Roman Catholics: Support for Ajax

In his single-minded drive to secure an open-housing ordinance for Milwaukee, Father James E. Groppi has managed to both inspire and infuriate the city’s 365,000 Roman Catholics. Last week, as Groppi led still another round of protest demonstrations by Negroes from Milwaukee’s Inner Core, more than 400 whites—many of them Polish-American Catholics—marched on the residence of Archbishop William Cousins bearing a coffin labeled “Father Groppi Rest in Hell.” Addressing the crowd through a police bullhorn, Cousins promised to consider their complaints—and then issued an open letter to the city disavowing Groppi’s methods but backing his objectives.

There was little reason for surprise that Cousins had backed the obstreperous young priest whom Negroes call “Ajax, the White Knight.” Ever since Groppi launched his campaign to “turn Milwaukee upside down,” Cousins, who has been Archbishop of Milwaukee since 1958, has supported his right to do so. Describing Groppi as “a little immature” but “honest, dedicated and sincere,” the archbishop in 1965 insisted that priests, as citizens, have every right to engage in politics as their conscience dictates. In recent weeks, however, Cousins has admitted that he has been under strong pressure to discipline Groppi; the chancery office has been besieged with hate letters and telephone calls; some Catholics have quit the church, while others have organized a campaign to withhold contributions.

In his open letter, which was published in the archdiocesan newspaper and read by Cousins on a local televi sion station, the archbishop made clear that he does not agree “with everything that Father Groppi has said and done.” He also pointed out that church teachings unequivocally state the duty of Christians “to uphold law and order, without which justice is impossible.” The archbishop, who only last month warned that priests and nuns should avoid demonstrations “of doubtful sponsorship,” argued that the social conditions responsible for Groppi’s protest campaign would not disappear if the priest were removed from the scene—a stand supported by the Milwaukee archdiocese’s recently organized priests’ Senate. “Unfortunately,” he said, “Father Groppi has become an issue himself. People are so disturbed by his actions that they lose sight of the cause for which he is fighting—that of freedom and human dignity. As Christians, we favor the same cause, but many are being sidetracked into a hate campaign directed against one man.”