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Catholic doctrine fails,
racial bias in church,
Black members report
In America, over one million
blacks have accepted
Catholicism as their primary
faith and comprise
approximately two percent of
a total 50 million membership.
The church is taken, they say,
the same as any true believer
would take theirs - on its
spiritual merits. Those being a
doctrine of completeness,
adaptation to the needs of men
of every kind and moral and
spiritual perfection. And by
implication, the need for racial
acceptance is inherent.
However, some black
Catholics believe that this
doctrine has faltered and that
blacks in the church are the
victims of racial bias. This
edition of “Tony Brown’s
Journal,” “Black Catholics,”
examined that issue and
tackled the question, “What
does it mean to be black and
Catholic?”
Tony Brown, host and
executive producer of the
series which bears his name,
recounted the origin of
Catholicism on the program
and traced the history of black
participation in the Catholic
Church. “The first black ever
to be ordained into the
Catholic priesthood was
Augustus Tolton, the son of a
fugitive slave. He entered the
priesthood in 1886.
“However, Father Tolton’s
position as the first black priest
does not stand uncontested.
Some historians choose to
accept James Augustine and
Patrick Francis Healy, who
were ordained a generation
before Tolton, as the rightful
holders of the historical
position.
“The question of the Healy
brothers as the first black
priests is centered around the
fact that they were not
considered full-blooded blacks.
But more specifically, that the
Healy’s did not identify with
the black cause. However,
despite the Healy brothers’
mixed parentage and the
charges of their disassociation
with the black cause, James
Healy’s ordination as a priest
and bishop, and Patrick Healy’s
attainment of a doctorate and
presidency of a major
American university, are still
considered by some historians
as black firsts,” explained
Tony Brown.
“Tony Brown’s Journal”
returns to commerical
television for a third exciting
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POSTAL PROMOTION - Postal employe Thomas
Walker (left) is shown receiving congratulations from
Augusta Sectional Center Manager/Postmaster N.B.
Brown on his promotion to Foreman, Mails.
Walker began his career at the Augusta Post Office as
a Distribution Clerk in 1976 and received a Special
Achievement Award in 1978.
Walker is a native of Augusta and resides on
Driftwood Drive.
Honors Day
to be held
East Augusta Middle School
honors day will be held Friday,
May 23 at 10 ajn.
Awards will be presented to
Honor Roll students and other
special awards.
DIVORCE
$79
uncontested
BEN PIERCE, 111
Attorney at Law
SFC Building
722-3568
year sponsored by Pepsi-Cola
Company. Produced by Tony
Brown Productions, Inc., the
series is distributed by Show
Biz, Inc. of Nashville,
Tennessee. (Important: please
check local television listings
for correct area broadcast
time.)
Garland Jaggers is the
executive director for the
Office of Black Catholic
Affairs in Detroit, a diocese
office within the structure of
the church. Jaggers discussed
the misunderstandings about
the roots of blacks in the
church with host Tony Brown.
“The biggest problem that
individuals face in the Catholic
Church is a failure to
understand the roots of black
Catholics in the church itself,
the failure to have a feeling of
ownership of the church. As
you know, in the Baptist
community, the community
owns the church and the pastor
serves at the will of the
deacons and elders. This is not
true in the Catholic Church
and so black Catholics do not
have the feeling of ownership
that they need in order to
really live out their faith.”
Joining Garland Jaggers on
the program is Dr. Cyprian
Lamar Rowe, the executive
director of the National Office
for Black Catholics. “The fact
that I am a black person with
specific sorts of orientations to
the way religion should be
working in society helps me to
enrich and sensitize the church
in general because the black
agenda is specifically aimed at
those things that are essential
to Christianity - worry about
the poor, the aged, those who
are hungry, those who don’t
have any other voice than
Christ who is supposed to be
their voice. The Christian
Church is supposed to be their
voice. And I think that we as
Blacks are sensitizing the
church in general to these
needs.”
“The history of the Catholic
Church is a long and varied
story of triumph and survival,”
concludes Tony Brown in his
commentary on “Black
Catholics.” “By the same
token, the blacks who worship
within the Chruch have also
shared a proud legacy from the
Saints of North Africa in
biblical times to the ordination
of Augustus Tolton as the first
black Catholic priest in
America.”
Room
Motes
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J j Second Feature
Mayors fete Rosa Parks
WASHINGTON - Rosa
Parks, the black woman who
challenged the system in 1955
by refusing to relinquish her
bus seat to a white man, was
hailed this week as the
“epitome of the civil rights
movement” by the National
Conference of Black Mayors
(NCBM) during the “Tribute to
a Black American” award
dinner, the closing activity of
the organizations’ Sixth
Annual Convention.
The theme of the 1980
convention, “Voting: A Key to
Political and Economic
Viability” was given added
strength by Parks who, upon
accepting the award
remembered “when it was very
dangerous (for blacks) to even
consider the right to vote.”
Free clinics
on Thursdays
A free medical clinic is held
every Thursday at 6:30 pan.
with a physician on duty. The
clinic is located at 1250
Laney-Walker Blvd., across the
street from Tabernacle Baptist
Church.
Call 733-0077 for
appointments and information.
This clinic is a project of the
American Medical Student
Association and the CSRA
Economic Opportunity
Authority, Inc.
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Some American Indians once
thought it would turn their
hair white to touch a snake.
Only Calvert Extra
makes a mixed drink soft.
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“To remember the days in
Alabama ... the long struggle
there ... the hopeless and
thankless past... the struggle to
encourage people to seek first
class citizenship,” Parks told
the audience is still alive in her
mind.
Former Massachusetts
Senator Edward Brooke,
keynote speaker for the dinner,
emphasized the importance of
the vote with harsh words for
the current Senate. “I’m
concerned about the lily-white
Senate where no black sits at
this time.” Brooke shared his
concern that blacks “must not
accept a permanent economic
sub-class status” explaining
“they’re (Senate) now
beginning to cut back and say
we don’t need you (blacks)
HAVING RADIATOR AND HEATER TROUBLE?
—SEE US
call
733-1306
40 ’ tARS nPE,IItI,CE
ol RAD,ATOR SERV,CE
2217 Milledgeville Rd.
733-1306 733-0972
WITH ALL 1980 PONTIACS
' h ”“ ;
ioiwßjiauoh
PONTIAC MASTER
11th at TELFAIR JL
anymore ... 1 fear that 1 see the
all-too-familiar handwriting on
the wall.”
NCBM gave special
recognition to several leading
government and community
leaders during the luncheon
and dinner programs.
Recipients included: Dick
Gregory, absent from the
conference due to Iris mission
in Iran; Richard Stone, U.S.
Department of Energy;
Margery Ann Tabankin,
ACTION/Vista; Joseph
Lowery, SCLC; Eleanor
Holmes Norton, U.S. Equal
Opportunity Commission;
M.Carl Holman, National
Urban Coalition; and Dr.
Dorothy Height, National
Council of Negro Women.
Certificate ■
Rafe 10.50% ■
Yield <1.071% ■
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The Augusta News-Review - May 24, 1980 -
Page 3