Bishop Buddy Scrapbook 1937 (2)

Official Recognition Comes As

This Catholic weekly As

Anniversary Present to Paper

Organ For Church News l~'::.;:~:t::::·~loved After four years Mr. McCorm- ick sold the paper to John Dorey, By GERALDINE G. FLOERSCH

Today San Diego has 12 Ca- tholic churches, including a na- tional church for the Italians and one for the Mexicans, and every town in the county boasts its Ca- tholic church or chapel, while Na- tional City, then but a small set- tlement, has two churches. Four orders of priests and eight orders of nuns labor there. Two beautiful academ.ies for girls, a high school for boys, four parochial schools, an orphanage, and one of the largest hospitals in the s::ate have been built by our prieits and sis- ters here. Along with the growth of San Diego, The Southern Cross has kept pace and from time to time has added columns of news and

I who arter nearly a year's time was forced by ill health to leave the city and it was at that time that the paper passed into the hands of the late James H . Dougherty. At the time Mr. Dougherty was in the city council of San Diego, being the first Ca- tholic to enter public life here. A m,an of fine Catholic back- ground, coupled with expert news- paper training, both in the edi- torial and publishing business, Mr. Dougherty set out on the task of carrying the banner of Catholici- ty for those of our Faith in San

With today's issue The Southern Cr.>ss takes on a new dignity, for since last Friday, His Excellency, Bishop Charles Francis Buddy has bestowed upon San Di- ego's Catholic paper the honor of being his official organ and that of the Catholic Church in the four counties that comprise the Diocese of San Diego - Imperial, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties. Coming as it does on the eve of the 26th anniversary of establishing The ' 'outhern Cross, t e official recognition is a source of 1~ride and satisfaction to hundreds of San Diegans, laity and clergy, who already having heard of Bishop Buddy's action are very kindly sending in their- congratulations.

Among the first of these is that arriving this week from the founder and first editor of The Southern Cross, James McCormick, of 4465 Marlborough Drive, who with the late James H. Dougherty, father of the present editor, pio• neered the work of the Catholic press in San Diego when its population was placed at a fifth of its present population and when St. Joseph's and Our Lady of Angels churches served the Catholic people of San Diego. Diego county. Then

followed features to meet the demands of

years of struggle in trying to make the times. a living and of editing the paper, Now that The Southeni Cross ! battling odds to carry the word of is the official Catholic paper for the Faith to the Catholics of the Diocese of San Diego, Catholic

Mr. McCormjck writes:

Southern California. Mr. Dough- erty worked and built toward the dedicated in 1906, cared for the day when San Diego would be ere- needs of the small population. ated a. separate diocese, saying The Sisters of St. Joseph of often to those about him that the Corondolet were conducting a day might not aITive in his time, news in San Bernardino, in River- side or Imperial county will be of as great an interest to The South- ern Cross and its readers as of news of the Cathedral parish, for The Southern Cross dedicates it- boarding school for girls and the but that before many years should self to being a truly diocesan pa- Sisters of Mercy maintained fi ,.~-- sanitarium on University avenue. Catholicity, introduced i n to

April 14, 1937

EDITOR, SOUTHERN CROSS: DEAR SIR:

May I be permitted to extend congratulations to the publishers on the occasion of the recognition 'of ~/ cur paper as the official organ for the new Diocese of San Diego. · The announcement comes as a pleasing surprise to the writer, who, as some of your readers may re• member, established the paper in San Diego a quar• ter of a century ago. It had a hard road to travel in the early years, but has survived all vicissitudes, and has now a clear field to be of real service to the Catholic community, without entailing- too much sacrifice to the publishers. That The Southern Cross can be a very useful medium in spreading Catholic literature and pub- lishing diocesan news, as well as social events of the various parishes, will not be disputed, and I bespeak the co-operation of the clergy and laity in helping to make the journal a credit -to the Diocese of San Diego. Yours truly JAMES McCORMICK Mr. McCormick came to San Diego in 1912 and short- ly after establishing a printing business here, started the publication of The Southern Cross in partnership with Thomas Brennan, who had previously been engaged in publishing a Catholic paper at Des Moines, Ia. Dis- couraged by the hardships of the early. endeavor,. Mr. Brennan, who died about two years ago, left for the east and Mr. McCormick continued the publication, as- sisted largely, he says, by the Irish people of San Diego. In those days the Hiberanians

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California at San Diego by Father Junipero Serra and his Francis- pan padres, was s till in its infancy in San Diego and the privations, troubles, hopes and aspirations of the early pastors were reflected and the final realization of their dreams chronicled in the columns of San Diego's Catholic paper. Something of the struggles of the early editors themselves may be seen in the following excerpt from an editorial in the First An- nual Christmas number of The Southern Cross. He wrote: "We take this opportunity of thanking our ma.ny friends for the support accorded this paper , &ince its inception. To establish ! a paper of this nature, in competi- j tion with the secular newspapers, is a task from which m.a.n.y thoughtful and experienced men shrink, and with good reason, too, if not ble$ed with. an abundance of capital. "Fools rush in where angie{s fear to tread," a.nd the ed- itor will be content to be classed with the foolish ones if his efforts result in the permanent upbuild- ing of a Ca.1hollc newspaper which, in the words of Our Holy Father, the Pope, "Is a perpetual mission in every parish." "The Southeni Cross is happy to be the medium of depicting by pen a.nd picture, in this ye.a.r of Our Lord, Nineteen Thirteen, the remarkable growth of the Catho- lic Church in the sout~rnmost part of the great diocese of Mon- terey and Los Angeles, presided over b_y our Beloved Bishop Co- naty. Perhaps no other diocese in the United States has shown sueh a wonderful g-ro"U1, both materially and spiritually in th.e past decade, as has this southeni pa.rt qf old Golden State. By the grace of God and the self-sacri- ficing devotion of his holy priest- hood, our Holy Church will con-

scattered flocks of Catholics in San Diego county. Of the priests in Sa)1 Diego county whenThe Southern Cross made its premier appearanoe, but one remains today, the Rev. J . C. Mesny, who at that time took: care of a portion of San Diego county that now comprises a half dozen or more parishes, besides hearing Confessions on Saturday after- noon and evenings at St. Joseph's church, now the Cathedral. In San Diego city proper, but two Catholic churches, St. Jo- seph's church, built by Fa,ther Antonio Ubach in 1894, and Our Lady of Angels church, which was

was among the most influential groups in the city, the former edi- tor reminisces and credits the dis- appearance of that staunch old group to the fact that there are no longer any Irish-Americans, just Americ3:ns. In 1912, when the first issue of The Southern Cross appeared, a 1 small four-page paper, it was wel- comed to San Diego with open arms by the Rev. Joseph Nunan, I third pastor of St. Joseph's church, who had taken over his duties in San Diego but a few 'months previously, and by the few I pioneer priests in charge of the