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History Of The Church In South Georgia
(Tenth in a series of articles prepared by
the Savannah Diocese’s Department of
Christian Formation.)
In most parts of South Georgia
today, a person filling out an
application form can write the word
“Catholic” in the space reserved for
“Religious Preference,” without fear of
prejudice. Particularly in our larger
cities, Catholics are accepted by all
without bias, and Catholics often
occupy positions of importance in
politics and the professions.
Relations between Catholics and
others in this State were not always so
amicable. In fact, during the early part
of this century, anti-Catholic feeling
rose very high, causing unprecedented
bitterness and hostility. The wave of
prejudice did not only involve Catholics
-- the Blacks, Jewish people and
foreigners in general also came under
attack. In many ways this became one
of the most disgraceful periods in
Georgia’s history.
Much of the anti-Catholic feeling was
whipped up by Thomas E. Watson, who
was easily the most influential politician
in the State until his death in 1922.
Like most other Georgia politicians at
the time, he stood for white supremacy,
lower taxes, and a minimum of control
by big government. Though he had
started his career as the champion of the
“common man,” Watson became a
racist who worked to disenfranchise the
Blacks and made a blatant appeal to
prejudice of all kinds. He used his
newspaper to build up resentment
against the many immigrants from
Europe - most of them Catholic - who
were coming into the area at the time.
Racism was rampant, around the
time of the first World War, and there
were a number of cases of the lynching
of Blacks. In one celebrated case which
shocked the nation a Jew called Leo
Frank, accused of an assault on a young
gentile woman, was lynched by an angry
mob, stirred up by Watson and others.
The Frank case was not an isolated
incident but typified the feelings of the
time. The Ku Klux Klan was re-founded
and quickly spread in influence, until it
became such a force in politics that
most office seekers considered Klan
membership a pre-requisite for election.
Nothing was too salacious for Watson
to print, concerning the Roman
Catholic faith. Stories about secret
goings-on in convents, pagan rites and
the sale of indulgences followed one
upon the other in a series which labelled
Catholicism as the greatest menace to
our civilization. The attacks led many
fair-minded people in the State to
conclude that things were seriously
wrong, and the wave of ill-feeling
culminated in the introduction of the
“Veazey Bill” or convent-inspection act
- calling for Grand Juries to inspect
convents, interview the “inmates” and
find out if they were being held against
their will. A brochure published by
Watson at the time hinted that babies
born to priests and nuns were regularly
baptized behind convent walls, then
dropped into moats or walled up in
crypts in the convent.
Bishop Benjamin Keiley and the
leading Catholics of Georgia felt
impelled to take action against attacks
of this kind, and The Catholic Laymen’s
Association was formed, in 1916, with
Gus Long as its first President.
The first position adopted by the
Laymen’s Association was that the
Grand Juries should be allowed to make
their inspections, but that any repeated
visits should be refused, as an invasion
of privacy. In the meantime a publicity
bureau would be set up to counter the
attacks of a hostile press.
The sisters in the various convents
allowed the inspecting juries to come,
and went through the tense and
embarrassing ordeal of investigation. A
second visit was refused, and one nun,
Sister Felicitas, was arrested for her
refusal. The Catholic Laymen appealed
for a repeal of the Act, but the Supreme
Court upheld it and even strengthened
it, making it a crime to resist admittance
to a convent or even to urge resistance
on the part of others.
For a while the future seemed very
Weak for the Catholic Laymen’s
Association. The president, who had
been the operator of a successful
wholesale grocery business in Macon,
was boycotted by his Protestant
customers and was forced into
bankruptcy. But fortunes changed, the
publicity bureau headed by James J.
Farrell began to make good headway,
and the publication of a newspaper, the
“Bulletin” also edited by Farrell was
well received. A series of pamphlets was
printed, circulating around the State to
combat error. A “flying squadron” went
round visiting the different cities and
towns to raise money, and $85,000 was
pledged by less than 15,000 Catholics
resident in the Diocese at the time. A
new feeling of solidarity and hope was
generated. Farrell himself travelled far
and wide to speak to different groups.
Richard Reid took his place at his
untimely death, at about the time that
Thomas Watson was elected U.S.
Senator, in 1920. Watson eventually
over-reached himself with a story about
missing girls throughout the nation who
would be found in the “slave pens” in
Savannah. Thereafter he was greeted
with some ridicule whenever he spoke in
Washington.
The climate of opinion continued to
improve. Reid joined the Georgia Press
Association and was elected president of
this group. In 1936, he was awarded the
Laetare Medal for his work. He
continued to edit the “Bulletin and
head the Publicity Bureau until 1940,
when Hugh Kinchley took his place.
Kinchley served until his death in 1953.
He was succeeded by John Markwalter
who served until the La^hien’s
Association disbanded in 1962.
Throughout all these years the paper
and Publicity Bureau attempted to meet
error and accusation with a patient
presentation of the truth, working
towards its expressed goal: “to bring
about a friendlier feeling among
neighbors, irrespective of creed.”
It is largely to the credit of these
laymen, and to their successors, that
Catholics today may practice their faith
in Georgia without fear of prejudice or
ostracism, particularly in the larger
cities and towns, where most bias has
disappeared. Only in some of the
smaller towns and rural areas, and
among a few die-hards in the cities, are
still found the echoes of Watson’s
program of opposition toward Jews and
Blacks, Catholis and foreigners.
SOURCES
“Georgia History in Outline,” Kenneth
Coleman, University of Georgia Press, Athens,
Ga. History of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association, taped talk of 3/21/77 by Dr. Ed
Cashin. Contact with Hugh Grady, Savannah
K. of C. “History of the Catholic Church in
Georgia,” Patrick Adams, OFM.
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 59 No. 33 Form 3579 To: 601 E. 6th St. Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Thursday, September 21,1978
Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
ACCORD - President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin embrace as U.S. President Jimmy Carter applauds during
a White House ceremony Sunday. Egypt and Israel committed themselves
after the Camp David summit to agreements which represent a major
effort for peace in the Middle East. (NC Photo)
Cp. David Results
E ncourage Vatican
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican is very interested in the Camp David
agreement but must study it further before commenting, said a Vatican spokesman
Sept. 18.
“The Holy See has followed the Camp David meeting with great interest and is
following and examining its results with equal interest,” said the Vatican spokesman,
Father Romeo Panciroli.
Vatican diplomats in the United States and the Middle East are gathering further
information on the Camp David accord and on the reaction to it, he said.
In his first general audience (Sept. 6), Pope John Paul I expressed hopes that a “just
and complete” peace agreement would stem from the Camp David summit.
Such an agreement, he said, would have to resolve the problems of the Palestinians
and the status of Jerusalem and guarantee the security of Israel.
Under Pope Paul VI, the Vatican pushed hard for a peace agreement in the Middle
East.
Pope Paul was especially interested in assuring a “special status, internationally
guaranteed,” for the historic shrines and ancient sections of Jerusalem.
At first he had called for internationalization of the entire city. But he later backed
off to a more vague and flexible formula for preserving Jerusalem as a religious center
and point of dialogue. '
The late pontiff also defended vigorously the rights of the Palestinians and of other
non-Jewish religious and ethnic groups to live in Palestine on a par with the Israelis.
Where Pope John Paul stands regarding Israel is not entirely clear.
The Vatican daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, printed three stories in its
Sept. 18 issue on the Camp David meeting.
The paper said that the announcement of a peace agreement “crowned the hopes of
those who have followed the 13 days of meetings with trepidation.”
“According to the first reactions, these 13 days will go down in history for having
definitely affirmed the desire for peace of all men of good will,” said the Vatican
daily.
The paper also said that the announcement “immediately made Carter’s stock soar
in Congress, even among Republicans.”
Church Updates Doctrine-Doesn’t Change It, Pope Says
VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope John
Paul I told 9,000 people at his general
audience Sept. 13 that the church can
update doctrine and present it in
modem terminology, but never change
it.
The pope entered his general
audience seated cm his portable throne.
Although he said at the beginning of his
pontificate that he would not use the
throne, many people said they were
unable to see the short pontiff when he
walked into the audience hall a week
ago. They requested that the pope use
the chair, carried by 12 ushers. Pope
John Paul is about five feet, five inches
tall.
The pope spoke at
without a prepared text.
the audience
“When the poor pope, when the
bishops and priests put forward
doctrine, it is not our doctrine, but
Christ’s. We must conserve it and
present it,” he said.
The pope stressed that Pope John
XXIII in calling the council underlined
t
that the truths of the church are
“unchangeable and certain.”
“We must update these truths,
understand them better and present
them in a better form,” said the pope.
On faith, the pope said that when he
was a growing boy, his mother said to
him: “As a little boy you were very
sick. I had to take you from one doctor
to another and stay up with you many
nights.”
When his mother asked him if he
believed her, the pope said that he
responded: “Yes, how can I not believe
what you say, but more importantly,
how can I not believe in you?”
The pope applied his own experience
to Christian faith in God.
#
“Faith is not just a matter of
believing things, but believing in God,”
said Pope John Paul.
The pope said that anyone who
believes in Jesus must also believe in the
church.
“Jesus and Christians, Jesus and the
church are the same thing and
inseparable,” said the pope.
“It is not possible to say I believe in
and accept Jesus but not the church,”
he added.
WASHINGTON (NC) - Family life
ministry and its relationship to
evangelization and parish renewal -
three top priorities of the U.S. bishops -
will be explored during the National
Family Life Conference and Workshop,
to be held Oct. 24-26 in Washington.
The three-day meeting, sponsored by
the U.S. Catholic Conference, is the first
step in a process which will involve the
church at all levels in preparing for a
1980 Family Year and for a decade of
family ministry development. The
Pope John Paul admitted that the
church is often defective and in error,
but he said that Christians must love the
church anyway.
“If your mother is sick or becomes
lame you love her anyway,” he said.
program was announced by Auxiliary
Bishop J. Francis Stafford of Baltimore,
chairman of the USCC Commission on
Marriage and Family Life.
According to Bishop Stafford, the
U.S. bishops’ approval of the Plan of
Pastoral Action for Family Ministry last
May put the church “on record as
making family life and pastoral ministry
for families a top priority in the
National Conference of Catholic
Bishops as well as in our dioceses and
parishes.”
“In the church there are defects, but
we must never be lacking in affection
for her,” said the pope.
The pope said that the church has an
“extraordinary soap” to cleanse her
blemishes “in the Gospel, read and
lived, in the sacraments, celebrated
Archbishop Jean Jadot, apostolic
delegate in the United States, will give
the keynote address for the conference,
and Cardinal William Baum of
Washington will preach and celebrate
the opening Mass. Bishop Thomas C.
Kelly, USCC general secretary, and
Father Donald Conroy, USCC
representative for family life, will
welcome participants, and Bishop
Albert H. Ottenweller of Steubenville
will be the main celebrant and homilist
for one of the Masses.
properly and in prayer which can make
us all saints.”
At the end of the audience, which
lasted 40 minutes, the pope told large
numbers of sick and handicapped near
the stage that “Jesus said, ‘I hide myself
behind the (sick) and what is done to
them is done to me.’
“May the Lord be with you to help
and sustain you,” said the pope.
To a group of newlyweds, the pope
recounted how French Dominican
preacher Father Jean Baptiste
Lacordaire was disappointed when his
friend Frederic Ozanam, founder of the
St. Vincent de Paul Society, got
married.
“Lacordaire felt that marriage was a
‘great trap,’ ” said the pope. “When
Lacordaire went to see Pope Pius IX,
the pope said, ‘I always thought Jesus
instituted seven sacraments, but now
you tell me that he instituted six
sacraments and one trap.”
Pope John Paul assured the
newlyweds that marriage is not a trap
but a great calling.
Family Life Conference Slated