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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 BISHOP SAYS 2775 PEACHTREE ROAD N. E. CE 3-11G8 1938 Peachtree Road N. W. TR 5-9174 2 Locations to serve you IN ATLANTA Big Challenge In Appalachia PET.,..you betl PET Mtu COMPANY dairy division If For Convenient Home Delivery In Atlanta Call 636-8677 Bank of Forest Park Serving Growing Clayton County Member F. D. I. C. 1248 MAIN ST. 366-3261 FOREST PARK, GA. 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. CONVERT AT NO COST Wet Process Photocopies To New Process Dry Copy HYNES CO. 172 Whitehall St. 525-6417 4 th Printing! How To Understand Changes In The Liturgy by ARCHBISHOP PAUL J. HALUNAN Foreword by HIS EMINENCE JOSEPH CARDINAL RITTER WIDELY ACCLAIMED at National Liturgical Week “America” praises it as “Especially Enlightening” PRICE 25* 100 at 20c each / 300 at 18c each / 500 at 15c each Order note from rr GB PUBLICATIONS —— P.O. Box 11667 • Northside Station • Atlanta, Georgia 30305 Enclosed find $ for copies of Archbishop Hallman's Book "HOW TO UNDERSTAND CHANGES IN THE LITURGY." PRINT Name Address City State Zip CLASSIFIEDS INSURANCE Insurance poor? More mileage from your insurance dollar. David Foskey Agency, 636- 1461, 451-2232 l=OR SALE Califone Record Player loud speaker microphone like new excellent for teaching dancing and other school use $125. Nights 872-8792. BUSINESS SERVICES Painting, papering, minor re pairs. Very clean and exacting. Call Vincent, 522-0184. DRESSES BY ESTER Can copy originals of from magazines, Also wedding dresses. Or fine wearing apparel. 378-9579. Music Instructions by Mary Cambron on accordion, guitar and piano, 766-0043, 2917 Ak ron St., East Point, Ga. Painting- Interior- Exterior Thoroughly experienced expert does own work. Hundreds of ref erences furnished with each es timate. All windows and gutters cleaned free with job. Call Mr, Caldwell 622-6076 Society of St. Vincent de Paul Ozanam Shop 326 Ivy St, N.E. Atlanta (Opposite Sacred Heart) Desires to receive all US ABLE furniture, clothing, ap pliances, books, etc., for the poor and needy. Scheduled pick -ups will be made by Tele phoning: 688-6390 MOVING? PLEASE NOTIFY US SEND US THIS NOTICE TODAY: THE GEORGIA BULLETIN P.O. BOX 11667-NORTHS IDE STATION ATLANTA 5, GEORGIA NEW ADDRESS:- NAME ADDRESS. CITY .ZONE. Send or Phone Your Classified Advertising To The Georgia Bulletin P.O. Box 11667-Northside Station Atlanta 5, Georgia Phone: 231-1281 Ads accepted by phone, mail and at the office up to Monday, 3 line MINIMUM CHARGE Count 5 Average Words to a line. 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