Black parish school shut out of
league
By ROBERT McCLORY
Special Report Writer Chicago
On a day in early June, Chris Mallette, the athletic director of
St. Sabinas Academy on Chicagos south side, spoke to a seventh
grade class about the storm of controversy swirling around the school. But
there was no storm, no anger, in the class, he said. There was only hurt
and embarrassment that people would think their neighborhood was so
bad.
The storm struck May 31 when the Chicago Sun-Times revealed
that the Southside Catholic Conference, a league of 21 archdiocesan grammar
schools, predominantly white, had voted to deny admission to St. Sabina,
predominantly black, on the grounds that visiting teams and parents would be
unsafe in the Sabina neighborhood because of its high crime rate. The vote to
bar was 11-9. Concern about safety was the only factor, said the conference
treasurer, who worried about what might happen to a young mother going
over to St. Sabina on a Thursday night for a fifth grade girls basketball game
in August by herself.
But Fr. Michael Pfleger, the outspoken pastor of St. Sabina, one
of the largest and most active black parishes in the country, saw it
differently. He immediately wrote letters to the pastors of the 21 parishes
charging that racism continues to be alive and well both inside society
and inside the church. To be denied admission on the sole premise that certain
coaches and parishes feared for the safety of their children is illegitimate,
ridiculous and insulting. It is very troubling that the conference would
insinuate that we would place their children in harms way.
During the next few days archdiocesan officials including Sr.
Anita Baird, head of the office for racial justice, and auxiliary Bishop
Raymond Goedert, vicar general, said indications of racist motivation in a
Catholic athletic league were most alarming.
No one denied that the Auburn-Gresham community in which St.
Sabina is located has a demonstrably higher crime rate than white communities
to the south. But St. Sabina parishioners have worked to upgrade the area,
vigorously opposing gangs and drugs. On the other hand, the Beverly
neighborhood and the Oak Lawn suburb, where the conference schools are
clustered, are the areas to which whites fled from St. Sabina and nearby
parishes in the 1960s as blacks began moving in. Many left harboring
grievances.
Leaders of the conference defended their position, saying they had
originally offered to admit St. Sabina to the league on condition that it play
all its games on the road for five years, so that other teams would not have to
enter the community. To which Pfleger responded, This is not a
dog-and-pony show. Were not putting ourselves on the block to be
approved. The dispute became a staple in the Chicago area press, TV news
and radio talk shows, some accusing Pfleger of playing the race
card, others castigating white parishioners for hiding their racism under
safety concerns.
When Cardinal Francis George, who had issued a pastoral letter
against racism only six weeks earlier, returned to town following a trip to
Poland, he took a conciliatory tone. He said he could not judge anyones
motives without talking to them and expressed hope we might find a way to
take care of safety concerns. He then chided Pfleger, who, he said,
should have gone through the auxiliary bishop for his area when the
dispute began instead of speaking out publicly. Thats the way the
church is governed, he said. If a priest has a problem he goes to
the bishop.
Pfleger countered that he was within his rights to directly
approach his brother priests. At a Sunday Mass, Pfleger told the congregation
he had received more than 200 hate-filled e-mails and letters. Its
just amazing the hate out there, he said, and then they say
its not race.
The argument cooled a bit when Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard
intervened, saying, I guarantee you the kids will be safe and it will be
a secure environment if the league accepts St. Sabina.
Meanwhile, the pastors of the parishes in the conference met
privately and announced they would try to persuade the 11 athletic
directors opposed to St. Sabina to change their minds. The pastors should
provide moral leadership not to force or coerce but tell people to move in the
right direction morally, said Fr. Larry Dowling, pastoral adviser to the
conference.
Back at St. Sabina Academy, which has an enrollment of almost 600,
Chris Mallette, said the children are still reeling and confused. They
didnt know people felt that way about them, he said. I
explained were not going to respond to this by being racist ourselves.
And were not saying any parish or any person is racist. Were saying
the decision [to exclude] was racially motivated and it was wrong.
Then Mallette, an attorney who resigned a position with the
citys corporation counsels office to run the athletic program at
St. Sabina, urged the children to hold their heads high. You have an
obligation to be the light of the world, he said, and so does any
organization that calls itself Catholic.
National Catholic Reporter, June 15,
2001
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