Catholics in the South

Until last week the U.S. had an area nearly as big as Catholic Eire without a single Catholic church. It included parts of Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina.

Then in a single day two churches were dedicated there, both in North Carolina, whose 10,219 Catholics in a 3,563,174 population give it a lower percentage of Catholics than China. They were built at Bryson City and Waynesville with money raised elsewhere by Father Ambrose Rohrbacher, whose 3,500-square-mile parish has a congregation of only 50 and whose local offerings barely cover his gas bill as he drives about saying Mass in private homes of six other towns. Fifty North Carolina counties have no Catholic church at all.

Georgia has a still more rarefied Catholic population: of its 159 counties, only 16 have enough Catholics to make possible a resident priest, and in three of the 16, Catholics number fewer than 50.

Catholicism's hold throughout the South is little stronger. One-fifth of the U.S. population lives in the area bounded by the Potomac, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers --but only one-fortieth of the U.S. Catholics. Here, in this virgin field for Catholic proselytizing, Catholicism is making its greatest percentage gains. Example: the diocese of Savannah-Atlanta in 1940 made proportionately 14 times as many converts as Boston and four times as many as Chicago--two great Catholic strongholds. Since 1937 the number of Catholics in the South has increased 12%.

Catholic missionaries are making effective use of trailer chapels with living quarters and kitchens for the priests who man them and with a permanent altar opening in back for open-air services (see cut, p. 50). Typical technique is that of the Paulist Fathers in Tennessee, where their St. Lucy Trailer Chapel covers 13 counties. In each hamlet visited they show a religious movie, give a talk, answer questions asked by their hearers (many of whom have never seen a priest before). They take the names and addresses of all who are interested, and later one of the priests returns to give follow-up classes at the home of one of the prospects. As a result, the Paulists have opened two new churches in Tennessee, are now building a third.

Southern Protestants view with mixed emotions the Catholic effort to proselytize in this almost 100% Protestant area, but most liberals agree that one reason why anti-Catholic bigotry has been so much stronger in the South is that com aratively few Southerners know any good Catholics.

Meanwhile, Catholics are making a more direct frontal attack on bigotry. In 1916 Georgia was the most anti-Catholic State in the Union, thanks to Catholicbaiter Thomas Watson's attacks. In that year the Catholic Laymen's Association of Georgia began writing letters of protest to Georgia newspaper editors whenever it did not like the news they printed about Catholicism. Through the years the number of letters has fallen from 100 a week to about two a month. Says Editor Richard Reid of the New York Catholic News, who for 21 years led this campaign of putting pressure on the press : "There is not a single secular newspaper in Georgia today which may be regarded as hostile to Catholics."

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