Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—The Georgia Bulletin, September 17,1981
NCCB Head Pays Tribute To Roy Wilkins
WASHINGTON (NC)
-- The president of the
National Conference of
Catholic Bishops (NCCB)
paid tribute to Roy
Wilkins, long-time
executive director of the
National Association for
the Advancement of
Colored People
(NAACP), as a man who
dedicated his life to the
cause of racial equality
and justice.
Wilkins, who died
Sept. 8 at 80, was a leader
of the NAACP for 46
years and was executive
director of the nation’s
largest and oldest civil
rights group for 22 years.
He retired in 1977.
“His commitment to
full realization of equality
under the law was an
ardent testimony to his
belief in the ideals on
which this nation was
founded,” said
Archbishop John R.
Roach of St. Paul -
Minneapolis, NCCB
president. “The greatest
tribute we can render him
is to commit ourselves
anew to this cause.”
Wilkins, a Mississippi
slave’s grandson, helped
shape many of the most
important moments in
U.S. civil rights history.
He played a leading
role in obtaining the 1954
Supreme Court decision
on school desegregation
and he orchestrated »the
March on Washington in
1963. He worked for the
Civil Rights Act of 1964,
the Voting Rights Act of
1965 and the Fair
Housing Act of 1968.
Wilkins praised the
role of the church in the
civil rights movement,
noting at a 1964 rally that
“one of the best friends”
blacks have “is the
Catholic Church.”
Without the
involvement of Catholic,
Protestant and Jewish
churches, “the civil rights
bill would never have
been passed,” he said in
1964. “And it would not
have been passed if this
support came only from
the churches’ top
spokesmen. There was a
great grassroots effort by
churches all over the
country.” He also praised
the record of desegreg-
ation in Southern
parochial schools.
Wilkins told the
National Catholic
Conference for Interracial
Justice (NCCIJ) that
churches can make their
best contribution to
society by stressing the
difference between right
and wrong. He received a
plaque from the NCCIJ
for his civil rights work in
1973.
The NAACP leader
was an advisor to many
presidents, beginning
with Franklin Roosevelt.
He and the Rev. Martin
Luther King worked
together on many civil
rights causes, but Dr.
King’s dramatic style
often overshadowed
Wilkins. Journalist Roger
Wilkins, Roy Wilkins
nephew, called the two
men “opposite sides of an
honorable coin.”
So. African Rugby Team
Land Erosion A Moral, Economic Problem
Arrives Quietly In U.S.
By NC News Service
The South African
national rugby team arrived
quietly in the United States
Sept. 13 after the end of its
New Zealand tour had
turned into a bloody
turmoil Sept. 12.
Anti-apartheid
protesters fought police in
Auckland, New Zealand,
and in the United States
more demonstrations were
expected to protest the
appearance of a team from
South Africa, which is
ruled by a white minority.
The possibility of a
boycott of the 1984 Los
Angeles Olympics by the
Soviet Union and some
African nations was also
raised.
The 36-member, racially
mixed Springboks team
arrived in the United States
for a tour that takes it to
Chicago and Albany, N.Y.
A game in New York was
canceled.
Opponents of the team
waited in vain in Los
Angeles Sept. 13. The
South Africans switched
planes in Honolulu and
never left the aircraft when
it stopped in Los Angeles.
The plane flew into
Chicago shortly after
daybreak Sept. 14 without
any demonstrators in sight.
Bishop Thomas C.
Kelly, general secretary of
the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops in
Washington, had asked that
the organization
sponsoring the tour
reconsider its position.
“What is involved is not
merely sporting
competition but an
important indicator of the
attitude in this country
toward South Africa’s
racial policies,” the bishop
BISHOP THOMAS
C. KELLY, General
Secretary of the
National Conference of
Catholic Bishops, asks
that the organization
sponsoring the South
African rugby tour
reconsider its position.
had said in a letter to
William Haffner, treasurer
of Eastern Rugby Football
Union, which invited the
team to come to the United
States.
He also sent the letter to
Richard Moneymaker,
president of the American
Rugby Football Union,
which had planned to field
a national team to play the
Springboks in New York.
In Albany Tom
Selfridge, coordinator for
the Springboks said that
“under no circumstances
will plans for the tour be
altered,” despite reports
that the Soviet Union will
ask that the 1984 Los
Angeles summer Olympics
be removed from the
United States if the tour
goes ahead.
Willion E. Simon,
president of the U.S.
Olympic Committee, said
the committee had tried to
dissuade the United States
Rugby Union, over which it
has no control, from
sponsoring the Springbok
tour.
Mayor Tom Bradley of
Los Angeles, concerned
over the threat of an
Olympic boycott, asked for
the withdrawal of the
Springbok’s visas, but the
State Department said
there were no valid grounds
for denial.
insurance at
bargain prices
on with flexible premium^ £ hole llfe ProU
call your Liberty National aeenf’tnXL 1 ? 0 *
ua ml«morn
f
BY TOM DERMODY
PEORIA, Ill. (NC) -
Record harvests are
anticipated for 1981 but
U.S. bishops are finding it
difficult to rejoice. They
are concerned about
widespread land abuse, a
problem they see as moral
as well as economic.
How is the land abused?
Government studies show
that man is stealing it -
covering it with the asphalt
and concrete of shopping
centers and subdivisions,
power plants and parking
lots.
Worse yet, the land he
leaves in agricultural
production he helps nature
steal through erosion.
Bishop Edward W.
O’Rourke of Peoria places
the potential crises caused
by soil erosion and
non-agricultural
development near the top
of all global problems - in
fact, just behind nuclear
chaos.
“Second to getting
blown up, starving to death
is a pretty bad way to die,”
he said.
Starving to death?
Perhaps.
If present trends
continue, the United States
will no longer have enough
land in production by the
year 2000 to meet
increased domestic and
export demands. Less land,
less soil, less food. The only
“more” in this equation is
people to feed.
Nationally, 3 million
farm acres vanish under
asphalt and concrete each
year. But as bad as the
conversion problem is, the
erosion threat to farmland
may be even worse. About
5.5 billion tons of soil are
washed or blown from
fields each year.
Some soil erosion is
natural - the problem is
neglect. Although there are
methods of limiting
erosion, many farmers
cultivate their land in what
many consider a wasteful
manner. Terracing,
planting trees for
windbreaks, new plowing
methods and crop rotation
can slow erosion, but the
methods often are not
used.
When topsoil leaves the
field yields plummet. Yet
state conservationist. “But
we can expect that,
somewhere down the line,
yields will begin to drop.”
In the meantime,
another problem is caused
by those fertilizers,
insecticides and herbicides
yields up. But the next year
erosion returns, sweeping
both soil and chemicals
away, meaning the farmer
must replace lost fertilizer
again and again, as long as
the erosion continues.
More chemicals, less
topsoil.
recent headlines call the
1981 harvest a bumper
crop. How do good yields
come from bad fields?
“We have been able to
put additional fertilizers to
make up for the
difference,” said Gus
Dornbusch, deputy Illinois
used to maintain high
yields. Unless the farmer
who uses chemicals takes
special care to prevent
erosion, a vicious circle
becomes evident. First,
erosion strips the land of
topsoil so the farmer must
use chemicals to keep
One year ago the 72
bishops of the Midwest
presented their case for the
land in a statement entitled
“Strangers and Guests:
Toward Community in the
Heartland.”
“We must keep in mind
the land’s inherent status as
Parishioners Minister To Dying
BOSTON (NC) - When a
psstor is dying, how much
can a parish act as a family
to care for him?
This was the question
St. Michael’s Parish in
Bedford, Mass., was
confronted with as
parishioners realized their
68-year-old pastor, Father
OME VISIT THE ALL NEW
5 Minutes from
CatholicCenter
z)u$erfle(ds
HS1AURANI
1 404 Peachtree Street
Continental Cuisine Lunch: Mon.-Fri., 11:00-2:30
All major credit cards accepted Dinner Tues -Sun.. 6:00-12:00
Reservations: 8
John Wallace, had cancer
and would need round-the
clock nursing care.
Father Wallace, who had
been pastor at the church
for 11 years, was in the
hospital in June shortly
after he celebrated his 40th
anniversary in the
priesthood. The doctors
recognized then that his
struggle with cancer had
turned into an illness which
would require care in a
nursing home.
He was resigned to go
there until Father Joseph
Driscoll, associate pastor at
St. Michael’s, suggested
that he could be cared for
at his parish.
Father Wallace, a native
of Cambridge, Mass., died
July 17, but he had spent
the days before his death
with the people he loved.
Father Driscoll said he
consulted with doctors
about having Father
Wallace come back to the
parish. “The doctors were
concerned with the medical
end” of the idea, he said,
but after working with
them to set up the kind of
care he needed, they gave
their permission.
“It really mushroomed
into a full nursing program.
I was impressed by the
professionalism,” said
Father Driscoll.
L-PBrZl'-ri
\
7 7
tu ) ■
'SOM
..FLORISTS
THE MARKET PLACE
6135 Peachtree Pkwy.
Norcross, Ga. 30092
447-6720
CHAMBLEE PLAZA T?)
5476 Peachtree Ind. Blvd.
Chamblee, Ga. 30341
458-7976
Congratulations & Best Wishes
St. Patricks' Parish, Norcross
Wedding Cakes
Birthday Cakes
AUNT
SARA'S
CATERING
“Cakes
For All Occasions”
B) Ulllll liliMillMilllHIHilllilllll III I I Mil I I I i I I I I I I IX
! NATURES WAY (
| NATURAL FOODS “
| Juice Bar - Food Supplements -
(404) 448-4675
The Market Place
6135 Peachtree Pkwy
Norcross, Ga. 30092
MM I I l;lll 11 III II II III I II I I I I I Mill M I I IMS
Free Delivery
921-6290
MU Bl R J Bil l H ARRELL. Agcnl
\ulo-l ite-llculth-Home and Business
See Your
STATE FARM
FAMILY INSURANCE AGENT
Also Member of Immaculate
Heart of Mary Parish
6135 Peachtree Parkway
Market Place
- Peachtree Corners
Norcross, Georgia 30092
Phone: Off.: 448-0603
GEORGIA
BULLETIN
Ads
Bring Results!!
uAlo/dhunods
ri.OWERS FOR ALL OCCASIONS
448-8621
6355 Jimmy Carter Blvd.
At Carters Crossing
Norcross, Georgia
a gift from God for the
human family - God’s
children -- and our own
responsibility to be God’s
stewards upon it for the
benefit of all people .. .
“The land is living and
helps provide life for all
creatures. When it is abused
the land and all creatures
dependent on it suffer.
Abuse of the land is
therefore abuse of people,
abuse of God’s creation and
abuse of the responsibility
of stewardship,” the
bishops said.
Bishop Maurice
Dingman of Des Moines,
Iowa, immediate past
president of the National
Catholic Rural Life
Conference (NCRLC), has
also implored farmers to
use their consciences in
making decisions on land
use.
“I am eager for the day
to come when farmers will
make decisions, not on the
basis of profit, but rather
on the basis of moral
principles,” he wrote in the
July issue of NCRLC’s
Rural Life Page.
“Fundamentally, the
preservation of the family
farm and the stewardship
of land are moral problems.
They are questions of right
and wrong. Each person
must make a judgment of
conscience,” he wrote.
Bishop Dingman is
enthusiastic about the U.S.
bishops’ involvement in the
land crisis. “We are now
prepared to touch the
consciences of our people
with a full-scale program of
evangelization and
advocacy,” he said.
Pastor
When the call went out
to the parish for people to
help care for the pastor,
nearly 40 registed nurses
volunteered. About 30
nurses ministered to Father
Wallace by juggling their
vacation times around the
11 days he spent with his
parish family before he
died, said Father Driscoll.
During those days
Father Wallace expressed
his appreciation several
times saying “It’s so good
to be home. It’s so good to
be with my friends. It’s so
good to be with those who
love me.”
The parishioners were
also eager to show their
appreciation for their
pastor. The nurses bathed
him, shaved him and read
his mail to him.
Parishioners baked food for
him.
“No one begged. People
just brought food.” said
Father Driscoll.
A group of parishioners
wired a speaker from the
church to his room so
Father Wallace could hear
the daily Mass. Eucharistic
ministers took the bread
and wine to his room
during Communion,
making him part of the
daily Eucharist.
Father Driscoll said the
paralysis was setting into
Father Wallace’s body.
“Every day there was less
and less movement,” he
said but “he was fully alert
until he died.”
On the night before he
died, n u rses and
parishioners kept an
all-night vigil praying and
reading Scripture.
Though he said he had
not heard of any other
parishes that had dealt with
a similar situation, he
considered the parish’s
response to Father Wallace
as more than practical.
“It was a very natural
response .. .just people
putting into practice what
they feel,” he said.
1
I
• '
♦
• t
-• \r