March 24, 1970: “Priest as White Nigger”

Mike Vannella '70

Racists have called him a “white nigger.” Some of his religious superiors would like to silence him. And he faces five separate court trials in the near future. But all of this is secondary to James Groppi, because he believes he is doing what relatively few of his fellow clerics are doing – practicing Christianity. Fr. Groppi explained and defended his philosophy of Christianity at the field house last Wednesday evening in a lecture sponsored by the Theology Department.

In order to understand Fr.Groppi’s position one must realize that, during the past several decades, while blacks have been moving into the inner cores of large cities, Catholic parishes have often followed their white parishioners to the suburbs. Fr.Groppi is one priest who did not flee; nor did he construct a white enclave in the city. Instead, he adapted his parish to the needs of his predominantly black parishioners, using it as a platform for civil rights activities, and thereby aroused the anger of many white Catholics.

But James Groppi is angry, too. He is angered by a white society which imposes stiffer penalties for traffic violations than it does for the psychological destruction of children. He is angered by a white culture that seems to attach more value to property that to human life. He is angered by a white Church which practices racism in parish schools and then rationalizes its actions from the pulpit every Sunday morning.

And so, James Groppi refuses to be bound by the restrictions of white morality. To demands for black non-violence, he answers: a rat bite is violence; an abandoned building is violence; a tenement fire is violence; economic exploitation is violence; and psychological destruction is violence. By the same token, stealing is not theft; it is restitution. And white alarm over the destruction of property by blacks reminds Groppi of the British reaction to the Boston Tea Party.

As a priest, Groppi feels that his Church should be in the arena of action. Since racism is a direct contradiction of Christ’s teaching, the Church should be a most militant civil rights group. If this causes racists to leave the Church, all the better, says Groppi, because they had no business being there in the first place.

In his parish, Groppi applies his philosophy on a concrete level. If, for example, a child is arrested for participating in a civil rights demonstration, he is accorded hero status when he arrives back at school. After one demonstration, Groppi was blessed with 180 such heroes. One child, twelve-year old Pamela, already had two arrests and one week in a detention home to her credit. This same Pamela seized the microphone at a Milwaukee city council meeting and informed the white councilmen that they were bigots; her classmates, also present at the meeting, chanted, “Right on, Pamela.”

The essence of James Groppi the man, a unique blend of anger and sensitivity, is probably best expressed by his reaction to whites who criticize miscegnation. His response to such people: “Damn you all for condemning two people for falling in love.” Love. That is the touchstone of James Groppi’s personal philosophy and, not coincidentally, of Christianity itself.