Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, March 23, 2000
The Southern Cross, Page 3
Richard Reid: Georgia Bulletin editor, “a gentlemanand a scholar■”
Rita H.
W hen Richard Reid of Win
chester, Massachusetts,
came to Augusta to work at
the Daily Chronicle as a
reporter, the profound influ
ence he would have on
Catholicism within the state
and throughout the country
could scarcely have been
guessed at. Although Reid’s
intelligence and integrity,
forged and enhanced at Holy Cross
College, Fordham University, and
Columbia University, might have
given some inkling of his potential,
the solid contribution he made to the
Diocese of Savannah would prove
difficult to measure until years after
he had left his position as executive
secretary of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association and editor of its Bulletin.
When young Reid, a boyish Jimmy
Stewart type, came on the Georgia
scene, intolerance of every descrip
tion plagued the state. After reporting
for the Chronicle and then writing
columns and editing the Augusta
Daily Herald, Reid was called from
secular to Catholic newspaper work
in 1921. Though Reid came out
swinging against the bigotry of U.S.
Senator Tom Watson (D-Georgia) and
the anti-Catholic legislation of the
era, his touch proved not only deft
but also subtle. He settled into his
southern surroundings effortlessly, his
“Bay State-Irish brogue” and his
“gracious manner and cider-keen wit
and all-around integrity” soon capti
vating the city of Augusta. His charm
also captivated Catherine O’Leary
whom he married in 1923. The cou
ple eventually had five children.
Following his admittance to the
Georgia bar, Richard Reid’s efforts
fanned out to include many types of
civic and religious activities. He
became a member of the Mulherin-
Reid law firm. He served as president
of the Catholic Press Association from
1932-34, and as a board member of
that group from 1929-1940. He
acted as general counsel of the
National Council of Catholic
Men from 1937-1940 and as
visiting lecturer at Notre
Dame University from
1937-1940. Savannah
Bishop Gerald P. O’Hara,
speaking of Reid’s achieve-
DeLorme ments re fl ecte d that ink was
a strange and wonderful
thing which could be used for good or
evil. In Reid’s case, said the bishop,
ink used by the editor of the Bulletin
was “copiously mixed with honey.”
With a great deal of finesse, Reid
managed to countermand suspicion
and muzzle enemies of the Church
during his nineteen-year watch at the
helm of the Bulletin. An editor of one
of the Augusta newspapers he had
once worked for observed: “Augus-
tans who knew of Dick Reid’s many
good works and his unmatched abili
ty in his chosen field, have felt all
along that some day he would be
called to a higher post in the sphere
of Catholic journalism and lay activi
ties.” Another editor of that era, Mill-
wee Owens of the Augusta Herald,
also commented on Reid’s myriad
abilities and declared that Richard
Reid had taken charge of the Bulletin,
and, in a few years, turned it into “the
leading Catholic periodical of the
Southeast.”
The hard-driving editor drew much
recognition along the route of his
career in Catholic journalism in
Georgia. In 1936, Reid received the
Laetare Medal from the University of
Notre Dame and, in 1938, was given
an honorary degree by Spring Hill
College. In 1938, Reid, along with
John W. Gleason and Thomas F.
Walsh, was named a papal Knight of
Saint Gregory. Through his writing,
and in his travels and speaking
engagements, Reid continued to
spread his message of tolerance and
good will. In November of 1939,
word came that another honor, one
which would generate bittersweet
feelings on the part of Georgia
Catholics, had been bestowed on the
energetic editor of the Bulletin:
Richard Reid was to become editor of
the Catholic News of the Archdiocese
of New York.
Reid’s impending departure from
Georgia spawned numerous tributes.
His varied career in the state was
addressed by seven different speakers
at a banquet given in his honor at
Savannah’s Hotel DeSoto toward the
end of 1939. Speaking at this affair,
Monsignor Joseph E. Moylan of
Atlanta said that Reid had been a lay
apostle “who had cleared away a vast
amount of debris.” Mayor Thomas E.
Gamble of Savannah said “let us pray
that we will never be without Richard
Reids in all religious bodies, men
without bitterness, without preju
dice.” Richard Charlton, city editor of
the Savannah Morning News referred
to Reid’s attributes: “truthfulness,
fairness, honorableness and toler
ance.” Other accolades came from
Alfred M. Battey of Augusta, Dr. J.
Reid Broderick, then president of the
Catholic Laymen’s Association,
Hugh Kinchey, Reid’s successor as
editor of the Bulletin, and Monsignor
T. James McNamara, who acted as
toastmaster at the banquet.
The conclusion of Reid’s career in
Georgia saw the editor enter into a
mid-career which included service in
the Catholic Institute of the Press, the
U. S. Catholic Historical Society and
the National Catholic Committee on
Scouting. He was tapped for govern
ment service in 1949, and acted at
that time as consultant to the Office
of Military Government in the U.S.
Zone in Germany. The indefatigable
Reid moved on, becoming a recog
nized spokesman for the Church’s
position on public matters, an advo
cate of interracial justice, and a cata
lyst in the emergence of the Catholic
Richard Reid
press in this country. He continued in
his post as editor of the Catholic
News and wrote and lectured widely.
With Edward Moffett, Reid co
authored Three Days in Eternity in
1957. He drew further recognition,
becoming a Knight Grand Cross of
the Holy Sepulchre. Reid died in
1961 at age 65.
R. L. M. Parks, editor of The
Augusta Chronicle in 1939, said of
Reid that “Oftentimes, we lightly use
the phrase ‘a gentleman and a scholar’
to describe some individual, but in the
case of Richard Reid this description
is apt in every sense of the word.
While his work as editor of the
Bulletin, official organ of the Catholic
Laymen’s Association of Georgia, has
been outstanding, it is the personal
example he sets as a Christian gentle
man, his scholarly attributes and his
innate kindness and love for all his
fellow men, which stamps Richard
Reid as a man whose mission in life is
to teach his fellow men the Golden
Rule through personal example. His is
indeed a sterling character.”
Rita H. DeLorme is a volunteer
in the Diocesan Archives.
In Bethlehem, pope says world must rediscover Christ’s peace
By John Thavis
Bethlehem (CNS)
eaching what he called the “heart” of his Holy
Land pilgrimage, Pope John Paul II celebrated
Mass in Bethlehem and said the Middle East and
the world need to rediscover the gift of peace
Christ brought 2,000 years ago.
In Manger Square March 22, next to the grotto
where Jesus was bom, the pope said the mystery of
“redemption unfolding in weakness” was a hard
truth, but one that modem people should accept.
Christ’s kingdom, he said in a sermon, “is not the
play of force and wealth and conquest which
appear to shape our human history,” but the power
to heal wounds and make peace. He said it had spe
cial relevance in Bethlehem.
“This is a place that has known the yoke and the
rod of oppression. How often has the cry of inno
cents been heard in these streets?” the pope said.
Thousands of Palestinians filled the square for the
two-hour liturgy and lined the stone streets of the
ancient city, waving Palestinian and Vatican flags
as the pope arrived in his glass-walled popemobile.
More than his words, they cheered the presence
of the 79-year-old pontiff, who first spoke of his
desire to make a pilgrimage to Bethlehem and the
Holy Land a few months after his election in 1978.
When he finally arrived, walking slowly across an
altar decorated with a giant shooting star, he wore a
smile of deep personal satisfaction.
“Bethlehem is the heart of my jubilee pilgrimage.
The paths that I have taken lead me to this place
and to the mystery that it proclaims,” he said.
While it marked the spiritual focus of the pope’s
jubilee-year visit, the day in Bethlehem began with
a meeting that also carried deep political signifi
cance to his Palestinian hosts.
After being welcomed by Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat, the pope kissed a basket of native
soil held by a young girl—a typical act when the
pope arrives in a new country. Many Palestinians
viewed the pope’s kiss as lending symbolic support
to their aspiration for statehood.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Vails down
played political interpretations, saying simply: “It
would have been very strange if the pope had not
kissed the earth in the land of Jesus’ birth.”
In a speech to Arafat at the Bethlehem headquar
ters of the Palestinian National Authority, the pope
issued a strong defense of Palestinians’ “natural right
to a homeland” and called for “new attitudes of com
promise” to bring about a definitive peace agreement
with Israelis.
“Peace for the Palestinian people! Peace for all the
peoples of the region!” he said.
“No one can ignore how much the Palestinian
people have had to suffer in recent decades. Your
torment is before the eyes of the world. And it has
gone on too long,” he said.
“Only with a just and lasting peace—not imposed
but secured through negotiation—will legitimate
Palestinian aspirations be fulfilled,” he said.