The days of late July, 1967 in Detroit are still remembered by those who lived through them and still talked about and even studied by those hungry for some lessons in history. These were the days when the streets of Detroit erupted in anger and frustration, days of our very own home-brewed troubles.
Following these days of turmoil and trouble many leaders sought to learn the lessons needed to move forward. One such leader was the Archbishop of Detroit, John Dearden. By this time the Second Vatican Council was finished and its impact was clearly felt on Detroit's Archbishop.
One of the ideas he developed for responding to the Troubles of 1967 centered in the annual fund-raising drive, actually inaugurated years before, by his predecessor, Archbishop Edward Mooney. That was the Archdiocesan Development Fund. (ADF)
Each year in springtime this fund-raising drive swept across all parishes raising funds for a variety of purposes, all necessary and all just too expansive to be handled by any single parish. Funds were raised to purchase properties for new parishes, for enabling and enriching educational endeavors, for counseling projects and the like. And each year Catholics across the Archdiocese proved themselves generous again and again.
Until the year after those Troubles of 1967.
That year, to the mix of charitable causes already funded the Archbishop added special outreach into the Black Community, providing seed monies to enable self-help efforts at bettering lives.
But far too many were having no part of this added effort.
Too many Catholics back then were still not ready to hear the powerful message of the Gospel in terms of true outreach to neighbors.
The ADF in 1968 tanked in terms of raising designated funds.
And it continued to tank the next year and the year after that.
Recovery would be a long time coming.
Then came the surprise for me personally.
I cannot remember today exactly what year it happened but I do know that I had managed to avoid that desk job downtown, the heat was off and I was settling into my position as pastor out in Romeo.
And the call came.
Archbishop Dearden had named me as that year's priest chair for the ADF!
And he was calling on me to work closely with the newly named lay chair to strat bring a robustness back to the ADF!
Payback for letting me settle into a parish position instead of sitting behind a desk? Who knows. What I do know is that for the next two years I would be front and center as the clergy face for the ADF and I would be spending a whole lot of time in person and on the phone with brother priests convincing them to get behind the efforts and bring this important effort back to a strong, healthy life!
Oh! And that also meant having a "make-over." Seems I was one of those "with the times" and my hair back then was a bit too long and too curly. And those glasses! The kind that would darken when impacted by sunshine! Get rid of them. Photos of me had to be of a straight-laced, clean-cut, respectable looking cleric! The pros got busy and I got that make-over.
And I got to meet and work with the lay chair of the ADF who was also the president (and I guess in today's terns CEO) of the Burrough's Corporation, at that time one of the leading local innovators in computer technology. This was back when computers occupied whole rooms and even whole floors! He introduced me to the future and shared visions of days ahead and brought me in on the ground floor of a dawning era.
And we actually did, also, turn the ADF around, hitting target once again after a number of years of falling short.
And I have John Dearden to thank for that part of my life.
But then he retired and his replacement was named - the bishop of Gaylord, Michigan, someone named Edmund Szoka!
And if we thought Dearden was Iron John when he came to Detroit, we were about to get a lesson in what Iron truly meant.
Edmund Szoka was coming to Detroit. The Szoka Era was about to begin.
And some years of real "fun" were dawning!
Watch for more in the weeks to come.
Interesting, we were just talking about '67 troubles at brunch after Mass this morning!! Then I find this. We lived in Bay City at that time and Ray had to go down and help guard the armory with his tracking dog. That is where everyone was bivouacked during those weeks. I was pregnant for Andy when he went in 68 for the same thing. Trying years.
ReplyDeleteLove the stories, keep them coming!