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I WROTE PROFILES OF NOTEWORTHY INDIVIDUALS for both Fr. Hanley and Bill. Most ran as full-page spreads; the following are excerpts. Bill hoped that providing lots of variety and details would keep readers engaged with The Canadian Register between weekly issues.
What impressed me about all these people was their clear focus on a purpose for their lives, and how positively they responded to opportunities.
NOVEMBER 19, 1960 family page
"one-woman apostolate
"DOREEN FURST'S PRIVATE CRUSADE
"KINGSTON - Doreen Furst has seen for herself how much the Church in at least one Central American country needs our help. The pretty, dark-haired young Canadian -- formerly Doreen Lambert of Kingston -- moved to Honduras after her marriage three years ago to Max Furst, whose home is there. They now have a one-and-a-half-year-old girl named Renata, and live in a quiet, luxurious house. Doreen has servants for the first time in her life, and a round of social engagements to fill her days. But she is acutely aware of the poor around her.
"She cannot agree with the social barriers in Honduras, between white people and the mestizo majority and the few Negros. The primitive economic and agricultural conditions, and especially the sinister activities of communists in the country, disturb her so much that she is determined to do something about them. When she recently visited her family here, Doreen sought help and advice. The Holy Name Society gave her some funds and she returned to Honduras on Nov. 6 with a plan to organize what Catholic action exists there.
"Four million people live in her new homeland; 80 per cent are poor. Most are Catholics, but only about 80 per cent of these practice their religion. North America has paid little attention to the country's welfare. The clergy and few nuns who are there belong to Spanish orders. There are good schools run by nuns or Brothers, but only children from wealthy families attend them.
"As a mother, Doreen has been most upset by the wretched conditions of children. Many are horribly bloated and undergrown because of tiny parasitic worms which enter their systems through the pores of their bare feet. Milk is distributed through CARE* to schools, but most children take it home to their families or sell it instead of drinking it themselves. A pediatrician is now president of Honduras. Dr. Ramon Villeda Morales is a Catholic and Doreen believes that he is doing a great deal to improve matters. But there remains an overwhelming lot to be done.
"Most Hondurans have no shoes and many sleep in the streets. The economy forces some people to be misers in the classic sense. One farmer who bought land bit by bit now has so much rent money in his shack that he dries it in the sun each Saturday so it will not rot, but he has neither the education nor a marketplace with goods to spend it on. It appears that the wealthy have 'kept the poor poor' so that wages will remain low.
"There have been occasions when the rich tried to relieve some of the misery. During a famine years ago, they set up food stations. But one society matron remembers that a peasant waiting to receive food from her spat in her face and denounced her because of her wealth. Since then she has been bitter and unsympathetic toward the poor. There is pride on both sides, says Doreen. She worries that the wall which that pride maintains between the peoples of Honduras is not only un-Christian but positively dangerous. It takes so little for a 'class struggle' to erupt in such conditions.
"What worries Doreen most is the communist activity in Honduras. Its Communist Party is led by a fallen-away priest who gives alcohol to peasants, and promises all kinds of unrealistic reforms in order to win votes. He goads the poor to rebel against the rich. His favorite 'joke' is that he 'was a Catholic priest, but finally woke up.'
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