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Editorial
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The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana
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January 18, 1991
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" By PAUL
LEINGANG
Standing up to be counted:
impact is on ourselves
I have a habit of saving stuff. It's probably a
bad habit, but now and then, it is useful.
Among the stuff I save is a stack of articles
from various newspapers and magazines and from
the Catholic News Service that I plan to read some
day. One of those articles caught my attention the
other day.
I had just returned from a news conference,
where religious leaders from several faiths and
organizations had expressed their concerns about
peace. Msgr. Kenneth R. Knapp, vicar general of
the Diocese of Evansville, was one of the
participants.
Msgr. Knapp had called for people to put
aside their political differences and join together in
a common concern for peace with justice, not only
in the Middle East, but throughout the world. He
encouraged prayer.
Rev. F. P. Miller, a Baptist minister in
Evansville, had also called for prayer, driving
home his own feelings with the quotation that
"Man's extremities are often God's opportunities."
Speakers from other denominations and from
the Islamic Society made their views known. In
discussing various letters and statements in
political anal religious arenas, they offered different
approaches to counter the forces of war, but the
common theme was spoken by all: pray for peace.
Some of the questions asked by the reporters
following the statements were still unsettled in my
own mind as I returned to the office. There, one of
those articles I had saved for future reading caught
my attention.
"Priest urges New Year's Resolution: Dress Up
for Mass," read the headline. My first thought was
to disregard the article as a piece of fluff, certainly
of little significance in these days building up to
war.
On second glance, however, my eye caught
the name of the priest who. had made the state-
ment. He was somebody I remembered from
school, somebody whose ideas I had respected
back in those old school days.
What Father James Telthorst of St. Louis said
in that article was that he was not leading a cam-
paign for suits and ties, but rather for a type of
"Sunday best."
"A child can come to church dressed any way
he wants, but he can't play soccer unless he has
the special outfit," he was quoted as saying. "Why
doesn't he have a special outfit, as it were, for
church?"
"We are people of sign and symbol, but we
forget that," he said.
"Our faith is not simply a matter of correct
teachings and right practices.., but of
'specialness' and tradition in which we remember
that Sunday is special, perhaps even by reason of
our dress," he reasoned.
His thinking seemed reasonable -- but not
earth-shattering, I thought. But one sentence in the
middle riveted my attention.
People who argue about getting dressed up on
Sunday and say that God does not care what you
wear are missing the point, said the priest. The
question is, do we care?
The comment brought me back to the unset-
tled questions in my mind about the "prayer for
peace" news conference.
Several reporters' questions in various forms
boiled down to this: "With so many people calling
for war, do you really think a few prayers will
make a difference?" Or, "What efffect can a few
Evansville area religious leaders have on a world
bent on military action?"
How God answers our prayer is not the ques-
tion. What is important is that we pray, and that
we not be silent.
What impact a call for peace will have on the
world is yet to be determined in the world, but the
impact on the individual is clear: it is a witness of
faith and conviction -- a sign and symbol to those
who may be indifferent, to Say clearly that we care.
If I stand up and am counted, I may never
know the impact of such an action on others. But I i
will never forget the impact on myself•
Washington Letter
Black on white on brown: race attitudes in 1991
By LAURIE HANSEN
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) --
Despite school desegregation,
affirmative action efforts and
open housing laws; negative
racial stereotypes persist in the
United States.
A majority of whites ques-
tioned in a new survey con-
ducted nationwide said they
believe blacks and Hispanics
are likely to prefer welfare to
hard work and tend to be lazier
than whites, more prone to
violence, less intelligent and
less patriotic.
Auxiliary Bishop Carl A.
Fisher of Los Angeles, one of
the nation's 13 black bishops,
said the survey results did not
surprise him.
"My opinion is that, unfor-
tunately, racism is very alive
and well in America," Bishop
Fisher told Catholic News Ser-
TheMESSAGE
4200 N. Kentucky .ve.
Evansville, IN 47724.0169
Weekly newspaper of the
Diocese of Evansville
Published weekly except le:,t week in
December by the Cetholi,, Press of
Evansville.
Publisher .... Bishop Gerald,.. Gettelfinger
Associate Publisher .... Roy. Joseph Ziliak
Editor .................. Plul Leingang
Production Mgr .............. Phil Beget
Cir./Adv, Mgr ........... Pa JI A. Newland
Address all communication.', to P.O. Box
4169, Evansville, IN 4T'2l..0169. Phone
(812) 424-5536.
Subscription rate:
$1 7.50 per year
Single Copy Price: 50¢
Entered as 2nd class matte,- at the post of-
rice in Evansville, IN 47701. Publication
number 843800,
Postmaatar: Return POD forms
3579 to the Office of Publication.
Copyright 1991 Catho/Ic Preu at Evansville
i i i
vice in a Jan. 11 telephone in-
terview.
"Just two days ago a Jewish
youth center in Hollywood was
firebombed. Police believe it
was race motivated," he com-
mented, noting that such in-
cidents had become almost
commonplace.
The survey results were
released about two weeks
before the nation was to com-
memorate the birthday of the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,
who fought to eliminate racial
stereotypes up until his
assassination in 1968.
Authors of the survey, con-
ducted by the National Opinion
Research Center at the Universi-
ty of Chicago, said the results
released Jan. 8 show that
despite progress in race rela-
tions since the 1950s, whites'
negative images of blacks and
other minorities continue to be
pervasive.
The survey found that a ma-
jority of white, Hispanic and
other non-black respondents --
78 percent -- said blacks are
more likely than whites to
"prefer to live off welfare" and
less likely to "prefer to be self-
supporting."
Sixty-two percent said blacks
are more likely to be lazy; 56
percent said they are violence
prone; 53 percent said they are
less intelligent; 51 percent said
they think blacks are less
patriotic.
Hispanics were rated similar-
ly. Among non-Hispanics, 74
percent said Hispanics are more
likely to prefer to live off
welfare; 56 percent thought
them to be lazy; 50 percent
thought them more violence-
prone; 55 percent thought them
less intelligent and 61 percent
thought them less patriotic.
Thirty-four percent of
respondents said Asians are
likely to be lazy; 30 percent said
they are violence-prone, 36 per-
cent said they are less in-
telligent; 46 percent said they
prefer to live off welfare; and 55
percent said they are less
patriotic.
On many of the survey's
questions, whites rated Jews
higher than themselves, with
the exception of patriotism.
The survey found that be-
tween 1970 and 1990 white
support for school busing rose
from 14 to 29 percent and white
disapproval of laws prohibiting
interracial marriage rose from
48 to 77 percent.
The survey, conducted last
Letters to the editor
Encourages belief
in the real presence
To the editor,
I often re-read the short
stories of Flannery O'Connor, a
great American writer whose
solidly orthodox Catholic
theology is subtly present in all
her fiction.
Not so subtle, however, was
her defense of the basic
Catholic tenet of the Eucharistic
Presence. A famous instance is
her response to Mary mccarthy,
a lapsed Catholic and qually
celebrated writer, who, at a
cocktail party, casually re-
See LETTERS page 8
year, involved individuals in the U.S. Catholic Conference'S
randomly selected households Domestic Policy Committee,
in 300 communities. Of the told CNS racism in the United
1,372 survey respondents, States has changed a lot from i
about 170 were black, 50 were when he grew up in Mississip-
Hispanic, 30 were Jewish, pi. "That was overt racism, te-
l
fewer than 10 were Asian and day more often it's covert in-
the rest were white, stitutionalized racism," said
Ronald G. Jackson, a public Jackson. f
policy analyst at the National One can see its effects in the
Urban League and a member of See WASHINGTON page'
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Bishop's schedule
The following activities and events are listed on the
schedule of Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger:
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