Thursday, December 18, 2008
FEATURE
Southern Cross, Page 3
“My dear Bishop O’Hara”:
Hard times and a soft-hearted bishop
uring the early years of his episcopacy, Gerald Patrick O’Hara (Bishop of Savannah, 1935-1959) received many
appeals from people in his diocese - and, in several cases, beyond it - for assistance. The Great Depression that
struck the U.S. and other countries during the late 20s continued throughout much of the 1930s and was still affecting
this country’s economy. Programs mandated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt following his election in 1932 were
not yet in full operation. Families still lacked money for necessities. Businesses were still failing.
Some more desperate individuals
saw the new bishop of the Catholic
Diocese of Savannah as a vision of
hope and a source of help. In 193637, his first full year as head of the
Diocese of Savannah, Bishop
O’Hara answered these requests for
help with dispatch, compassion and
generosity. New to the south and son
of a well-to-do Philadelphia family,
O’Hara must have been appalled at
the financial ruin still fermenting in
his diocese. Appeals that passed
across his desk came from both
well-educated and poorly-schooled
correspondents.
$9 rent due
“My dear Bishop O’Hara,” a letter
from a more educated seeker of aid
began: “I am sure that you haven’t
forgotten our family. I am sorry, but
adverse circumstances are the cause
of my writing to you again. The fact
is that my husband’s business has
failed completely and after paying
urgent bills there is nothing left for
the family. We find ourselves with
not even money to buy food, pay the
rent which is $9.00 and is due
tomorrow.” This correspondent went
on to say that her family had left a
former residence a month earlier still
owing rent and that their new landlord wanted his rent payment by the
first of the month, or they would be
evicted. A notation, “$35 given,” fol-
Photo courtesy of the Diocesan Archives.
D
Bishop Gerald P. O’Hara stands with a confirmation class at Milledgeville.
lowed by the date, appears at the top
sible) placement on a job.”
corner of this letter.
The type of job this corresponA later letter from the same person
dent’s husband was in line for might
thanked the bishop and bore “the
have included any of a number of
heartening news” that her huspositions from highway workband had secured a job with
er to writer to artist. It was
the local WPA (Works
the WPA that hired clerks to
Progress Administration).
type records of local ceme“They have him (her husteries still available in
band) tagged, listed and
libraries today. Murals in the
every other kind of red tape,”
Chatham Effingham Liberty
she wrote, “but when the job is
Live Oak Public Library Bull
forthcoming it is impossible Rita H. DeLorme Street Branch and in the
to say.” She observed that,
former Richard Arnold
despite the red-tape and plethora of
School (now owned and restored by
family records required, those in
Savannah College of Art and
charge promised “immediate (if posDesign) are the handiwork of WPA
artist William Hoffman. Established
in 1935 by executive order and
administered by Roosevelt’s “righthand-man,” Harry Hopkins, the program started up with
$4,880,000,000. This pump-priming
device did what it was meant to do:
stimulate private business and execute funding reforms.
By March 1936, about the same
time that Bishop O’Hara’s correspondent’s husband was hired, the
WPA countrywide had over
3,400,000 persons on its rolls.
“Work is scarce”
Not included among these was a
woman who wrote the bishop seeking an office job. Though expressing
his “greatest sympathy” for her, the
bishop wrote: “With regards to
securing a position for you I shall do
my best, but cannot give any assurance that I shall be successful, since,
as you already know, work is so
scarce. I shall let you know one way
or the other, within a short while.”
The same year, 1936, a teacher
wrote the bishop from Philadelphia
wondering if he could help her find
a job there because she had been
replaced by a religious at the school
where she taught. Yet another
woman asked Bishop O’Hara to
keep her in mind if he were to hear
of a Philadelphia parish that needed
a housekeeper, offering references
from her previous employer in New
Jersey.
A letter of appeal—this time from
the bishop himself—asked Savannah
Continued on page 6
ather James M. Mayo, retired
diocesan priest, died December
10 at Coastal Manor Nursing
Home, Ludowici. He was 72.
James McHale Mayo, was born to
Alpheus and Ellie J. Murphy Mayo
on September 30, 1936, in
Nantucket, Massachusetts. After
graduating from Nantucket High
School, he served in the United
States Air Force from 1955 to 1959.
Back in Nantucket, he married
Eileen Harris in June 1963. She
and their newborn son Kevin died
in November 1964.
After serving as a police officer
for many years, Mayo entered
Sacred Heart Seminary in Hales
Corner, Wisconsin, and was
ordained a priest for the Diocese of
Savannah by Bishop Raymond W.
F
Lessard at the Civic Center in
Warner Robins in 1979. His first
assignment was as associate pastor
of Sacred Heart Parish, Warner
Robins. He then served as associate
pastor of Saint Mary on the Hill
Parish, Augusta, from 1980-81 and
at Saint Teresa Parish, Albany,
from August to December 1981,
and then as pastor of Saint Benedict the Moor Parish, Savannah,
from December 1981 until June
2000. Father Mayo served as pastor
of Saint Stephen, First Martyr,
Parish in Hinesville from 2000
until his retirement in 2004. He
continued to live in Hinesville until
his death.
Father Mayo was a Fourth
Degree Knight of Columbus and
Knight of the Holy Sepulchre
(KHS). He is survived by his sister,
Catherine (Paul) Lamothe and
many nieces and nephews.
Visitation for Father Mayo will
be held from 6:00-9:00 p.m. on
December 18 at Saint Stephen
Church in Hinesville. A Vigil
Service will begin at 7:30 p.m. at
Saint Stephen’s.
Bishop J. Kevin Boland will celebrate Father Mayo’s Funeral Mass
at 11:00 a.m. on December 19 at
Saint Stephen Church. Father
Robert Chaney will be the homilist.
Burial of his ashes will occur at a
later time.
Donations may be made in Father
Mayo’s memory to Saint Vincent’s
Food Bank, Saint Stephen, First
Martyr Parish, 399 Woodland
Drive, Hinesville, GA 31515.
Photo by Landmark.
Father James Mayo, KHS, dies at 72
Father James M. Mayo, KHS