Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, April 27, 2000
The Southern Cross, Page 3
Newspaperman and Catholic pen excellenceFrank P. Rossiter
A s Francis (Frank) P. Rossiter
strode along Bay Street on
his way to work as city editor
at the Savannah Morning
News, his progress was usu
ally interrupted by people
wanting a word with him.
His popular column, “City
Beat”, which ran daily in the
morning newspaper, drew
snippets of information on a
wide variety of topics from both
those he knew well and those he
scarcely knew. i
Rossiter had joined the staff cjf the
Morning News shortly after graduat
ing from Benedictine Military
School. He enlisted in the Navy the
day Pearl Harbor was bombed,
December 7, 1941, and served
throughout World War II, command
ing a Navy LST (landing ship tank)
during many dangerous operations,
including the Normandy Invasion.
When he was released from active
duty, having attained the rank of lieu
tenant commander, Rossiter rejoined
the staff of the Savannah newspaper.
In 1947, he began to write “City
Beat” and continued to do so for
many years.
To say that Frank Rossiter pro
duced this column, acted as city edi
tor, page editor and, at one point, was
acting managing editor is to
barely graze the surface of
his accomplishments.
A product of Savannah’s
“Old Fort” district,
Rossiter was intensely
interested in Irish history
and the history of the city.
One way or the other, he was
Rita H. DeLorme always tied to the activities
of the port. As city editor
of the paper, he handled all shipping
news. Organizations and activities he
worked with are almost beyond tabu
lation; they embrace, among many
others, the Savannah Civitan Club,
Knights of Columbus, Savannah
Exchange, Board of Managers
Savannah Public Library, editor of
B.C. Alumni News, Vice-President of
Serviam, Inc., President Hibernian
Society, 1971 grand marshal of the
Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, and mem
ber State Democratic Committee. His
membership in these varied civic and
church organizations was marked by
serious attention and dedication to
each cause. In 1966, at the close of
his almost 35-year newspaper career,
Frank Rossiter signed on with
Hohenstein Shipping Company and,
in 1974, with the Savannah Office of
Texas Transport and Terminal
Company, serving as an executive in
Frank P. Rossiter
that company’s sales department.
His career took on a political spin
as he functioned as alderman and
mayor pro tem during the terms of
Savannah mayor John Rousakis.
Married to Inez Elizabeth Coleman,
Frank Rossiter’s was a busy family
life, blessed with four sons and two
daughters. Despite many calls on his
time, he never forgot his Irish
Catholic roots; he was willing to help
the young along on their path to edu
cation and careers and he was often
called on to assist as pallbearer at
funerals of lifelong acquaintances.
Rossiter would often pause on his
way to work in the morning during
the late 1950’s for a brief visit with
the mother of one of his friends. At
the time of this lady’s death, Rossiter
commented wistfully: “She was the
last of the old Irish mothers.”
Typifying Frank Rossiter’s style
was his “unexcelled attendance
record” at sessions of the Savannah
City Council, an impressive ninety-
eight percent for 96 regular and spe
cial sessions over a three-and-a-half-
year period.
Though Frank P. Rossiter died of
cancer on January 10, 1983, his
memory has been perpetuated not
only in his family and community,
but also on the website of the
Savannah Morning News, home of
his award-winning “City Beat” col
umn. During the Saint Patrick’s Day
festivities in Savannah this year,
Rossiter’s old friends could click on
the newspaper’s current Web site and
happily recall both the pleasure of his
company and his service to Church
and community.
Rita H. DeLorme is a volunteer in the
Diocesan Archives.
'."A Iff • V • : .. ^ _ ' • • . *»
Miami prelate urges restraint, calm
in wake of Elian’s seizure
Miami (CNS)
M iami Archbishop John C. Favalora
appealed for “restraint and calm” in the
Miami community in the wake of the April 22
seizure of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez by federal
authorities.
“As the community is observing solemn holy
days, it would be appropriate to take today’s
events to pray for healing and reconciliation,”
the archbishop said.
In a pre-dawn raid, federal agents took the boy
from the home of his relatives and flew him to
suburban Washington for a reunion with his
father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
“Our city has faced crisis in the past with rea
soned reaction,” Archbishop Favalora continued.
“It is time once again to call forth our best
efforts for the good of everyone in the area.”
On Easter Sunday clergy in south Florida
launched a healing effort in the wake of reaction
to the seizure, and the Miami Herald daily news
paper reported that the effort is expected to
involve a broad range of community leaders,
public gatherings and discussions in the weeks
ahead.
In his statement, Archbishop Favalora called
upon all Catholic churches to “pray for the entire
Gonzalez family and for a peaceful period of
healing and reconciliation.”
On Easter Sunday in Little Havana, Masses at
Saint John Bosco Church, where Elian’s relatives
are parishioners, were packed.
In an interview with Catholic News Service
April 24, the pastor, Cuban-born Monsignor
Emilio Vallina, also expressed his wish for a
return to peace among Miami’s Cuban exiles and
reconciliation among all members of the
Gonzalez family.
“We are asking the exile community to contin
ue being nonviolent. Violence begets violence,”
Monsignor Vallina told CNS.
But Monsignor Vallina, who described himself
as a close friend of the Miami Gonzalez family,
said he remained skeptical about a reconciliation
between Elian’s father and the Miami Gonzalez
family.
Monsignor Vallina said that Cuba’s dictator
Fidel Castro has placed “agents” in constant sur
veillance of the father, Juan Gonzalez. “Castro is
manipulating the father. Castro is our enemy,” he
said.
%
“Reconciliation means that the father of Elian
gets together for several days with the rest of the
family so that the father is free from fear of the
Castro government,” said Monsignor Vallina.
“It is impossible for Elian to go back to Cuba,”
the monsignor said. “He would not live with his
father. He would be a puppet of a government
that doesn’t believe in the family.
“His mother left a testament. She died so that
the mother could be free. Elian was saved by
dolphins, by fishermen, by the hand of God,” the
priest said. “We now ask that God act to that
things turn our for the best and that God’s will,
not Castro’s, be done.”
Contributing to this story were Lou Panarale
end AGOSTINO Bono in Washington.
Cardinal O’Connor
prayerfully preparing
“to go home
By Tracy Early
New York (CNS)
C ardinal John J. O’Connor of New York is prayerfully
preparing “to go home,” Father Benedict J. Groe-
schel of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal told a con
gregation at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral April 21.
Delivering Good Friday meditations, Father Groeschel
commented briefly on the absence of the cardinal, who
has delivered the meditations in previous years, and said
he was “desperately” ill. Father Groeschel, director of the
New York archdiocesan Office of Spiritual Development,
asked for prayers for the cardinal and for his doctors.
Joseph Zwilling, the cardinal’s spokesman, reported
that Auxiliary Bishop Robert A. Brucato, substituting for
Cardinal O’Connor at the Easter Sunday Mass, “said he
brought the cardinal’s greetings to the congregation, and
would bring the congregation’s greetings back to him.”
But there was no written statement such as Cardinal
O’Connor had sometimes sent to be read when he could
not be present for a Mass, Zwilling said.
Cardinal O’Connor, who had surgery for removal of a
brain tumor August 31 and underwent about five weeks
of radiation, regained some strength at the beginning of
the year and visited Pope John Paul II and other officials
at the Vatican February 9-11.
But he then became markedly weaker, and Zwilling
told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview
April 24 that Cardinal O’Connor was no longer involved
in the work of the archdiocese. He said the cardinal
remained “extremely weak,” had “diminished” hearing
because of treatments he had received, and was unable to
read because of eye problems.