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Self-Help For Puerto
PRINCETON, N.J.
(NC) -- Sister Isolina Ferre
has been named winner of
a $10,000 Rockefeller
Public Service Award for
turning a slum in Ponce,
Puerto Rico, into what has
been called a model of
self-help.
The 66-year-old nun is
a member of the
Missionary Servants of the
Blessed Trinity.
Object of her effort was
a small group of
delinquent youths at
Ponce Playa and their
“defenders,” young men
who themselves had had
brushes with the law. They
prevailed on authorities to
allow offending youths to
spend time at the
counseling and training
center run by Sister Ferre
rather than in a
reformatory. Judges,
parents and police
supported her program.
The slum, which had
had a high delinquency
rate in the late 1960s, saw
it cut in half.
Sister Ferre expanded a
clinic given to the slum by
her father, Antonio Ferre,
some 30 years ago. Today
it is a medical center
staffed by full-time
doctors, dentists and
nurses and close to 100
aides, people 1 from the
community who have been
trained.
Sister Isolina Ferre
The nun also runs
job-training programs and
alternative plans in
education, as well as
rehabilitation efforts for
the handicapped.
Ponce Playa has a
population of 16,000.
Charles Silberman
wrote in his book,
“Criminal Violence,
Criminal Justice,” that the
center is “the best
example of community
regeneration” he has seen
in the United States, for
“it has given large numbers
of people the sense of
dignity and worth that
enables them to use help
as a means toward
self-sufficiency rather than
dependency.”
Sister Ferre gained
earlier fame for her work
in Appalachia, among the
Portuguese immigrants on
Gape Cod and as a
mediator during the 1960s
between blacks and
Hispanics in Brooklyn,
N.Y. She was a member of
the Council Against
Poverty in New York.
Prior to that she had
lectured at the Catholic
University of Ponce and
worked in Cabo Rojo,
Puerto Rico.
She is a member of the
American Society of
Criminology.
Besides Sister Ferre,
five other Americans were
RELUCTANT PARTICIPANT ~
Bishop Joseph T. Daley of
Harrisburg has his hands full with
2-year-old Linda Baquero at the
dedication of Cristo Salvador Church
in York, Pa. Linda’s family originally
is from Colombia. The church is the
first dedicated for a Spanish-speaking
parish in the Harrisburg diocese.
Programs For Elderly Needed
NEW YORK (NC) -
The church was urged to
continue and upgrade its
program for the aging to
meet the needs of that
steadily growing sector of
the population at the
Mini-conference on the
Aging in New York Nov.
19.
Sponsored by the
Department of the Aging
of Catholic Charities of
the New York
Archdiocese, the
conference was organized
to prepare for the 1981
national White House
Conference and “to
explore how our resources
can best serve the needs of
the aging,” according to
Howard Seitz, chairman of
Catholic Charities
Advisory Committee on
Aging.
The conference, whose
theme was “The Third
Age: Challenge and
Opportunity,” brought
together about 200 people
working with programs for
the aging in the
archdiocese, as well as
senior citizens, nurisng
home administrators and
clergy from parishes with
large elderly populations.
The “graying of the
church,” was the focus of
the keynote speaker,
Auxiliary Bishop
Theodore McCarrick of
New York. He said that
the church, as it reflects
the society at large, will
continue to be challenged
by the increasing segment
pf elderly members both
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About 11 percent of
the general population was
over 65 in 1978, while it is
estimated that in 1980 39
percent of Religious are 65
or older, said the bishop,
who is chairman of the
Committee on Ministry to
the Aging of the U.S.
Catholic Conference.
He distinguished
between the “frail and
active aging.” The former,
he said, have always been
ministered to by the
church through the
hospitals and homes
operated by the many
communities of Religious
men and women.
The number of frail
aging has never been
greater than at present, he
said, and so there is a need
to maintain the church’s
traditional services to
these elderly.
Increasingly, he added,
“third age” people are
active and after they have
retired they seek
something else to do. Ways
to give these elderly
educational opportunities
must be examined, he said,
for the desire to learn
never ceases.
They must also be
helped to develop
spiritually, “For many
aging persons feel that
now they have the time to
pray and meditate and
reach a newer and deeper
understanding of God.”
The church should also
help them to reach out to
their neighbor. The active
aging can be of great
assistance to the frail
aging, he said, because
their knowledge of each
other is so much greater
than that of a younger
person.
The wisdom,
understanding and
experience of the elderly,
which includes their own
successes and failures, can
be of significant help in
solving problems within
church and society, Bishop
McCarrich said.
Dr. William E. Burnett
Osteopathic Physician and Surgeon
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designated winners of the
service awards, granted by
the Woodrow Wilson
School of Public and
International Affairs at
Princeton University. They
are:
Dr. James P. Comer,
46, of Yale University in
New Haven, Conn., for
broadening opportunities
for youth.
Eula Bingham, 50,
assistant secretary of
labor, for advancing the
health of the American
people.
James P. Grant, 58,
executive director of
UNICEF and chairman of
the Overseas Development
Council, for contributing 0
to world development, *
particularly among the
poor.
William Hesley, 39, of
Anchorage, Alaska, and
Henry Richmond, 37, of
Portland, Ore., both
directors of development
groups, who will share an
award.
The awards will be
presented Dec. 9 at a
dinner ceremony in
Washington.
WOMEN’S SIT-IN - A soldier steps on
demonstrators as he tries to leave the Pentagon in
Arlington, Va., where about 1,300 women
blocked entrances. The demonstrators were
protesting against the arms race, militarism and
violence against women. Police arrested about a
dozen women for refusing to move away from a
door.
ADOPTION AHEAD?
“One Church, One Child”
BY JAMES
BRADLEY BURKE
CHICAGO (NC) ~
Father George H.
Clements, 48, pastor of
Chicago’s Holy Angels
Parish and a nationally
recognized civil rights
activist, has filed for
adoption of a child despite
disapproval by the
Archdiocese of Chicago,
which did not specifically
forbid the action.
Father Clements
announced the adoption
application at a Nov. 20
meeting at Holy Angels,
where he talked about the
urgent need for adoptive
parents in the Chicago
area. Father Clements told
some 200 people at the
meeting that by adopting a
child he wished to
dramatize the need for
adoptive and foster
parents.
There are 480 children,
280 of whom are black,
eligible for adoption in the
Chicago area, according to
the Illinois Department of
Children and Family
Services. Father Clements
is black and wants to
adopt a black child.
“My challenge is that
every black church on the
north, south and west
sides accept their
responsibility, too,”
Father Clements told the
meeting, “One church, one
child.”
“It wasn’t a snap
decision,” said George
O’Hare, community
relations representative for
Father Clements. “Father
Clements has been
thinking about this for the
last six months.”
Word of the priest’s
intention to begin the
adoption process had
broken in Chicago papers
two days before his formed
announcement. Oh Nov.
20 the Chicago
Archdiocese issued a
one-page statement
cautioning priests against
adopting children.
“While a priest may not
be in the best position to
meet the personal and
financial obligations of
rearing a child today, it is
more to the point to say
that a priest through his
ordination is destined to
serve God and all of God’s
people and to be father to
all,” the statement said in
part.
The statement praised
Father Clements for his
work in “sensitizing the
community to the need
for expediting the
adoption of hard to place
children,” but suggested
that “it may be more
appropriate for a priest to
leave adoptions to those
who are less encumbered
by pastoral responsibilit
ies, to those who can
provide a true home.”
But the statement did
not directly order Father
Clements not to adopt a
child.
Father Clements said
that he interpreted the
archdiocesan statement as
“carte blanche” approval
of his move and added
that he had spoken with
Cardinal John Cody of
Chicago before making his
announcement.
“The Cardinal did not
tell me to adopt and he
did not tell me not to
adopt,” Father Clements
said.
“If Cardinal Cody were
to tell Father Clements
not to adopt, he would
stop immediately,” O’Hare
said. “Father Clements has
spent his ministry
teaching the children of
our school to obey
legitimate authority and
he would not disobey the
cardinal.”
After Father Clements’
formal announcement, the
Archdiocese of Chicago
had no further comment.
O’Hare said Father
Clements requested an
adoption application from
the Illinois Department of
Children and Family
Services Nov. 21.
If the black pastor
adopts a child, he will not
be the first Catholic priest
in the United States to do
so. “We’ve received calls
from five priests in the
United States and one in
France who have adopted
children,” O’Hare said.
“All of them plus the
archbishop of Ottawa have
adopted children and call
Father Clements to say it’s
not impossible to be a
priest and a parent,”
O’Hare said.
(In 1979 Archbishop
Joseph-Ayreke Okiyrde of
Ottawa sponsored a
16-year-old Cambodian
refugee and brought the
boy to live with him.)
“No, Father Clements
didn’t ask permission” to
adopt, O’Hare said. But,
he said, he didn’t ask
permission when he
became chaplain for the
Black Panthers or when he
participated in civil rights
marches and other events.
“He goes ahead and
does what he thinks is
best.”
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PAGE 3—The Georgia Bulletin, November 27,1980
GREENSBORO, N.C.
Verdict Questioned
GREENSBORO, N.C. (NC) - A Catholic pastor in
Greensboro said the acquittal of six Ku Klux Klansmen
and Nazis of murder and rioting charges related to the
killing of five Communist Workers’ Party (CWP)
demonstrators a year ago has left many people wondering
about the criminal justice system.
Father George Kloster, pastor of St. Pius X Parish in
Greensboro and a member of the Charlotte, N.C.
Diocese’s Peace and Justice Task Force, said the question
remains in the minds of many: “How can you have five
bodies, with pictures of them on television tapes, and not
have something done about it?”
Sister Evelyn Mattem, director (if the Ministry of Peace
and Justice in the Raleigh, N.C., Diocese, contrasted the
Greensboro verdict with the outcome of the Wilmington
10 case in which nine blacks and <j>ne white woman were
convicted of firebombing property and conspiracy to
assult emergency personnel in connection with a riot in
Wilmington, N.C., in 1971. Two persons died in the riot.
“We have two events that have! happened in the same
decade in North Carolina: the Wilniington 10 case and the
Klan-Nazi trial,” Sister Mattern s'aia. “In Wilmington a
store is burned down and noboby sees anything. But nine
black men are convicted and sentenced to a total of 450
years in prison. Then in Greensboro, five people are killed
and there are eyewitnesses. TV Cameramen see it and
people all over the state and country see it happen. Yet
six white men go free.
The six defendants, four Klansmen and two Nazis,
were charged with first degree murder in the shooting
deaths of the five demonstrators at an anti-Klan rally on
Nov. 3, 1979. Members of the all-white jury which
acquitted them after six and a half days of deliberation
said their decision was based oh the belief that the
defendents had fired in self-defense. One juror said the
videotapes showed CWP members committing the first
“act of aggression” by striking and kicking a car in which
Klan members were riding.
Father Kloster said that, if the shootings were
self-defense, they were “an overreaction of self-defense.”
Atlanta Convention
A Serra Success
All of us can point to certain events in our lives that
were somewhat of a boost. The members of the Serra
Clubs of the Southeast can call their recent convention
(October 17, 18, 19) such an event. For those of you
unfamiliar with Serra Club, it is a group of Catholic
professional men interested in deepening their
understanding of Catholicism and promoting the cause of
religious vocations.
The theme of the convention was: “Vocations — The
Problem; The Blessings.” The Archdiocese of Atlanta
provided a series of excellent, and thought provoking
speakers, Archbishop Donnellan, Monsignor John F.
McDonough, Monsignor Jerry Hardy and Father Richard
Kieran. After each talk the eighty delegates formed
discussion groups to develop and respond to the talks. It
would appear that the vocation picture in the southeast
looks good. Programs to expose young men to the priestly
life were presented by the various clubs.
Serrans give much to the life of the church. They give
inspiration to young men considering the priesthood,
encouragement to the seminarians, and support to the
priests. During these three days they gave to one another
advice, direction and fraternal concern. The president of
Atlanta Serra, Bill Fitzpatrick and the entire Serra Club
membership worked long hard hours to make the
convention a success.
Perhaps there are some gentlemen reading this article
who would like to deepen their faith and encourage
vocations. Serra might just be what you have been looking
for to add that growth opportunity to your faith. Contact
Father Lopez at St. Jude’s, 394-3896 for more
information.
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