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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 1988)
PAGE 2 — The Georgia Bulletin, November 24,1988 Pope Beatifies Heiress Who Gave All To The Poor BY JOHN THAVIS VATICAN CITY (NO — Pope John Paul II beatified Blessed Katharine Drexel, a wealthy Philadelphia heiress who founded a religious order and dedicated her life and fortune to helping blacks and Native Americans. She Didn't Believe VATICAN CITY (NO — For more than 1,000 U.S. pilgrims of different races and colors, the beatification of Blessed Katharine Drexel was the celebration of a different kind of American “success story.” The group applauded warmly as Pope John Paul 11, in a Mass at the Vatican Nov. 20, announced that the U.S. church can publicly venerate the Philadelphia heiress who became a nun, donating her life and her inheritance to poor blacks and Native Americans. The 32-state pilgrimage included what was probably the largest black American Catholic delegation ever to attend a Vatican ceremony. Rhonwyn Rogers, director of the Office of Black Catholics, represented Atlanta. A black and a Native American stood next to the pope on the altar, and a Navaho Indian read the Offertory intention. Agnes Davis, an 85-year-old retired public health nurse from New York, summed up the attitude of many of those who had dipped into personal savings to make the trip to Rome. “Mother Katharine’s been a great inspiration to me. She provided the possibility for me, as a Negro, to advance myself and be able to help people,” she said. “What would we have done without her?” she said. That was a common refrain among the alumni of Blessed Drex- el’s many schools across the United States. Blessed Drexel, who was white, founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and financed the schools largely through her $15 million inheritance. When she would come to St. Mark’s School in New York, Mrs. Davis recalled, “She always told us, ‘Remember, you’re just as good as anybody.’ I’ll always remember that.” “I’ve met some fine people, but not like Mother Katharine. She was the original. She was a very beautiful and unassuming woman who cared about us as a race,” said Mrs. Davis. Sister Marie Infanta Gonzales also recalled Blessed Drexel’s visits to her school in St. Louis during the 1920s. “When she’d come out to the playground, we’d sneak up At a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Nov. 20, the pope said Blessed Drexel had recognized the “devastating effects of racism” in 19th- and 20th-century America and “set out with determination to combat it.” Blessed Drexel “was no timid soul,” the pope said. In “Trickle-Down" behind her to touch her veil,” Sister Gonzales said. The teachers had told the children Mother Katharine was a saint. Many of those who made the trip to Rome said they hoped Blessed Drexel would become a model in the United States — for all races, for old and young, and for the poor as well as the wealthy. “She’s the greatest evangelist of the black community in the history of the country,” said Father Clarence Williams, president of the Black Catholic Televangelization Network. “To many blacks and native Americans, she is still the most important Catholic figure.” Sister Juliana Haynes, the first black president of Bless ed Drexel’s religious order, said the generosity of their foundress might appeal to American youths who feel an emptiness in their lives, “We’re hoping that when people get to know about her, they’ll be attracted to our order,” she said. The sisters cur rently number about 350 and run schools and missions in black, Native American and Haitian communities in the United States. They are financed largely through donations from the wealthy. For Auxiliary Bishop Moses Anderson of Detroit, the beatification might represent a “providential” gift to the church at a time when some see “radical racism” re- emerging. “The political climate that has been created in the last eight years has been a return to the racism of the past. It may be providential to have Katharine Drexel to give her particular witness to the world,” he said. Father James Robinson, rector of the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit, said he hoped Blessed Drexel’s approach to wealth and charity would inspire a new attitude in the United States. “Mother Katharine didn’t believe in trickle-down — she gave it all. If the abundance of wealth and the good life were looked upon this way, obviously the whole country would be uplifted,” he said. “She seemed to grasp fundamental truths which many of her contemporaries failed to grasp, for example, the truth about the equal dignity and worth of every human being, regardless of race or ethnic origin,” the pope said in a ser mon. By donating her inheritance — estimated at about $15 million in the late 19th century — she was able to take “bold initiatives to provide a high standard of education for those whom her society had neglected,” he said. She had the faith needed to “stand up courageously for the rights of the oppressed,” and did so in the most effective way — by evangelizing, the pope said. Blessed Drexel eventually founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, whose 350 members still work among blacks and Native Americans today. They are educators, nurses, home visitors, pastoral ministers and social workers. More than 1,000 U.S. pilgrims attending the ceremony ap plauded warmly as the pope read the decree that elevated her to the ranks of the blessed, a step away from sainthood. A banner was unfurled above the altar, depicting her hand in hand with two children, a black and a Native American. Blessed Drexel’s beatification was considered unusual because she died only in 1955, at the age of 96. Beatification is normally a very lengthy process, but in this case, many of those in the basilica either knew Blessed Drexel per sonally or had graduated from her schools. Sister Juliana Haynes, elected in 1985 as the first black president of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, gave the first reading during the Mass. Robert Gutherman of Andalusia, Pa., who in 1974, at age 14, regained his hearing after his family prayed to Blessed Drexel, also was present and received Communion from the pope. His healing was judged miraculous by a Vatican panel, paving the way for Blessed Drexel’s beatification. Concelebrating with the pope were six Americans: Car dinal John Krol, retired archbishop of Philadelphia; Car dinal John J. O’Connor of New York; Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia; Coadjutor Bishop Donald Pelotte of Gallup, N.M.; Auxiliary Bishop Joseph A. Fran cis of Newark, N.J., and Father John Vaughn, minister general of the Franciscan order. Bishop Pelotte, a Native American, said afterward that Blessed Drexel practically established his diocese in New Mexico when she set up a school for Navaho Indians there. “Talk about the role of women in the church — she had a founding role” throughout the U.S. Southwest, he said. A RETREAT OFFERS YOU. . . A time to Relax, A time to Reflect, A time to Pray. • WHO? Anyone seeking peace and a closer relationship with God and others. • WHEN? Throughout the year there are retreats for: Men, Women, Married Couples. Singles, Divorced/ Separated, Widows/Widowers, Recovering Alcoholics, and Retreats in Spanish. • COST?. 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