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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (July 16, 1987)
PAGE 12 — The Georgia Bulletin, July 16,1987 Papal Visit To Miami Builds Unity, Reveals Rifts BY LIZ SCHEVTCHUK MIAMI (NC) — The theme “unity_in the work of service” for Pope John Paul II’s September visit to the United States acquires special meaning in Miami, first stop on the papal itinerary. In the boisterous and multicultural south Florida arch diocese, home to more than a million Catholics, the papal trip both has fostered unity and revealed rifts. Church and community sources describe the togetherness that preparing for the Sept. 10-11 papal visit has prompted among church and state, Catholics, Jews and Protestants, and among Catholics themselves — whites and blacks. Hispanics, Haitians and others from around the globe. Prominently featured on the pope’s Miami agenda is a meeting with Jewish leaders. And other parts of the visit have taKen on multicultural overtones. The pope’s Miami Mass Sept. 11, for instance, is expected to be celebrated in part in English, Spanish and Creole, a French dialect. A few critics have questioned such things as the estimated $2 million cost of the Miami visit, the fact that the pontiff is not slated to visit a local Marian shrine con structed by Cuban exiles, the role of Jewish leaders in welcoming a pope when the Vatican does not recognize Israel diplomatically, and the church-state ramifications of dismissing public schools when the pope is in town. Nonetheless. “I think the papal visit is a wonderful thing, but not just for Catholics,” said U.S. Appeals Judge Peter T. Fay, a prominent Catholic lay man and south Florida native. Fay, who remembers when there were few Catholics in the area, noted that local, state and federal governments, other groups, and formal and informal committees with members of various races and religions all are helping the archdiocese prepare for Pope John Paul. ‘‘I think the papal visit itself has already created an awful lot of warmth,” Fay said. He and others said that the Miami area recently has been trying to overcome its well-publicized problems of crime, tropical storms, racial riots, poverty, and burgeoning im migration, legal and otherwise. After coping with such challenges, “I think we re a much Our Direct Computer Terminal to Major Credit Bureaus Now Enables Us To See Your Credit Bureau Report Within Minutes ..85% Rental and 90% Owner Occupied. A Phone Call Now May Put Your Mind At Ease. No Obligation. It’s Simple... Apply By Phone. Don't think that slow credit and bankruptcy will keep you from getting credit with us. 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We have the unity before he (John Paul) even arrives as were work ing on this visit,” she said. In some ways, Miami’s strength — its rich cultural diver sity — is also a source of periodic friction, several people shid. When the diocese was founded. Catholics were only about 8 percent of the area population. Now they are close to 50 percent, according to Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh, executive director of the archdiocese’s Catholic Community Services and one of a handful of priests who has served the See since its inception. There are about 1.1 million Catholics in the archdiocese, of whom about 600.000 actually are registered in parishes. Msgr. Walsh pointed out. And what started as one See in 1958 is now three: the Miami Archdiocese and the dioceses of Venice and Palm Beach. “There really hasn't been a diocese in the country” that has grown as fast, Msgr. Walsh said. “Everything we have has had to be built from scratch.” Nearly 65 percent of the Catholics are Hispanic, many of them Cuban, but the archdiocese also has the fifth largest population of black Catholics of any U.S. diocese, according to Marsha Whelan, archdiocesan evangelization director. Among the Miami area’s new arrivals are some 50,000 Haitian refugees, many of them Creole-speaking black your Independent) ^Insurooct § Iaqbnt MRVtl YOU RMT /utter and fTkLellan Insurance 711 Lenox Towers, 3400 Peachtree Road, N. E. Atlanta, Georgia 30326 (404) 261-7212 "The only insurance people you 'll ever need' Catholics, but exact numbers are uncertain because of il legal immigration, said Father Gerard Darbouze, a Haitian priest working at the archdiocese's Pierre Toussaint Hai tian Catholic Center. The area also has one of the largest Jewish populations in the nation, including the largest number of Holocaust sur vivors outside Israel. “Miami has become a symbol of refugees and responses to refugees,” said Msgr. Walsh, adding that the newcomers include such disparate groups as “refugees from the cold." like the aging retirees who flock to Miami's sunny shores, and "refugees from communism." like the Cubans still fleeing Fidel Castro's oppressive regime. “What makes Miami great is the mixture of cultures,” he said. "We need Anglos, as well as Hispanics, as well as blacks.” Nevertheless, he acknowledged, “it s difficult for people who differ in race, language and culture to occupy the same territory. There s nowhere in the world it’s been done very harmoniously.” Ms. Whelan said the archdiocese must continue efforts of “bridging the cultural gaps. I see the church as in a position to really bring people together." she said. “I think we need to do more of it” to overcome ethnic frictions. One result of papal visit preparations “is that it (friction) has really surfaced,” Ms. Whelan said. "We can’t say it's not there.” One internal Catholic dispute, over the failure of the papal agenda to include a visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, has played out in the pages of The Voice, Miami archdiocesan newspaper. “We have been ignored so many times before,” Miguel A. Cabrera, a Cuban Catholic, wrote in a letter to the editor May 1. He said a papal visit to the shrine would "provide for the first time in 30 years a platform with a wide-world forum for the millions of human beings” suffering in Cuba "who many years ago placed their faith under the patronage of Our Lady of Charity." Some area residents also have questioned the cost of the papal visit and whether the money could better be spent on other needs. Miami Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy, however, has asked people to donate money to their favorite charities as a tribute to the pope. “I hope much more will come to the poor than we will spend on the visit,” he said. He noted that some $50 million to $100 million is expected to be injected into the economy by business connected to the papal visit. “All of the costs are not for the comfort of the pope but to enable people to see the pope,” said Msgr. Walsh. Fay said the pope's visit also provides “an opportunity to sort of examine where we are as Christians. He represents peace and love and harmony and the things that are so im portant for mankind." In John Paul’s presence, he added. “Everybody will have to put away any feeling of discrimination, of racism.” ""general*^ HARDWARE We carry a full line of top brand merchandise giving you a variety of choices. Scarce & hard to find items are a specialty. 237-5209 4218 Peachtree Road N.E. Brookhaven NHR NICK HOME REPAIR 4 Plaster. Stucco. 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