For 400 years the Catholic Church has been at home in the continental United States. On Pentecost, 1565, a Spanish fleet under Admiral Menendez was being readied for a historic voyage to the New World. The result was the founding of St. Augustine in Florida. On September 8, Mass was offered there, -- “the first community act of religion in the first permanent settlement in the United States.” (1)

Now, four centuries later, on Pentecost of 1965, Catholic leaders in the southern states are surveying the Church, its resources and opportunities. God has been good to us, and we sense a second springtime of Catholicism in this warm and gracious land. On the world scene, this new Pentecost has been heralded by the Second Vatican Council. Great popes and contemporary saints have poured their energies into its fertile soil. Bishops have risen to far reaching responsibilities. Priests, religious and laity have begun to work more closely in a welcome union of Catholic effort, especially as it contributes to the well being of the entire community.

The Church is at home in the South. The majority of persons of other faiths share with us a genuine sense of God, a love for the Bible, a tradition of church membership, a courteous and gentle approach to others. For all the past tragedies and the present trials, our environment is fundamentally religious. But two great tensions test today the spiritual heritage of American life, -- religious disunity and racial strife. We can in our communities meet their challenge only with the candor of truth and the ardor of love enkindled by the Holy Spirit whose Person we commemorate today.

In earlier years, the movement toward Christian unity was difficult because of the religious laws and customs. In the southern states, it was even more restricted by the fact of few Catholics and fewer priests. But times are changing. The rich missionary history of Catholicism in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas is a hardy base on which Catholic laymen, side by side with those of other faiths, are raising a wiser, stronger, better society.

This south will not be woven of dreams and desperate hopes. Her fabric should be the religion of early missioners like John England and James Gibbons, the first Catholic bishops of the Carolinas; the Methodist leader, John Wesley, and scores of other Protestant pioneers. And her vital strength today must reflect the moral convictions of southerners like John Rutledge, Christopher Gadsen, and William Gatson, Robert E. Lee and George W. Cable, the scientist George Washington Carver and the poet Sidney Lanier.

In this renewed society, with the spirit of love, we invite dialogue and cooperation with others, especially our fellow Christians, but also with all men of God even those who do not share our mutual bond of Baptism. In most southern communities, mutual good will and respect are growing, and this should be made known to all our people. Common beliefs and areas of disagreement must be explored. The truth cannot be compromised, but it can always be better understood. Individual conscience must not be violated, but the common good of mankind must be our shared concern.

“Everywhere large numbers have felt the impulse of grace,” the Vatican Council fathers note, “and among our separated brethren also, there increases from day to day the movement of unity among all Christians, fostered by the grace of the Holy Spirit.” (2) And in our brotherhood with all God’s people, the Jews with whom His covenant was first made must never be forgotten. They remain today, as the new Constitution on the Church declares, “a people most dear to God.” (3).

History reveals a splintered Christianity; centuries have failed to heal it. But on this Pentecost, our hopes are higher. In the presence of a growing dialogue and a hearty cooperation, one can hardly deny that the Holy Spirit, breathing over an anguished world, is inspiring men of all beliefs to meet together, to talk and pray together.

This budding springtime of opportunity has its own corresponding responsibilities. The dimensions extend into the lives of our cities, towns and country sides. Man’s life is a totality: -- his civic, social and economic life cannot be divorced from the morality of his religion. If he believes that all men are created in the image of God, he must live in spiritual equality with others regardless of their race, nation or color.

Every man is morally due the blessings of liberty and justice, equal opportunity of education, housing and employment in his right. Our nation, although built upon these Judeo-Christian principles, is taking many years to fulfill them. Both North and South have maintained their own pattern of racial discrimination. The denial to Negroes of decent housing, education and job opportunities, and even the right to vote are only phases in a century of oppression.

Justice has been slow in coming. Now it is written in the law, and surely it must be preached in our pulpits and practiced in our lives. But beyond justice is the divine virtue of charity, the love of God and of our fellowmen. Charity is crying out for a trial in the tensions involving the white and the Negro. Inspired by the love of the Holy Spirit, why should each man not see all his brothers as children of God? Why not render to every man his due, not only in obedience to the law, but freely and generously as becomes a brother of Christ?

Both white and Negro must accept the full responsibility of his social duties. Both must study in order to be wise, work to be productive, conduct themselves as good citizens and as good men. Crime must be curbed in all parts of Society so that all may pursue life, liberty and happiness without fear or danger. Both white and Negro must obey the law, and demand moral integrity in those who assume the positions of leadership.

The times call for religious understanding and racial harmony. But every period of challenge, every Pentecost, also demands vision and courage. With few members and less means, the Catholic Church in the past has done what could be done. Now she can do more. She is doing more, with confidence and determination, and that special insight of grace -- to see each problem as a part of the total mystery of man’s weakness and God’s redemptive love.

As the wounds of religious division can be bound up by God’s grace and our honest efforts, so can the wounds of racial strife be healed by His love transforming ours. Our nation and indeed our world have been greatly hurt by these self-inflicted wounds. The Church with all men of good will travels like a modern Good Samaritan the tortuous road to unity and justice. In our Southern States, Catholicism in the same good company makes it way along that same difficult and sometimes lonely path. It is a path that leads to truth and justice, charity and peace.

In prayer and dedicated service we beg the Holy Spirit on this day of Pentecost to enkindle the fire of His love in the hearts of all our people.

(Signed) Paul J. Hallinan

Archbishop of Atlanta

Vincent S. Waters

Bishop of Raleigh

Thomas J. McDonough

Bishop of Savannah

Coleman F. Carroll

Bishop of Miami

Ernest L. Unterkoefler

Bishop of Charleston

Charles B. McLaughlin

Auxiliary Bishop of Raleigh

References: (1) St. Augustine Foundation, The Founding of St. Augustine (1965) p. 7

(2) Vatican Council II, Decree on Ecumenism, introduction (1964)

(3) Vatican Council II Constitution on the Church (1964), paragraph 16.