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Georgia Visits Of Bishop Sheen
BY MICHAEL MOTES
Over a quarter of a century
spanned the only two “official” visits
by the late Archbishop Fulton J.
Sheen to Georgia and the first, made
in 1951, is as fresh in the minds of
those who were on hand to greet the
nation’s best-known Catholic
minister as if it took place yesterday.
The event was the state meeting
of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association, hosted that year by then
extremely small Saint Mary’s parish
in Rome.
Father Patrick C. Connell, now
Chaplain at Our Lady of Perpetual
Help Cancer Home, had recently
been assigned as pastor of Saint
Mary’s and recalls the events leading
up to the visit of then Bishop Sheen.
“In the fall of 1950,” remembers
Father Connell, “Father James
Grady, pastor of Saint Mary’s and a
Colonel in the Army Reserve, was
recalled to active duty and I was
assigned as administrator of the
parish in Rome.
“Plans were being made for the
upcoming Catholic Laymen’s
Association meeting that Saint
Mary’s would host and a committee
from the association met with the
priests in the rectory to plan for the
October convention Sunday.
“The question of a speaker of
note came up and it was suggested by
committee member Marshall
Wellborn that to satisfy the number
of Catholics that would come to the
convention and to direct the
Association’s message to the greatest
possible number of non-Catholics,
that a speaker be asked who was
considered ‘at the top.’
“Such a person was then Bishop
Fulton J. Sheen, who for decades
had been nationally known from his
Radio Catholic Hour talks and his
TV weekly broadcasts.”
Father Connell continued to say
that the suggestion made by Mr.
Wellborn was met with great
enthusiasm and it was suggested that
the idea be conveyed to then
Auxiliary Bishop Francis Hyland of
the Savannah-Atlanta Diocese.
When Mr. Wellborn informed the
bishop of the ambitious program
planned by the Laymen’s
Association, the prelate said that he
personally would deliver the
invitation to Bishop Sheen, whom he
planned to meet soon in New York.
Arriving at Bishop Sheen’s New
York office, Bishop Hyland spoke of
the far-flung missions of Georgia and
invited Bishop Sheen, as National
Director of the Society for the
Propagation of the Faith, to the
October convention in Georgia.
Bishop Sheen asked the date,
turned to his calendar and stated,
“I’ll be there.” It was as simple as
that!
Arriving in Atlanta fresh from a
Pilgrimage to Fatima, Bishop Sheen
gave early morning Mass-goers at the
Cathedral of Christ the King quite a
surprise when, completely
unannounced, he gave the homily at
the 8 a.m. Mass the day that he later
motored to Rome for the
convention.
Mr. Wellborn, then an investment
banker living in Rome and now
retired in Atlanta, vividly recalls
meeting Archbishop Sheen upon his
arrival in Rome. A motorcade led by
the late Hughes Spalding, Sr. had
accompanied the famed orator from
Atlanta.
“I was impressed immediately by
the Bishop’s piercing eyes,” recalls
Wellborn. “He was a tremendously
imposing man, yet so kind and
gentle. We , met in the lobby of the
auditorium where he was to speak
and a group of children, having seen
him on television, were gathered
around trying to photograph him. He
turned to one little girl and said,
“You can’t see very well in here, let’s
go outside and get our pictures
made.’ With that, he excused himself
and pleased the children by posing
with them to their heart’s delight.”
Wellborn further recalled that the
guest speaker regaled his audience
with his opening remarks. Fearing
that he would be late for his guest
appearance, Bishop Sheen had
dressed in the robes of his rank,
brilliantly lined in red silk, for a
pre-convention luncheon with a
group of officers of the Laymen’s
Association.
(Continued on page 6) 1
ROME VISIT -- Archbishop Fulton Sheen is
pictured during his visit to Rome, Georgia to
address the 1951 Convention of the Catholic
Laymen’s Association of Georgia. The bishop was
caught by the photographer as he related his
experience at lunch a few minutes earlier.
Pictured from the left are Monsignor Joseph
Cassidy, Bishop Sheen, Archbishop Gerald
O’Hara, Bishop Francis Hyland and Hugh Grady,
then president of the Association.
The CUPPI
Alice Morgan was a product of the
seventies. She died just as her decade
closed. She spent her young life
loafing on the streets of New York
City and on those same indifferently
lonesome streets she met her death,
just one month ago. The New York
City Police Department call Alice a
\
Vol. 18 No. 2
Thursday, January 10,1980
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
$6.00 Per Year
CUPPI.
There were other names for Alice
too. She was a young girl. Never
having reached the ripe old age of 14,
you could call
her a child. In
the hotel
district and
around Times
Square, Alice
was a singularly
sought after
prostitute. She
had plied her
age old trade for
over two years
in the gruesome
grime of the
world’s most famous city.
As the drizzly month of
December began, and the lights of
Macy’s showed festive signs of
Christmas, Alice Morgan toppled
from the seventh story window of a
Second Avenue back street, fatigued
hotel. She was dead on arrival at
Mercy Hospital.
THE NEW YORK TIMES quickly
implied that Alice was
unceremoniously thrown from that
seventh story. Her street friends were
silent in their obvious terror, her
pimp had an alibi and the police
placed her on their special list, most
jealously guarded by the Detective
Division and known by all as the
CUPPI File. The litany of names in
that file designated victims who had
died “Circumstances Undetermined
Pending Police Investigation”
(CUPPI). There, on the tombstone of
that police blotter, the name of Alice
Morgan will stay forever.
We lost so many of the familiar
famous in the long seventies decade.
We grew up with John Wayne and he
is gone. Those rascals, the Marx
Brothers, will provide us with no
more inventive humor. The eyes of
the hypnotic Fulton Sheen will stare
us down no more. The great
Chavalier is gone, two great Popes
were lost, Edgar Bergan and
chatterbox Charlie McCarthy were
parted. So many of these
entertaining, influential personalities
were taken from us in those 10
sprawling years. And Alice Morgan
was taken too.
Alice was not a lonely statistic.
Hundreds like her have gone to the
CUPPI File. They are the runaway
children of the American dream gone
sour. Disheartened by the easy
destruction of home life, terrified by
the uncertainties of the one parent
home, totally bewildered by the
demand that they choose mother or
father as a partnership fades they run
to arms of any kindness, any
security, any affection, even one of
very short and menacing measure.
And so, gladly accepting the kind
word or soft smile as payment, the
Alices of our time do the bidding of
inhuman monsters who momentarily
use their freshness before
disregarding them to the garbage
heaps of Second Avenue.
The CUPPI File will expand and
grow as heavier demands are placed
on the hours of New York’s finest.
The Year of the Family - 1980 - just
says to us, thirteen year old girls
don’t belong in it.
Alice Morgan was a product of the
seventies and she is a CUPPI.
1979 AT HOME
Growth, Expansion
Year Of Outreach
BY MICHAEL MOTES
Proclaiming Cathedral Choir Director H. Hamilton Smith Man of the Year
for 1978, the first issue of the GEORGIA BULLETIN of 1979 reported that
the past year had been one of unparailed growth in the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Catholic editors from throughout the country had agreed that the top
national news of the year was the papal transition, from the death of Pope Paul
VI through the 34-day reign of John Paul I and the surprise election of a Polish
cardinal to the Chair of St. Peter.
On the home front, ground had been broken for a $217,000 addition to
Saint George’s Church in Newman; Atlanta was preparing to commemorate the
(Continued on page 3)
Charities Drive 1980
CHAIRS TO BE FILLED - Father Dan
O’Connor, member of the Archdiocesan
Evangelization Committee leads his parish in this
year of outreach, as weyward Catholics and the
unchurched are contacted. A highlight of 1979
was the Program of Outreach which began and
continues until the feast of Pentecost 1980.
The 1980 Charities Drive gets
underway on Friday, January 11.
Archbishop Donnellan will host the
annual dinner for pastors, Parish
THE YEAR OF THE FAMILY: II
(Editor’s note: Next week “The
Single Family” will be examined by
Rita O’Mara of ■ Immaculate Heart of
Mary parish.)
BY PATRICIA
AND PATRICK GOLDEN
The year of 1980 has been
proclaimed “The Year of the
Family” and we believe that
family is the most important unit
of our society. We as a young
couple gave birth to our first
child, Renie Catherine, this past
year. Experiencing her birth was
by far the most wonderful
happening that we could have
shared together. And we feel that,
this experience marked the
beginning of our household- “our
family.”
Like many young married
couples, we have many
considerations to think about for
our new addition. Two of the
main issues that concern us are
religious education and the
morality of our society. These
topics together will play an
important part in the shaping of
our daughter’s character and
personality. Although these issues
are important factors, we feel that
the love and understanding we can
give our child everyday of her life
will be the best possible
foundation for her over the years.
If the family is taught to love and
understand and respect each
other, then that example of
sharing can stand as a bright light
in the community.
The Young Family
When it comes to religious
education, we feel that a lot of
society’s problems result from the
fact that we-as a society have
drifted from our faith in God. We
must always be aware of this at
home and begin teaching our
children about God when they are
very young. This way they will
grow up knowing that God is our
Father and without Him nothing
would be possible. Most of all,
He’s always there, depend on
Him.
Since many of us cannot afford
private or even parochial schools
more responsibility is placed on us
as parents to take part in the
Church’s religious programs for
our children. We should review
their books and take part in their
Sunday learning experiences just
as we would other subjects.
Perhaps we could give some aid to
the teachers. There is no better
way for a family to knit closer
together than by warmly acting as
one. We, are all familiar with the
saying “A family that prays
together, stays together.” We
could all benefit by putting this
into practice each day. Those who
lose sight of God in their daily
lives are on shakey ground.
The tragedy is so many of us
are careless in the home and so
morality is at an all time low. We
hope that our child grows up
understanding that money and
material objects are not the keys
to happiness, and these things are
only transitory. We want her to
(Continued on page 6)
Drive Chairpersons, their wives or
husbands, and members of the
Archdiocesan Finance Council. Drive
Sunday is March 2. Preparations
begin with the annual dinner when
each parish is given a goal, a packet
for running the Drive, and materials
for mailing to 35,000 homes in
North Georgia during the month of
February.
The dinner is also a way to thank
those who will be devoting a good
deal of time to the annual effort.
Last year over $500,000 was
collected in this one-day cash drive.
The goal for this year’s drive is
$550,000.
Monsignor Jerry Hardy,
Chancellor of the Archdiocese, said,
“The Drive has been a success for 10
years. We have always exceeded the
goal and this is certainly because of
the charity of the people and the
dedication of the pastors and
chairpersons.”
The Drive funds the Georgia
Missions, social and charitable works,
education programs, family services,
seminary expenses and priests’
retirement.
L. PHILLIP HUMANN has been
named the 1980 Charities Drive
Chairman. He is Executive Vice
President of Trust Company Bank, a
Cathedral parishioner and a member
of the Archdiocesan Finance
Council.