
must be chosen by lot.
All cardinals are sworn to absolute
secrecy, not only about what goes on in
the conclave but also about the general
congregations.
Each had to take the following oath
in the presence of his fellow cardinals:
“We cardinals of the Holy Roman
Church . . . promise, bind ourselves and
swear, as a body and individually, to
observe exactly and faithfully all the
norms contained in the apostolic
constitution (on electing a new pope,
issued by Pope Paul). . . and
scrupulously to observe secrecy
concerning everything that shall be dealt
with or decided in the congregations of
cardinals, both before and after the
conclave, and concerning anything that
in any way may pertain to the election
of the Roman pontiff.”
Outside the halls of the general
SHEILA HARRIS AND MARY PAT GIBBONS recently completed a
Nine month commitment as Volunteers in the Lyons -Vidalia area. They
worked as nurses at Meadows Memorial Hospital in Vidalia. They were
honored at a Mass and received plaques for their services. Pictured (1 to r)
Mr. Harris, Sheila’s father, Diane Gettler, volunteer worker from Colorado,
Sheila Harris, Mary Pat Gibbons, Father Leonard Hirman, Sister Marie
Amadea S. C. and Jody Harris. Sheila and Mary Pat are from Cincinnati,
Ohio.
congregations, guessing continues about
who will win the two-thirds plus one
votes to become pope.
In French circles, the leading
candidate seems to be Cardinal Paolo
Bertoli, 70, former papal diplomat and
former head of the Congregation for
Saints’ Causes.
On everyone’s list are still Cardinal
Sergio Pignedoli, head of the Vatican
Secretariat for Non-Christians, and
Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio, prefect of
the Congregation for Bishops.
The leading non-Italian on the lists
is still Argentine Cardinal Eduardo
Pironio, prefect of the Congregation for
Religious and one of 22 children of
Italian parents.
All but 12 of the cardinals under 80
who can enter the conclave rooms,
including all the American electors,
became cardinals under Pope Paul and
have never before been in a papal
election. , hr
Some of the American cardinals
expressed a certain bewilderment about
what awaited them in the conclave. But
all of them seemed to share the spirit of
Cardinal William Baum of Washington,
SUSAN SCHWALLIE, LPN,
from Cincinnati, Ohio recently
completed her six months
commitment as a volunteer in the
Sacred Heart Parish area of
Toombs County. A plaque was
presented at a Mass honoring her
and her parents, followed by a
farewell dinner at Seton House.
Diane Gettler, LPN, from
Trinidad, Colorado replaces Susan
in the volunteer program. Diane
and Michael Herz, the first local
volunteer in the program, were
given a blessing
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BLESSING THE POPE ~ Cardinal Jean Villot,
Vatican secretary of state arid chamberlain of the Holy
Roman Church, blesses the body of Pope Paul VI lying
in state at Castelgandolfo. Cardinal Villot is in charge
of Vatican affairs until a new pope is selected by the
College of Cardinals. (NC Photo)
who said he was “serenely confident”
about the election and the future of the
church, guided by the Holy Spirit.
Cardinal Giuseppe Sin of Genoa,
Italy, however, sounded a cautionary
note as he presided (Aug. 13) over the
second of nine funeral Masses
(novemdiales) which must be offered
for the dead pope.
“I feel I have a duty to address my
fellow cardinals and recall to them that
the task we are preparing for will not be
taken care of by saying: ‘The Holy
Spirit will do everything,’ ” said the
cardinal, a veteran of the elections of
Popes Paul and John.
He cautioned against “abandoning
ourselves without work and without
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suffering to the first impulse or to
irrational suggestions.”
As it stood several days after the
pope’s austere funeral, Cardinal Wright
and Polish Cardinal Boleslaw Filipiak
had officially informed the college that
they would not be attending the
conclave.
Cardinal Filipiak, former head of
the Roman Rota, high church court, is
ill in Poznan, Poland. Cardinal Wright is
recovering from surgery in Boston.
Cardinal Valerian Gracias of
Bombay, India, is seriously ill with
cancer and almost surely not coming.
Italian Cardinal Mario Nasalli Rocca
di Comeliano has been ill for several
days, but is probably going to attend
the conclave.
And Italian Cardinal Pietro
Palazzini has not yet determined
whether he will attend. His brother is
dying.
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