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SOUNDINGS
- What Destroyed Jack Potts?
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As we go to press, Jack
Potts is being led to that foul
electrical contraption. The
anonymous hand will reach
out and throw the switch.
Witnesses will sit and watch
as the People of the State of
Georgia execute this man of
murder. It is the first use of
I the electric chair in sixteen
years.
The family of his victim
want it to happen. We can
understand the bitter-sweet
taste of vengence they long
to sip. It will be
unsatisfactory. It will not
bring a son back to a grieving
mother or a husband back to
a broken wife.
We can understand a
frustrated, perplexed public
who feel this example of one
or some, will stop the vicious
wave of violence sweeping
across the plains of our
society. The public is wrong.
The much used execution
chambers of the past have
not halted the onward march
of violent criminals and their
detestable deeds.
What we cannot
understand is the response of
our communities to the facts.
And here are the facts.
Seventy per cent of all
criminals in our State are
shut up behind bars, in
chamber-of-horror
conditions, for committing
non-violent crimes. The
experts and the statistics are
infallible as they follow the
dreadful saga of these
unfortunates. They are raving
lunatics upon release.
Morally and sometimes
physically they are
destroyed. Almost two thirds
of them return at some time
to the Big House. The second
trip usually involves a violent
crime.
This massive number of
miserable mistake-makers
could have been redirected to
a Restitution Center. They
could have been forced to
repay the amount stolen, or
restore the property
destroyed. They could have
worked an everyday job at
the same time. They would
have paid taxes, and received
proper counsel. Their prison
stay would not have cost the
public a cent.
How do we know all this?
Simple. The State of Georgia
has eleven such Centers in
operation across the State for
men, and one for women.
And they work. Eighty per
cent of the men released have
returned to society healed,
without any return journey
to an overcrowded cell in
Reidsville or Jackson. This
State, and we should say it
with pride, has proved the
Restitution Route works.
That leaves the dangerous
violent thirty percent on our
hands. But that is a
managable, if unacceptable,
figure. In an atmosphere of
calm, with an opportunity
for close patient study, away
from the numbing,
overwhelming pressure of
numbers, the experts can
work for rehabilitation - and
they can succeed.
At a cost of 18 million
dollars, a new prison for
women is being constructed
in Thomaston. “What a
waste,” say those who have
watched the progress of
Restitution Centers. Put a
mere pittance of those
pennies into the restoration
rather than the destruction
of human lives and watch the
dividends accrue.
What destroyed Jack
Potts? Refusal to see the bare
faced facts did. The mad
mighty rush to physically
chastise rather than
responsibly rationalize, did.
And dozens more like him
sit on Georgia’s death row.
The growing buldging
prison population of this
nation is a time bomb. The
jaded system of incarceration
is bankrupt. It is time to look
rationally at the facts.
See Story Pg. 3
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 23
Thursday, June 5,1980
$6 Per Year
DEATH PENALTY
Manning Papers
"We Protest It!"
Three Georgia Bishops, two Catholic and one Episcopal have
issued a joint statement protesting the death penalty. The statement
is dated May 31 and specifically mentions Reidsville inmate Jack
Potts who is scheduled to die in Georgia s electric chair on June 5.
The Statement runs as follows:
Four years ago the restoration of the death penalty by the Supreme Court
prompted a joint statement of opposition by us. Now, in the face of its
looming actual use in the case of the prisoner, Jack Potts, we protest it in
practice.
We acknowledge that Christians of equally serious moral concern disagree
on the issue. Our intent is to honor personal freedom in Christ to exercise
moral discernment and come to different conclusions. Still, we feel compelled
to bear witness to our views and ask the citizens of Georgia to give us heed.
The death penalty might be justified as the lesser of two evils if it could be
shown conclusively that, by inhibiting violent crime, it served as a significant
protection to society. However, the weight of sociological research strongly
suggests the reverse - that lawful violence may actually encourage criminal
violence. Since the sociology of crime and punishment is an inconclusive guide,
we rely principally on theological considerations in opposing the death penalty.
Four points of conviction persuade us firmly against its use.
First is the holiness of human life. This revolutionary value is implicit in the
Judeo-Christian revelation and emerges into political visibility with the systems
of justice that bestow the right of equal protection of the law to all persons. At
a more primitive level in history this is the value underlying the ancient
commandment that forbids the deliberate killing of another human being.
Second, we hold that the Christian purpose of punishment is reformatory
and retributive, not vindictive. Vengeance is morally inadmissible on Christian
grounds. Our Scriptures are explicit in declaring vengeance to be God’s
prerogative, not humanity’s. And because Jesus Christ warned of God’s
judgment in terms of God’s love, we hold the meaning of vengeance in God’s
use of it to be redemptive.
Third, the violent taking of one human life to serve notice on other lives is
decidedly cruel. It has led to gross discrimination in actual practice, violating
our equal value as persons. The victims are almost invariably from among the
poor, the oppressed or the disadvantaged. Moreover, it cannot be anything but
counter-productive as public education. If, as we commonly hold, the most
persuasive instructor is the power of example, then it must be clear that killing
teaches only the permissibility of taking human life, not the value of preserving
it.
Finally, in theological terms we hold that the divine law of love relates to
humanity as a lure and a goal. We have made our way slowly toward more just
and compassionate treatment of one another in the human family. In our social
history the structures of compassion have emerged gradually, but they have
emerged. The abolition of the death penalty seemed to us such a forward
move. Its restoration is a backward step. Its actual use in our state demeans us
all. It reduces our shared dignity as human persons and violates our professed
respect for human life.
That there should be punishment of crime, we hold to be self-evident. That
the punishment should Fit both the crime and the criminal, we hold to be the
steadfast aim of our courts of law. If the law of the land should mature to the
point of forbidding the retaliatory violence of punishing crime by killing the
criminal, we would hold this to be a triumph of God’s redemptive sovereignty
in human affairs.
Thomas A. Donnellan, Archbishop
Raymond W. Lessard, Bishop
Bennett J, Sims, Bishop
To Governor Busbee
The statement issued by the three Georgia Bishops protesting the
death penalty was forwarded to Governor George Busbee. A letter was
also sent jointly signed by the three bishops requesting clemency for
Reidsville inmate Jack Potts. Pott, who is refusing to ask for any
further stay of execution is scheduled to die in Georgia’s electric chair
on Thursday, June 5. Potts, since his imprisonment in Reidsville, has
converted to the Catholic Faith.
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan
Bishop Bennett J. Simms
Bishop Raymond W. Lessard
Housed At Emory
BY JAMES TARBOX
Henry Edward Manning - Cardinal
of the Catholic Church, scholar,
orator, theologian and pastor. One of
the dominant figures of English
speaking Catholicism. He has been,
according to a man in a unique
position to know, badly treated -
even ignored - by history.
“Cardinal Manning’s life and
contributions to the Catholic Church
have either been ignored or
misinterpreted,” according to Dr.
Channing Jeschke, Librarian of the
Pitts Theology Library at Emory
University. “Manning’s contributions
to the First Vatican Council and his
work with the poorer members of
England’s Catholic community have
been somewhat ignored since his
death in 1892.
Jeschke’s interest in Manning
started in 1974 when the Pitts
Library happened to purchase 800
volumes from Manning’s private
library and the library of the Oblates
of Saint Charles, a religious order
Manning founded at Saint Mary of
the Angels church in England.
“That first group of 800 books
was an excellent collection, a fine
start,” Dr. Jeschke said, “and we got
them for a great price too - $4,900.”
This First purchase of books from
the library of Cardinal Manning was
the start of an interest in Manning
that would culminate with Emory
University holding the largest single
collection on Manning in the world.
“We believe that we have the
principal Manning collection in the
world, anywhere,” said Dr. Jeschke,:
“but putting it together has taken
some tine.”
After the initial purchase of 800
works in 1974, things were pretty
quiet until the spring of 1977 when
Anthony Garnett, an English
immigrant, contacted Emory and
told Dr. Jeschke that he had most of
the remainder of the Manning library
in his possession.
“It turned out that he had 5,000
items,” Dr. Jeschke said, “3,500
books and 1,500 manuscripts. They
included Manning’s personal
collection of books, going back to his
college days, sermons, notes on the
Vatican Council, devotionals,
everything. I knew we had to have
it.”
Initially it was Garnett’s hope that
a Catholic school would show an
interest in the collection but,
surprisingly, none did. At that point
Garnett and Jeschke entered into
serious negotiations using. Benjamin
Weinreb as a go between.
“Negotiating something like this
borders on the Byzantine,” smiled
Dr. Jeschke. After rounds of talks
Emory managed to secure the entire
collection at a compromise price of
$63,190 - “a steal” according to
Jeschke.
Manning has been a long neglected
figure in the Catholic Church. Linked
forever in the minds of many with
his contemporary, John Henry
Newman, Manning’s contributions to
the church have fallen out of the
public eye.
“Manning spoke to the same
issues that confront Catholics
today,” Dr. Jeschke said., “The
question of authority in the Church -
particularly the subject of papal
infallability - and the need to develop
a real social awareness were two of
the dominant issues in his life as a
Christian.”
It is true; Manning is as
contemporary as today’s religious
controversies.
Born into a comfortable family,
Manning became an Anglican
clergyman but, quite early on,
became disillusioned with the
Anglican Church.
Active in what came to be known
as the Oxford movement, an attempt
to make the Church of England more
“Catholic” by renewing its liturgy
and commitment to the poor.
Manning left the Anglican Church in
1851 and became a Catholic.
It was only a matter of months
before he was ordained a priest and
became active in pastoral work.
Less than 15 years later Pope Pius
IX appointed Henry Edward
Manning Cardinal Archbishop of
Westminster.
“That appointment was a stroke
of genius,” according to Dr. Jeschke,
“In Manning Pope Pius IX gained a
strong voice supporting papal
authority and a spokesman for the
poor as well.”
While it is true that Manning led
the Fight to establish Irish immigrants
in the industrialized areas of
England, (a fact many either forget
or choose to overlook), the English
prelate is best remembered for his
role at the Fust Vatican Council.
“Manning was the leader in the
debate on papal infallibility,” Dr.
Jeschke said. “It was his presence at
the Council that insured its
adoption.”
Though Manning favored, and
fought for, the doctrine of
infallibility, it must be understood
that he believed authority was the
only way for the Church to respond
to the strong challenges of
nationalism and secularism sweeping
Europe.
“Manning’s strong defense of
papal authority has obscured his
human side,” believes Dr. Jeschke.
“He strongly supported a parochial
school system in England (that failed
because English schools finally
admitted Catholics) and really
alienated the aristocracy due to his
championing the Irish cause.”
It is Dr. Jeschke’s hope that the
Pitts Theology Library will become a
“Manning Center,” leading to a
renewal of interest in the Cardinal.
“Right now Newman has the
interest of most scholars,” Dr.
Jeschke said. “It’s about time that
Manning had his moment.”
Criticized for being an
authoritiarian, a cold and aloof man,
almost inhuman, Manning’s
reputation now rides on a vast
collection of works at Emory’s
Theological Library. Scholars, for
those are the ones who will have
clearest access, wait and bide their
time.