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The Bishops From Georgia
BY MICHAEL MOTES
When the Most Reverend Jean Jadot,
Apostolic Delegate in the United States,
consecrates Atlanta’s Vicar General
Monsignor Eusebius Joseph Beltran as
Bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa on April
20, it will be the fifth elevation to the
episcopate deeply rooted in the annals
of Georgia history.
Dating back almost 150 years to the
birth on a Georgia plantation of a child
destined to become the first black
bishop in this country, Georgia has
played an important role in the lives of
five United States Bishops.
During the next few weeks, we will
explore the lives of these Churchmen,
who at one period in the course of their
careers considered Georgia their home.
"paMer TUel
Sctifat44aat
The Last Irish Leader
Bernadette Devlin was no great
shakes as a leader. But she was a
revolution on the Irish scene. She
stepped into the picture in 1965 and
proved a point. This mini-skirted street
fighter, hailed as an international voice
pointing out injustice, proved that NO
leadership exists in Ireland.
And therein lies part of the sizzling
problem. North or South, Church or
State, Westminster, Belfast or Dublin,
there is no one voice among the eternal
prattlings of dissent and pitiless revenge
to bind and lead. That essential
ingredient is missing in the sprawling
squabbles of a hopeless case.
Eamon de Valera was the last Irish
leader. Despised, cherished, loved,
hated, this
scheming public
man was the
gathering point of
leadership for a
half century in a
nation bom in
bitterness.
Exhaulted as a king
for exploits
breathtakingly
daring and rejected
as a turncoat for
inhouse political
deals, he remained the cast iron pillar to
clench, even till his death just two years
ago. He was the last bitter-sweet hope.
He began his life as a harmless teacher
and scholar. But soon put down his pen
for the sword. Sentenced to death for
his leadership in an abortive rebellion,
Easter 1916, he sat in Dublin’s
Kilmainham jail waiting for the end. He
was 34. Three times each day he
listened to the march of- his
co-conspirators on their last journey to
“the wall.” But the hail of firing squad
bullets, whose echo would arouse a
sleeping island to wage a Viet-Cong-style
war, was not for him.
The United States Congress, under
constant pressure from Irish American
votes, reminded London that the
prisoner, de Valera was Brooklyn bom,
a de facto American citizen. His death
sentence was commuted. It was the
beginning of his long and controversial
career as supremo in the birth of a
Nation.
Again he changed his weapon. This
time it was for the orator’s podium and
the politico’s brief. His many sides
began to show. Refusing and violently
opposing the imposition of a partitioned
island, he finally accepted it and took
leadership of the New Nation. The
bitterness of that fluctuation remained
with him forever. Admired for his
powerful guiding hand, he was at the
same time detested for the compromise
he swore he would never make.
Families still stand divided, and
uproariously so, on their chosen
loyalities to “Dev” in that 50-year-old
decision.
But they turned to him in every
constant political crisis. He had
impractical dreams for Ireland and her
people. He dreamed of the Gaelic
Language re-born, when the people
needed bread. He dreamed of the Gaelic
art and culture revived, when the people
needed jobs and industry. Over and over
they resented his dreams but wildly
applauded his unique and lone stand in
having them.
A vacuum of leadership succeeded his
passing. Not only in the powerful
presence of de Valera, but also in
adversaries he so avidly faced. Lloyd
George of his younger years and the
wiley Churchhill with whom he
exchanged litanies of bitter words in
later times. All of them were leaders,
capably armed and talented, for
hardship decisions. They have not been
replaced.
St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish, Eamon de
Valera, somehow the lines of history
cross and connect.
He was the last Irish leader.
PART ONE-
BISHOP JAMES AUGUSTINE HEALY
When Michael Morris Healy, an Irish
immigrant, fell Fortunate Drawer in the
Georgia Land Lottery of 1,300 acres of
rich bottom land near the Ocmulgee
River in Jones County in 1823, he
established what was to become a
prosperous plantation there.
Falling in love with Eliza Smith, a
mulatto who had been born a slave in
Georgia, Healy entered a common law
marriage agreement in 1829. Laws of
the period forbid lawful union between
the races, therefore no formal marriage
could be declared.
On April 6, 1830, Eliza gave birth to
a son who was named James Augustine.
Nine more children would follow, three
of whom would die at an early age, not
an uncommon occurrence of the period.
The surviving children achieved
individual renown and it was the Church
that brought the majority of them fame.
Although situated in a remote area of
the state, the Healy home was one of
education and refinement for the day.
Existing records show that the large log
home was handsomely furnished and
contained a library of more than 100
books, not large by today’s standards
but quite unusual in the long ago.
The Healy children were taught
music, including lessons on the flute and
fiddle, and the basics of a fundamental
education by their father.
But there was one thing that their
father could not do for his children and
that was secure that they were free. In
addition to being his children, the Healy
offspring were also Michael’s property.
Since emancipation could not be
obtained for their slave-born mother,
the law of the time made the younger
Healys slaves by birth.
In the autumn of 1837, Michael
Healy went to New York City and, with
the help of friends and relatives who
had emigrated there from Ireland, he
undertook a desperate search for a
school in the Northern “free states”
that would educate his swarthy-skinned,
bushy-haired youngsters in an
environment free of insinuation about
their mixed parentage.
He found a Quaker school in
Flushing, New York, that would accept
them. Unfortunately, although
administrators of the school patronized
the ideals of brotherly love, the students
with whom James and his brothers were
in constant contact did not uphold the
school’s traditions when it came to the
“boys from Georgia.” The Healy
brothers, including Patrick and
Sherwood who would also later become
priests, were bracketed with racial slurs
because of their Negro blood, on one
hand, and scorned because of their
immigrant Irish Catholic ancestry, on
the other.
Through the intervention of Bishop
John Fitzpatrick, of Boston, whom
Michael Healy met on a boat trip up the
Atlantic coast and informed of his sons’
unhappiness in the Quaker school, it
was arranged for James, Hugh, Patrick
and Sherwood Healy to be sent to Holy
Cross College in Worcester,
Massachusetts. Bishop Fitzpatrick also
arranged for Martha Healy, one of
Michael’s daughters, to live with
members of his own family in Boston
and to be enrolled in the Notre Dame
Sisters’ school there.
Both Michael and Eliza Healy died in
1850 and by this time all of their
surviving children were away from
Georgia being educated in free states.
James excelled at Holy Cross and
graduated first in his class the year
before his parents’ death. His Jesuit
instructors had allowed him to develop
his natural abilities for philosophy,
history and literature and the inspiring
religious atmosphere had deepened his
personal faith. He felt that he was being
called to the priesthood and was
accepted for studies at the Sulpician
Seminary in Montreal.
His past and mixed racial background
returned to haunt James in 1850 when
he was about to receive his minor
orders. Since his parents had not been
legally married, he could not prove his
own legitimacy. He appealed to his old
family friend Bishop Fitzpatrick and a
dispensation was granted within a year,
based on the fact that no Roman
Catholic priest had been in the area of
Georgia in 1829 when Michael and Eliza
Healy entered their common law
marriage agreement.
(Continued on page 6)
JAMES AUGUSTINE HEALY, born on a Georgia plantation to an Irish
immigrant father and a mulatto slave mother, became the first Negro
Bishop in the United States when he was named spiritual leader of all
Catholics in the Diocese of Portland, Maine, in 1875.
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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 16 No. 11
Thursday, March 16,1978
$5 Per Year
Bishops Urge Stevens Action
<L &
PATRICK’S PILGRIM -- What is considered to be one of the world’s
hardest pilgrimages begins at the foot of Croagh Patrick at a statue of St.
Patrick in County Mayo, Ireland. Pilgrims make the three-hour climb over
rough terrain up the mountain where they will pray and do penance
honoring Ireland’s patron saint.
Cathedral Holy Week
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan will preside over the following Holy
Week ceremonies at the Cathedral of Christ the King:
-- Palm Sunday (March 19): At 11 a.m. the Archbishop will be principal
celebrant and homilist at the Solemn Blessing of the Palms.
- Holy Thursday (March 23): At 11 a.m. Clergy of the Archdiocese will
concelebrate the Mass of the Holy Chrism. The Archbishop will be homilist
and principal celebrant.
The Days Of Holy Week — Page 2
- Good Friday (March 24): From noon until 3 p.m. the Archbishop and
Cathedral clergy will hold the Service of the Meditation of the Last Seven
Words, followed by the Stations of the Cross. At 7 p.m. the Archbishop will
preside at the Liturgy of Good Friday.
-- Holy Saturday (March 25): At 8 p.m. the Archbishop will be principal
celebrant and homilist at the Easter Vigil Service.
- Easter Sunday (March 26): At 11 a.m. the Archbishop will be celebrant
and homilist for the Liturgy of Easter.
Six Southern Bishops, including
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan of Atlanta,
have issued a statement on the subject of
Union-Management dispute of the J.P.
Stevens Company plants in the Southeastern
United States. The statement is as follows:
It has now been ten months since the
Catholic bishops of the Province of
Atlanta and the Diocese of Richmond
issued a public statement concerning the
labor-management dispute at the J.P.
Stevens Co., Inc. At that time we made
clear our concern for the problems of
the working man and woman and the
economic health of the community. We
reemphasize here that our interest in the
economic welfare of the community
finds its source in long-standing religious
teaching on social justice and the rights
of workers to organize and to have a
just share in the rewards of their labors.
We are conscious that there are those
who wish that the church, and
churchmen, would “stay in the pulpit,”
but we insist that the implications of
the Gospel itself force us to become
involved in issues of justice and the
basic rights of working people.
In the light of this concern, since our
last statement we have met at some
length with representatives of both
labor and management in order to
express our continued willingness to
assist in reconciling the differences that
too long have separated them. In both
cases our meetings were cordial and
candid, allowing for an exchange of
views and an expression of positions
leading to the current impasse. In
reflecting on these meetings we feel we
should make public our present
assessment of the J.P. Stevens dispute.
We are encouraged by certain
advances made by J.P. Stevens
management which have resulted in
some improvements for the workers.
These changes have, however, been
minimal and they cannot disguise the
strong, and acknowledged, anti-union
philosophy of the company. As long as
this attitude on the part of management
continues, it constitutes a serious
obstacle to the realistic resolution of the
Stevens dispute. The company’s
anti-union position radiates a climate of
disapproval which cannot fail to
discourage workers from joining unions,
and it makes every union advance a
struggle between opposing forces. We
feel that this is an area for basic change
if progress is to be made, and we call
upon J.P. Stevens Co. to reassess its
position and, at least, remain neutral in
the process of union decisions by the
workers.
Moreover, the evidence is
overwhelming that, in practice as well as
in theory, the J.P. Stevens Co. has
followed a path of discouragement, and
even repression, of union activity. That
policy is reminiscent of an earlier
management-labor stance which has, for
the most part, happily disappeared from
the American scene. The National Labor
Relations Board, on many occasions,
and indeed the Federal Courts, have
used strong and denunciatory language
in reviewing the recalcitrant Stevens’
behavior and made headlines across the
country. In the light of this, any
fair-minded observer is forced to
acknowledge that the blame for the
present social crisis lies heavily upon the
company.
The long delays in the pursuit of
justice, extended by many court
appeals, have not contributed to any
public confidence in the willingness of
J.P. Stevens to adopt reasonable
solutions. These delays have taxed the
patience of the workers and scandalized
the public so much as to suggest that
new national legislation must be passed
to make such dilatory efforts impossible
in the future.
In short, we find a sad record of
continued opposition to the formation
of unions, in philosophy and in action,
by the J.P. Stevens Co., and we find it
to be irreconcilable with the clear
demands of social justice in the
Christian Gospel. This evaluation of the
record does not in any way constitute
an endorsement of irresponsible activity
or conduct on the part of union
(Continued on Page 6)
OFFICIAL
New Vicar General Named
Archbishop Thomas A.
Donnellan has announced the
following priestly assignments,
effective Thursday, April 13,1978:
AS VICAR GENERAL OF THE
ARCHDIOCESE OF ATLANTA,
REVEREND MONSIGNOR JOHN
F. MCDONOUGH, Administrator
of the Cathedral of Christ the King.
AS PASTOR OF IMMACULATE
HEART OF MARY CHURCH,
ATLANTA, REVEREND
MONSIGNOR R. DONALD
KIERNAN, presently Pastor of the
Church of Saint Jude, Atlanta.
AS PASTOR OF THE CHURCH
OF SAINT JUDE, ATLANTA,
VERY REVEREND RICHARD B.
MORROW, V.F., presently Pastor
of Saint John the Evangelist
Church, Hapeville.
AS PASTOR OF OUR LADY
OF LOURDES CHURCH,
ATLANTA, REVEREND NOEL C.
BURTENSHAW, presently Pastor
of Immaculate Heart of Mary
Church, Atlanta.
AS PASTOR OF SAINT JOHN
THE EVANGELIST CHURCH,
HAPEVILLE, REVEREND
MICHAEL A. WOODS, presently
Pastor of Saint Joseph’s Church,
Athens.
AS FIRST PASTOR OF THE
NEW PARISH IN SNELLVILLE,
REVEREND TERENCE A. KANE,
presently Pastor of Our Lady of
Lourdes Church, Atlanta.
AS PASTOR OF SAINT
JOSEPH’S CHURCH, ATHENS
AND FIRST ASSIGNMENT AS
PASTOR, REVEREND WILLIAM
E. CALHOUN, presently Assistant
Pastor of Saint Thomas More
Church, Decatur.
AS PASTOR OF SAINT
ANTHONY’S CHURCH,
ATLANTA AND FIRST
ASSIGNMENT AS PASTOR,
REVEREND JOHN S. ADAMSKI,
presently in residence at Saint
Anthony’s.
Msgr. John F. McDonough
I