PURELY COMMENTARY

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Cardinal In Limelight, Vatican In Confusion

John Cardinal O'Connor, the re-
markably good man who is loved by all
faiths and admired in Israel, was in the
limelight for several weeks. The debate
into which he was drawn by his ecclesias-
tical superiors may keep him there.
His admiring New York fellow citi-
zens who encouraged him to visit Israel
and their Israeli coreligionists also sud-
denly found themselves with the lights
from several countries affixed upon them.
All because the Cardinal shunned the
offices of the Israelis he was to visit and
instead went to their semi-official homes.
All because the Holy Father at the Vati-
can became conscious of the Holy City
also being an official home in the Holy
Land that is the State of Israel. There-
fore, the Cardinal was to be encouraged to
discuss the antagonism in Israel with the
adversaries across the Jordan, while
reiterating the Vatican declamation that
Jerusalem was not to be an official Israel
home and office.
If it were all as sad as it sounds it
would be a tragi-comedy because of the
confusions assembled in the text of this
drama. But the results of the several dis-
cussions that followed the Cardinal's re-
turn home were summarized as not being
so bad, some believing they bore some
fruit. The friendship with John Cardinal
O'Connor remains intact.
What's so good about it all? Primar-
ily, it may be assumed, that the cause for
a dispute was aired and the reason for a
Jewish-Vatican confrontation is now es-
tablished.

friends of the Jewish people, the past was
not immune from the prejudice ascribed
to the Vatican. As the Washington Post
stated in a conclusion to an editorial on
the subject of the Cardinal's visit:

The critics were awfully
quick to jump the Cardinal when
he failed to deliver the major ad-
justments in Vatican tone if not
policy that, somewhat un-
realistically, they had invited him

to Israel to make. Still, the source
of Jewish-Catholic tension on Is-
rael lies elsewhere. Only part of it
comes from the view — one that
the Vatican shares with many
governments, including Ameri-
ca's — that the status of
Jerusalem is unsettled.
Much the most serious part
arises from a Vatican policy that
asks of Israel alone, as a condi-

Continued on Page 26

`Brotherhood' Diminution
Challenge For The Nation

Cardinal O'Connor

Yet, it is the Vatican more than the
People Israel who should deplore what
had developed. Because out of the histori-
cal relationships assembled in the com-
mentaries on the Cardinal's ill-fated trip
(if resort to that term will be permitted)
was the reminder that at the Vatican
there had been evidences of anti-
Semitism. With all due credit to the
ecclesiasts like the present who are

At this juncture on the calendar,
every mid-February, as Washington's
birthday approaches, there is a call to the
justice-loving to observe Brotherhood
Week. The precedent dates back nearly
six decades, when it was introduced by
the Detroit Interfaith Round Table of the
National Conference of Christians and
Jews as an element for action in the good
will movement that became a necessity
when racism began to be recognized as a
curse for this nation, when anti-Semitism
kept raising its ugly image.
When first introduced, as an occasion
marking the honor accorded by the na-
tion to its first president, there was
noteworthy enthusiasm. Brotherhood
Week was an event for special editions of
this newspaper and its predecessor, the

Chronicle, both under the same editor-
ship.
The enthusiasm must have declined.
There were no more special editions after
the mid-1960s. Citizens of prominence in
the Jewish and Christian communities
were no longer invited to write special
articles expressing their commitments to
the cause of good will.
This is not to be judged as a collapse
of the ideal aimed at assuring good will, of
encouraging brotherhood. Perhaps it had
been taken for granted after some de-
cades of observance of what had become a
festival motivated by decency and good
citizenship. The very important Detroit
Interfaith Round Table leadership did
not take it for granted. It has already

Continued on Page 26

Personalities Gallery: Frank Barcus As Artist, Daughter's Tribute

Detroiters with notable roles, enrich-
ing Michigan, all-American and Jewish
records, are encyclopedically numerous.
Recent recollections on this page in-
cluded Prof. Richard Ellmann, whose
writings on famous "Dubliners" have
given authoritative status, and Prof.
Marshall Shulman, authority on Russia,
who is highly honored as a Columbia
University academic.
Now a recollection about a highly
honored Detroit authority on the
waterfront and an artist of distinction,
and his accomplished daughter who pays
him honor.
Our story now is about a great illus-

Frank Barcus and his
daughter Rachelle.

trator, a cartographer of distinction, an
able writer who had the vision to recon-
struct an historic occurrence in Michi-
gan. It is the reprinting of the stories
about the event of 1913 that inspired giv-
ing new light to that sensational event.
Frank Barcus is the personality now
called posthumously to the limelight. His
daughter, Dr. Rachelle Barcus Warren, a
social psychologist also active in the
dramatic arts, helped revive memories of
her late father and his achievements. It is
told in the reprinted 1986 edition of Fresh
Water Fury: Yarns and Reminiscences of
the Greatest Storm in Inland Navigation.
It was first printed in 1960.
Wayne State University Press pub-
lished the original and also the current
reprinted volume.
This explanatory note about the book
enlightens the reader about author and
background:

The Great Storm of Novem-
ber 1913 was the worst disaster in
Great Lakes history. Two weeks
before the end of the inland ship-
ping season, the storm sent a
score of freighters to their doom.
Twelve ships disappeared with
their entire crews, leaving noth-
ing behind to tell of their last
battle with wind and sea. In all,
251 men were lost.
Over a twenty year period,
Frank Barcus talked with many
of the survivors of the storm.
They had not forgotten the force
of the wind, the blinding blizzard,
the tumult of the seas, and the
staggering toll on lives and ves-
sels. Barcus wove together their
vivid eyewitness accounts to
create this comprehensive his-
tory of the storm. A skilled car-
tographer and illustrator, he has

also executed drawings, maps,
and diagrams to complete this
account of the dramatic struggle
between men and the elements.
The remarkableness about the re-
printed interviews and brief essays by an
eminent former Detroiter is that his
daughter, who attains distinction in her
own right, both encouraged the reprint-
ing of the Frank Barcus book and wrote
the "Foreword to the Great Lakes Books
edition." The foreword to the first edition
was written by the late Senator Prentiss
M. Brown of Michigan.
Senator Brown recalled:
I remember the Great Storm
of 1913. I stood on the shore of
Lake Huron on Sunday, Novem-
ber 9, the third day of the gale.
The wind from the northwest was
so strong that one could lay full
weight against it and stand as I
did. The waves were high and
close together and it was cold.
Hard nuggets of frozen spray
drove a hundred feet ashore. Late
in the afternoon the snow began
and by the next morning fourteen
inches had fallen around the
Straits of Mackinac. Had this
storm occurred in 1959, the air
waves would have been filled
with calls from stricken ships.
But in 1913, the air had not been
harnessed for communication.
Men and ships were on their own.
Everyone around the Lakes — at
Cleveland, Chicago, Duluth, De-
troit — knew that disaster had
struck. But it was several days
before news of the tremendous
loss of life and ships reached land
and more than a week before the
full story was revealed. Even to-
day, mystery surrounds many a

wreck. I will not transgress on
Frank Barcus' story by recount-
ing the known details. They are
well told in the pages that follow.
When I first read Freshwater
Fury, I knew at once that the story
must be preserved, lest with the
passing years these vivid tales
would pale and be forgotten.
Parts of this history have been
told by others in various books
about the Lakes, but Mr. Barcus
has brought together in one vol-
ume the stories of the sailors who
faced the Great Storm and lived.
To those of us who live on the
shores of the Great Lakes, the
story of the 1913 hurricane holds
a solemn and a sad interest. Each
autumn, it seems, the brutal
forces of nature gather to remind
men that the Lakes are uncon-
quered. Men of science and
courageous sailors are still battl-
ing to conquer the elements.
Brave men still go down to the sea
in ships.
Who could best write in tribute to
father than the daughter who admired
him? Therefore, the necessity to quote in
its totality the foreword by Dr. Rachelle
Barcus Warren. Here it is:
Black Sunday was the day
when huge iron ships snapped
like matchsticks in the grip of the
Great Storm of 1913. Based on
eyewitness accounts of the sur-
vivors, Freshwater Fury involves
us in each crew member's strug-
gle for survival against insur-
mountable odds. We gap for air
and strain to hang on with the
others as the great ships take on
water and roll precariously with

Continued on Page 26

