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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1964 GEORIGIA BULLETIN PAGE 9
MISSIONARY REPORTS
TIIK ONLY CHRISTMAS THEY KNOW—Children of Appalachia are shown at a Christmas party given for them by
Father Ralph Beiting at St. Paul church. Jackson County, Kentucky. Parents of most children in the area are too poor to
rememb r Christmas, and Father Beiting and his lay volunteers try to give the ma party which will include new clothes,
toys and a Christmas dmner. Children grab toys that are given them, "hug them and won’t put them down for a minute,”
the priest says. It's from the children that one gets the most lasting impressions of Appalachia, he adds.
At a little settlement called
“Tuffet Out,’* the priest told
how his efforts to give clothing
to a family met with some
difficulty. The mother of a large
brood of children didn’t know
any “store-boughten” sizes be-
WASHINGTON — “Hearing a
radio announcer say how many
shopping days were left before
Christmas, I couldn’t help feel
ing how terribly incongrous this
is for the people I work with.
They aren’t affected by the num
ber of shopping days because
they don’t have the money to
buy the things other people buy
at Christmastime.’*
This was the comment of Fa
ther Ralph Beiting, pastor of a
four-county area of eastern
Kentucky where “th poorest
of Appalachia’s poor live.’*
FATHER Beiting was in
Washington where he hoped to
get recognition from the newly-
formed Office of Economic Op
portunity for what he calls “The
Christian Appalachian Pro
ject,” a community-centered
plan to provide jobs for some of
the poorest people in America
today.
In an interview, Father Beit
ing described the face of po-
BY FATHER RALPH HARTMAN
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
verty that he sees around Jack-
son County, Ky., where he has
centered his efforts lately to
provide dispirited men with
hope for a better life.
“Here you see the shacks
and sheds people live in, pro-
ped up with field stones; siding
that has fallen and tar paper
trying to cover up cracks in
hovels where often large fa
milies of children live-chil
dren who are cold and often
times without proper nourish
ment,’* Father Beiting said.
“ALMOST 30% of the fa
milies in this county make less
than $ 1,000 a year, and the aver
age income for the whole county
is only $1,600 a year,’* he said.
cause the only clothes her chil
dren had ever worn were hand-
me-downs of rummage sale
bargains. “It made you think
what kind of a world are we
living in here in the richest
country on the face of Christ
endom,’’ the priest said.
It’s from the children that
one gets the most lasting im
pressions of Appalachia, Fa
ther Beiting mentioned. “When
you look at their longing eyes
their tear-stained faces, often
broken out in rashes from lack
of proper food and hygiene,
it’s no wonder they grow up
without hope and settle down to
live a life that has no real pur
pose or end to it at all.”
WHERE THE POOREST OF APPLACHIA’S POOR LIVE is the way Father Ralph Beit
ing describes the four-county area where he works in eastern Kentucky. There, he says,
are shacks and sheds people live in, propped up by stones, the siding fallen and tar paper
trying to cover groping cracks in the walls. Large families of children—children cold and
oftentimes without proper nourishment—live in such places, he says. Father Beiting is
trying to interest the newly formed Office of Economic Opportunity in “The Christian
Appalachian Project,” a community-centered effort to provide jobs "for some of the poor
est people in America today."
FATHER Beiting is pastor
of St. William Church in Lan
caster, Ky. But it was in a new
little church in McKee, the
seat of Jackson County, that
he and his assistants and a
number of lay volunteers had
a Christmas party last year for
65 children and their parents.
Santa Claus came and gave
each child the only toy he got
that Christmas.
With his many helpers, Fa
ther Beiting last year distri
buted 12 tractor-trailer loads
of food, clothing and furniture
that friends in northern Kent
ucky and Cincinnati had col
lected for his people who num
ber one Catholic in every 150
people. Outside the towns, the
ration is about one to 1,000,
the priest said.
His anti-poverty project has
already provided work for a
number of men with large fa
milies to support. This work
is on several farms the priest
hopes to buy with money from
any source he can contact. In
corporated as a non-profit and
non - church - affiliated or
ganization, the Christian Ap
palachian Project has also pro
vided better homes for 12 fa
milies in the last year.
The priest told of one father
he knows who has tried to keep
his family of nine children on
about $20 a week hauling coal
for $5 a load.
“Last Christmas we deliver
ed a lot of toys to some of the
children around Jackson
County,” Father Beiting said.
“I never saw anything so strik
ing in my life as they grabbed
the toys and hugged them and
wouldn’t put them down even
for a minute.”
He told of a man he gave a
lift to last Christmas day. The
fellow had two sacks with him
that he hoped to fill with kindl
ing wood to sell to some wo
man for a quarter a bag. An
eight-inch snow had fallen and
the twigs and branches on the
ground would be hard to find,
the priest recalled. He later
took the man home to discover
six children living in a two-
room shed with no running wa
ter or electricity.
“IT WAS hard to tell that
this was Christmas day,’’ Fa-
there Beiting said. “There
wasn’t a sign anywhere in this
house that this was Christmas
day at all, that Christ has come
anti brought joy to the world.
Eight people slept in two beds,
one without a mattress, The kids
would throw their clothes over
the bare springs and cover
themselves with a blanket...How
sadly neglected has Christ been
in this area where Christmas
is just another day.”
Christmas Saddest Day
For Appalachian People
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CINCINNATI (NC)—The Ca
tholic Church faces a major
missionary challenge in the
southern Appalachian region of
the U.S., according to a bishop
whose Kentucky diocese includes
9,000 square miles of Appala
chia with 600,000 persons—only
4,000 of them Catholics.
The people of southern Ap
palachia “have been abandoned
b\ their fellow Americans,’*
declared Bishop Richard H. Ac
kerman, C.S. Sp., of Covington,
Ky. He made his comments in
a chapter on the U.S. as a
missionary land in a book cal
led “U.S.A. in Five Hours”
published here by the Catholic
Students Mission Crusade.
COMMENTING that Catholics
are “inclined to exaggerate our
successes, to minimize our los
ses,” Bishop Ackerman said
there is need for stepped-up
mission work among those who
have given up the practice of
their religion, among the mo
dern-day “pagans” of the U.S.
and among such minority groups
as migrant workers and Ne
groes.
Of 19 million U.S, Negroes,
he said, only 665,000 are Ca
tholics. “Scareiy a beginning
has been made in this...highly
important field,” he stated.
Turning to southern Ap
palachia, he said its mountain
folk have been “cut off from
the mainstream of American
civilization.”
even subnormal medical care,
they have learned to accept
as natural homes that are filthy
and without sanitation. Poverty
and disease are their inheri
tance,” he said.
BISHOP Ackerman said the
neglect of the spiritual and
temporal welfare of these
people suggests that many
Americans almost believe them
to be “excluded from the divine
command to preach the Gospel
to every creature.”
The bishop said he did not
wish to downgrade foreign mis
sion work. “My only desire,”
he declared, “is that while we
send the ambassadors of Christ
to other countries...we do not
forget those who stand outside
our own homes, for whom we are
an only hope of salvation.
♦
“Without proper social con
tacts, adequate education, a
gainful means of livelihood or
CHEERLEADERS for the football team of St, Mary’s School, Rome, helped the team complete
a successful season in the inter-county league for boys under twelve. Coaches of the team, which
made an excellent record in competition, are Mike Marsh and Don Ingalls.
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INSURANCE
Insurance poor? More mileage
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David Foskey Agency, 636-
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l=OR SALE
Califone Record Player loud
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BUSINESS SERVICES
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DRESSES BY ESTER
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