Detroit, Mich. - Each Monday about 60 Detroit priests meet to discuss such topics as “The Theology of the Parish”, “Sociological Patterns in the Parish,” and so on. Archbishop John F. Dearden (who as a young priest in my home parish helped me with my first Mass, and sick-calls) invited me to lead one discussion on the “Newman Apostolates.”

It’s a far cry from the days when “Catholic education” meant only our splendid system of Catholic schools at all levels. The new definition --wherever he is, in Catholic, public, state or private institutions.

Many Detroit priest expressed what is fast becoming the prevailing view. The number of Catholic students enrolled in the University of Michigan or Wayne, as well as the University of Georgia, Emory, Georgia Tech and Georgia State, will probably be three times the number in Catholic schools by 1975.

Back in 1937, Archbishop McNicholas said, “If there are 150,000 Catholics in these schools, there are 150,000 reasons for the Church being there.” What about the present when the number is approaching a million?

Washington, Ga.-- June 25 was the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and we drove up to St. Joseph’s parish and home for dependent children to offer Mass. The Verona Fathers (Sons of the Sacred Heart) take care of the parish. For decades the people have worshipped in the Home chapel. At a reception after the Mass, I had an opportunity to meet the parishioners, and assure them.

In the recent campaign, they had been most generous, and as Father Walter said -- “this was probably the only parish in the archdiocese where the people were asked to contribute for a project which meant the end of their own church facilities.”

But St. Joseph’s Church will rise again in this town in the quiet, rolling hills of Wilkes County -- the first city in the United States to take the name of our first president.

Miami, Fla. -- Atlanta members of Serra International and their families are prominent among the 2,500 delegates here for their convention.

There are many Catholic conferences and conventions going on in these aggiornamento days. In fact, one of our bishops discovered that if he accepted all the invitations he would be in his diocese only on Christmas and Easter! One has to be selective.

The gadflies of affairs Catholic, when running out of targets, sometimes zoom in on a Catholic convention -- “plush”-- “visiting the flesh pots of Miami, etc.”, -- “is this sacrificial?” -- “is this Christian?” After all even the gadflies get bored shooting at the human curia.

Miami is pleasant, gay and only a little more hectic than Atlanta. But Miami, as the mayor said this morning, owes the Church and Bishop Carroll a lot. Racial justice and church building for a zooming population, as well as a phenomenal program for Cuban immigrants, have placed the Church in the fore. Serrans have a great opportunity here to see Southern Catholicism in action.

Sacrificial? Christian? Any layman who comes to Miami and spends three days studying the Scriptures, the informed Catholic and the Church in Latin America is not looking for gracious living. By the end of a day of discussion, he is apt to be fresh and out of flesh-pots. He’s ready for his night prayers and bed.

Gadflies are very necessary. We only wish they had one-tenth of Art Buckwald’s sense of humor.

Paul J. Hallinan

Archbishop of Atlanta