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ALL THE WAY.
From Saigon To Saint Mark’s
*
KEEPING FATHER PETE COMPANY at St. Mark’s rectory in
Clarkesville are Vietnamese brothers Khoi (1) and Khoa Dinh.
BY THE A JARVIS
A year and a half ago, Vietnamese
brothers Khoi and Khoa Dinh were
young men on the run.
They had left Saigon, capital city
of communist Vietnam, on foot in
July of 1980 and spent the next two
months covering as much territory as
they could in a daring flight for
freedom.
Reaching Cambodia, they crossed
the country successfully, only to be
arrested by Viet soldiers at the
border of Thailand.
Still they did not give up. After 23
days in captivity, they managed an
escape and continued their journey
through Thailand, this time without
food or transport.
Some friendly Cambodian soldiers
happened on the men and took them
to an official of the International
Committee of the Red Cross. Khoi,
19, and Khoa, 21, were subsequently
placed in Thai refugee camps and
some nine months later were sent to
a language school and camp in the
Philippines.
The last leg of the Dinhs’ travels
was a prolonged flight in a U.S.
Army transport plane to Atlanta,
Georgia - by way of Alaska and
California.
Meanwhile, in the mountains of
north Georgia, Father Gerald
Peterson, Glenmary pastor of St.
Mark’s Church in Clarkesville, had
spent the last six months mulling
over the words of a Wisconsin priest
he had met on a summer trip to the
Holy Land.
Father Pete’s fellow traveler had
recently opened his home to some
Latin refugees and had found the
experience rewarding. His story was
compelling and started the
Clarkesville pastor thinking about
what he might do for the homeless.
“I knew of the refugees in the
Atlanta jail,” Father Peterson later
explained, “but there were no
Cubans up here” to provide support
and friendship to fellow countrymen.
Another difficulty involved the
matter of housing. Although St.
Mark’s parish had sponsored a
Laotian family in the past, no one in
the church was presently able to
offer shelter to new arrivals.
“No volunteers were forthcoming,
so I decided to do it myself,” the
priest said simply.
Father Pete approached Catholic
Social Services in Atlanta and offered
to host a refugee family. Because
there were two Vietnamese women
in the Clarkesville area, he was open
to those with a similar background.
Catholic Social Services knew of
two Vietnamese Catholics who had
suffered much to win their freedom
-- Khoi and Khoa Dinh.
Father Peterson readily accepted
the CSS suggestion and arranged to
meet the young men at the
Monastery of the Holy Spirit in
Conyers. The Dinh brothers returned
with him to Clarkesville and have
been keeping Father Pete company
in the rectory of St. Mark’s since
early last December.
For Khoi and Khoa, who left
behind not only their homeland, but
their family as well - including
parents and six brothers and sisters --
life in Clarkesville has taken some
getting used to.
“They know a little bit of
English,” said Father Pete of his new
friends. “They had two and a half
months of the language in the
Philippines and are in an English
language class now with a Japanese
teacher.”
Finding employment for the Dinhs
has been more of a challenge.
(Continued on page 2)
Vol. 20 No. 5
Thursday, February 4,1982
$8.00 Per Year
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
TRAINING BEGINS - About 170 of the
expected 500 to 600 Salvadoran soldiers fill out
forms shortly after their arrival at Fort Benning,
Ga. The troops arrived under tight security about
a week earlier than had been announced to reduce
the chance of terrorist activities and to avoid
confrontations with protesters. Demonstrators
protested on Sunday, January 24. Another 1,000
Salvadoran soldiers are being trained at Fort
Bragg, N.C., where 200 demonstrators protested
their arrival.
FDR’S GREAT LOVE
Warm Springs And Its Magic Waters
BY MSGR. NOEL C. BURTENSHAW
In the beginning it was called
Bullochville.
That’s because the Bulloch
family dominated that middle
western part of Georgia. Maybe
dominated is not the right word.
For everyone knows that it was not
the family, not the people, but the
water, the spring, that was really
the dominant factor.
The Indians called the warm
springs magic and they were wrong.
The waters bubbling up from the
earth in Warm Springs, Georgia
were not magic but they were and
are health-soothing mineral waters
always extending welcome relief to
bodies racked with the crippling
pains of arthritis and stroke, and,
before the vaccine, polio too.
The Indians could easily be
forgiven. In 1924 the rich,
influential, young New York
politician, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, mysteriously crippled
with polio just three years before,
came to Warm Springs and
proclaimed the waters “magic.” His
coming to this little rural Georgia
community gave new life and
worldwide fame to the town, the
resort and the precious waters of
Warm Springs.
When Roosevelt first arrived in
his famous retreat it was a resort
for a wealthy few. Warm Springs
was dominated by the grand
Merriwether Inn. “The guests
would come in their noisy Fords,”
says therapist Jim Poulson, “using
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
the spring waters to soothe their
aches and pains. Crippled polio
victims and other invalids would
come too but they never got much
of a welcome. They were clearly
unwanted by the monied folks.
FDR changed all that.”
He certainly did. He bought the
place. In 1927, clearly thrilled with
his new find and the medication the
waters gave his crippled legs,
Roosevelt bought the land
surrounding the springs and set up
the Warm Springs Foundation. The
welcome mat in this natural
Georgia rehabilitation center was
out. And over the years, hundreds
came to be treated.
Today the victims of polio,
cleansed by the miracle vaccine in
1956, no longer come and new
buildings have been added, but the
life and times of the great President
are there to be seen. FDR is every
where.
“Children were a big part of the
Foundation in the President’s
time,” says Rita Kitts, who has
worked at the Foundation since
1947 when her brother, a
Benedictine priest, was a patient.
“That was the school for them,”
she says, pointing to a building. “At
all times there were at least 30
children receiving treatment at the
Foundation.”
The children and FDR are well
remembered. Even as President, he
could be seen in the warm spring
waters playing with the children,
(Continued on page 2)
Persecution Of Church
Reported In El Salvador
WASHINGTON (NC) - The
Salvadoran 'government is involved in
a general persecution of the Catholic
Church, according to a 273-page
report of the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) and the
Americas Watch Committee (AWC),
a private human rights organization.
“Large numbers of Catholic
Religious and lay workers have been
killed by the government in what
appears to be general persecution of
the church,” the report said.
Efforts by church people “to
publicize human rights violations
have led to severe reprisals,” added
the report, issued Jan. 26 in
Washington. It said Archbishop Oscar
Romero of San Salvador and five
other priests were killed or
disappeared in 1980.
Persecution of the church is part
of the Salvadoran government’s
systematic violation of the human
rights of its citizens, the report said.
The ACLU and the AWC asked
President Ronald Reagan to halt
military aid to El Salvador because of
the human rights situation.
Besides the assassination of
Archbishop Romero and four U.S.
women missionaries in 1980,
hundreds of “priests, catechists,
seminarians, relief workers and nuns
have been killed, or arrested and
tortured, and churches have been
raided and shot up with machine
guns,” the report said.
The report was delivered to
President Reagan with a letter urging
him not to certify to Congress that 1
the civilian-military junta in El
Salvador is making progress in its
observance of human rights, a
condition for further military aid to
El Salvador required by the foreign
aid law signed Dec. 29.
The report lists systematic murder,
torture, arbitrary arrest and
infringements of civil rights and
freedoms of Salvadorans. The letter
to Reagan adds that the government
is “engaged in a concerted effort to
deprive its citizens of internationally
recognized human rights.”
The report draws heavily on
declarations of witnesses gathered by
Socorro Juridico, the legal aid office
of the Archdiocese of San Salvador.
It said the church in El Salvador
has been working “in support of the
poor and the need for social change.”
The ACLU and AWC report drew
data from other sources, such as the
U.S. State Department, the
Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights of the Organization of
American States, Amnesty
(Continued on page 2)
Catholic High School
Survey Data Revealed
On December 20, 1981, a survey
of the Catholic Families in metro
Atlanta (i.e., in Clayton, Cobb,
DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton,
Gwinnett and Rockdale Counties)
was conducted through the parishes.
The purpose of the survey was to
gather data and information
regarding the interest and support for
additional Catholic high school
education opportunities. The
following is a summary of the
findings of the survey.
The questionnaire for this survey
was designed by a task force of
educational planners in cooperation
with the Department of Catholic
Education of the Archdiocese of
Atlanta. It was generally focused on
numbers of students, interest in
Catholic high school education and
financial support for Catholic high
school education. Moreover, some
attention was given to selected
considerations including school
philosophy and school curriculum.
Thirty-five metro Atlanta parishes
participated in the survey. These
parishes indicate a total of 27,092
registered families. Survey
instruments were completed by
6,131 families for a 23 percent
return. The following table presents
the number of registered families and
completed questionnaires for each
parish.
Four thousand and twelve (4,012)
or 65.4 percent of the responding
families said they had children who
were infants through grade eight. Of
this group 2,027 indicated that they
would send their children to a
Catholic high school. Another 549
families with children indicated they
would “probably” send their
children to a Catholic high schooi. A
total of 2,621 or 67.8 percent of the
families with children indicated that
they would “yes” or “probably”
send their children to a Catholic high
school if one were available.
Two hundred and forty (240)
families indicated that they currently
do not have children but anticipate
children in the future. Of these, 162
said they would send their children
to a Catholic high school. This
represented a 67 percent response
from the childless group.
The families who responded “yes”
or “probably” to the question “If
available, would you send your child
to a Catholic high school?” listed
Father Richard Kieran
Secretary For Education
5,019 children presently in
kindergarten through grade eight.
The mean annual family income of
those surveyed is $33,363 whereas
the mean amount these families are
willing to pay for Catholic high
school education is $930.
Three hundred and forty-two
(342) families who said they would
“yes” or “probably” send their
children to a Catholic high school
indicated that they were willing to
spend more than $1,500 per child for
tuition.
Families responding to the
questionnarie were asked to indicate
the relative importance of 11 factors
in deciding to send their children to a
Catholic high school. The combined
response of all families results in this
priority ordering of these factors: 1)
Academic Excellence; 2) College
Prep Program; 3) School Discipline;
4) Catholic-Christian Environment;
5) Religious Education; 6) Presence
of brothers, priests and sisters; 7)
Tuition Costs; 8) Transportation; 9)
Athletic Program; 10) Non-college
Prep Program; 11) Desirability of
Racial Mix.
Father Richard Kieran, Secretary
for Education, said, “We are studying
these returns from the parishes. The
Department of Education will use
the facts we have learned as a basis
for recommendations to the
Archdiocesan Board of Education.
This study will help as we look at the
future of Catholic high school
education in our Archdiocese.”
(See page 6 for details of parish results)