OK, my last post asked why, if St. David's was really the great parish that everybody to a person says it is, why Monsignor Stitt (pictured here) didn't just tell everybody to stay there and not move?
My Mom has an interesting answer: the Vietnam War. She says we can't just take the neighborhood in isolation; that there were national and world events that also contributed to the neighborhood falling apart.
It seems that St. David's was assigned a new priest, Father Geary (spelling?), that actually tried to preach what Jesus preached. This was causing Monsignor Stitt all kinds of problems. Father Geary was an anti-Vietnam War activist, and even tried to keep my Uncle K.B. from reporting for his physical when he was drafted. Father Geary publicized anti-war meetings at St. David's, even though Monsignor Stitt told him he couldn't use church property for those meetings. Parishoners would get up and leave, and even throw prayer books at Father Geary during mass because of his anti-war views. Monsignor Stitt ended up having to publicize in advance which priests would be saying which masses, so that parishoners who didn't like Father Geary wouldn't have to go to his masses. Eventually, Father Geary ended up leaving the priesthood. But even though I appear to equate Father Geary's teachings with the teachings of Jesus, don't get me wrong, he had his faults, too. Like when he told my Mom, when she was complaining to him about the way he tried to keep my uncle from reporting for his physical, that she shouldn't have been born. I don't think Jesus would tell anybody that.
So the whole point of this post is that those were very divisive times, the end of the 60's, early 70's, and Monsignor Stitt was having a real hard time keeping his flock together even without considering the local problems that were driving white flight from the neighborhood. Gosh, look at what else was going on: the pill, Watergate, fallout from Vatican II, etc., etc. So it was unlikely that he would be able to have enough influence on people to keep them from moving. These forces were dividing the congregation along many ideological lines already.
How could we test my Mom's hypothesis? I suppose that we could look at urban white neighborhoods across the country (multiple cities) prior to, during, and after that time, and compare the white flight rates of neighborhoods with ideologically homogeneous churches and ideologically heterogeneous churches? How could we measure, post-hoc, the ideological homogeneity of a parish?
Sir,
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, Father Geary was not truly following the teachings of Jesus he was pushing his own agenda. A true man of the cloth would never have told a person that they should have not been born. All religious denominations attract certain people who are intent on enforcing their own viewpoints on others. There is a priest outside of Chicago who insists that a gun shop owner should be killed for the crime of owning a gun shop. I have found over the years that trust of an individual is earned, not bestowed or annointed.
From an article I found on the internet from Time Magazine. Feb 21 1970
ReplyDelete>>Case Investigator Maurice Geary, formerly of St. David's Church in Detroit, is "happy as hell that I'm on the outside." A civil rights militant, he left the priesthood after the archdiocese tried to demote him from his parish assignment to a lesser job. Unlike many former clerics who still regard themselves as priests but inactive ones, Geary has abandoned any sense of the ministry. "I wasn't looking to start my own church," he says. "Why should I light a candle and play games by celebrating the Mass in the basement?" <<
My husband's family were members of St. David's. My brother in laws were older by 10 or more years than my husband. He remembers his brother not being home when he was young because they were in the military during the Vietnam War. I am sure this would have been upsetting to his family to their priest speak this way. After 9/11 our priest explained to us the difference between war and killing is that a soldier is fighting to help those who are unable to protect themselves, to help the weak. If a soldier is doing this then he is not murdering but protect those who can not protect themselves.
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ReplyDeleteIt seems that St. David's, Monsignor (Monster) Stitt, was a pig, an Animal. I remember refusing to go to confession when he was in. I tried to be an alter boy but not with or for him! I often wonder what happened to him?