Vol. 53 No. 30 | September 13, 2014
www.clarionherald.org
New Orleans | Two Sections
A visionary with a mission
Inside
By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald
Fittingly, the announcement came inside Xavier University of Louisiana’s sleek
Convocation Center, the
newest of many green-roofed
monuments that Dr. Norman
C. Francis, the longest-serving university president in
the United States, had built
through charisma, prayer
and personal
witness.
Francis, 83,
the patriarch
of the Xavier
family since
1968, told
thousands of
students, fac- FRANCIS IN 1968
ulty and staff
Sept. 4 that he would step
down in June 2015 as president of the only historically
black Catholic university in
the Western hemisphere.
“After nearly 47 years, I
know the time has come to
take the brightly burning
torch turned over to me by
the Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament and pass it on
to new leadership,” Francis
said. “I do this with a passionate confidence and absolute certainty that Xavier
is better prepared than ever
to continue its educational
and spiritual mission and to
build on its tradition of excellence.”
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Archbishop Aymond ...... 2
Peter Finney Jr ............. 2
Pope Francis ............... 9
Sports .................. 10-11
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Photos by Frank J. Methe and Frank H. Methe III | CLARION HERALD; ALSO CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE, XAVIER UNIVERSITY
A leader, man of faith
Dr. Norman C. Francis, 83, announced
his intention to retire in June 2015 after
nearly 47 years as president of Xavier
University of Louisiana. The longestserving president of any U.S. college
received the Presidential Medal of
Honor, the nation’s highest civilian
honor, in 2006 from President George
W. Bush. “Xavier is positioned to soar
into a brighter future that will be even
greater than its past,” Francis said.
Katrina doesn’t get last word
Francis’ tenure as Xavier
president spanned generations and overcame many obstacles, not the least of which
was restoring a campus inundated by the floodwaters of
Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
When Francis came to
Xavier as a 17-year-old freshman on a work scholarship
in 1948, the campus conSee FRANCIS page 4 ➤
COMMENTARY
Page 2 | CLARION HERALD
September 13, 2014 | New Orleans
Dr. Norman Francis is a man of faith and integrity
Archbishop
Gregory M.
AYMOND
T
here was a historic
announcement last
week when Dr. Norman Francis decided he
would step down next June
after nearly 47 years as
president of Xavier University. How can you put into
words what Dr. Francis has
meant to the New Orleans
community?
Norman Francis is an incredible person. He’s an educator, a faith leader and a
community leader. Then,
when you put that all to-
gether with his own commitment to his family – his
wife Blanche and his six
children – you get the true
picture of who Dr. Francis is.
Xavier University is known
throughout the world and
has a reputation for sustained
excellence. Dr. Francis has
not only built Xavier University over the last 47 years,
but he also rebuilt it after Katrina. We owe a great debt of
gratitude to him for all he has
done not only for Xavier but
for the entire community. It
means so much to me that
Xavier University is known
throughout the country and
is so well respected.
How do you put into perspective what Dr. Francis
has done for race relations
in New Orleans?
On the Web:
www.arch-no.org
Throughout his life Dr.
Francis has been a very strong
voice for racial equality and
peace within our community.
He’s done so many things
behind the scenes. He played
a big role in the Civil Rights
movement in the 1960s. He
worked quietly – below the
radar – to find a solution to
the tense situation when African Americans first exercised
their legal rights by sitting
at the lunch counter at drug
stores around town. Even
before he was president of
Xavier, he advocated with the
Blessed Sacrament sister who
was president to allow the
Freedom Riders to use a Xavi-
er dorm as a shelter following
their brutal bus ride through
the South. That was really
taking a chance because there
had been warnings that any
place that offered shelter to
the Freedom Riders might
become a bombing target.
In our own archdiocese, Dr.
Francis has been available
time after time to negotiate
seemingly intractable disputes whenever they have
come up. He has the personal
integrity that true leaders
use for the good whenever
the community is faced with
difficult challenges. I don’t
know where New Orleans
would have been for the last
50 years without Norman
Francis.
He’s also carrying a difficult family cross right now.
Norman’s wife Blanche is
a beautiful wife and mother
who has been at his side for
59 years. A few years ago she
was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, and Norman has
been by her side every step of
the way – all while continuing to function in his very
pressurized role as president
of Xavier. We all see the
public Norman Francis. But
it’s very inspiring to witness
the family man that Norman
Francis has been all of his life.
He is a man of faith who cares
for his family, believes in God
and practices his Catholic
faith.
When did you first meet
him?
It was many years ago
when I was teaching at St.
See ABP. AYMOND page 9 ➤
Ripple effect resonates across many generations
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FINNEY JR
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CLARION HERALD
D
r. Norman C. Francis,
then the executive
vice president of Xavier University of Louisiana,
was in the Trenton, New
Jersey, train station on April
4, 1968, preparing to take a
short ride to Bensalem, Pennsylvania, where the Sisters of
the Blessed Sacrament had
their motherhouse.
After 11 years as a key administrator of Xavier, Francis
knew the meeting to which
he was headed would make
history. For the first time
since St. Katharine Drexel
founded Xavier in 1925, the
sisters had decided to appoint
a layperson as president.
And he was that person.
Then, he called home to
New Orleans.
“Dad, Martin Luther King
has just been shot,” Francis’
son Michael told him.
There are times in life when
a vocational call is as clear
as being knocked off a horse
by a bolt of lightning. That
chilling moment merely con-
firmed for Francis what he
already had known growing
up as the son of a Lafayette
barber and a loving mother,
neither of whom had graduated from high school.
His life was not his own.
He was being called to make
a difference.
Francis’ father had yearned
for his son to become a bigtime lawyer.
“My daddy went to his
grave never forgiving me for
not practicing law,” Francis said last week as he announced his intention to
retire next June as president
of Xavier, tying a bow on a
nearly 47-year career as the
nation’s longest-serving university president.
“This was in the separatebut-equal days,” Francis recalled. “I was a law school
graduate. He knew I was going to be offering cases before
judges who went to the same
law school. My dad would tell
me, ‘If you stand before the
judge, the judge can’t tell you
you don’t know what you’re
talking about because you got
your degree the same place
he got it.’ That’s the way he
thought. He just knew I was
going to be a millionaire lawyer.”
Francis could have been
many things – lawyer, businessman, politician.
“There were those of us
who thought he might be a
great candidate for mayor,”
said Jesuit Father James Carter, who served as president
of Loyola University New
Orleans from 1974-96 and is
a close friend. “He is bright,
articulate and has a very
winning personality. And,
he’s a long-distance runner,
obviously.”
Violence and death – everything Dr. King had opposed
with every fiber of his being
– could not snuff out the light
ignited by faith and education, Francis thought.
“I was one lawyer who
c ould h ave don e a few
things,” Francis said. “Now
I sit back and see a number
of lawyers, teachers, physicians, dentists and social
workers that hopefully I had
some part in educating. It’s
like throwing a rock into the
water.”
The ripple effect of Francis
on Xavier and on an entire
region is impossible to overstate. Where would New
Orleans have been without
Francis for the past halfcentury?
“It certainly would not be
as laid back and peaceful a
place as it has been,” Father
Carter said.
There were so many obstacles. When Francis became
the first African American
to graduate from Loyola
Law School in 1955, he and
his fellow classmates were
visited by a member of the
New Orleans Bar Association.
The recruiter went down the
line passing out application
forms, but when he came
to Francis, he intentionally
skipped over him.
One of Francis’ white classmates, standing behind him,
said, “Well, if he can’t join, I
can’t join,” tossing the membership form on the floor.
Even before Francis became
Xavier president, he was always the cool head during
the civil rights struggles
of the early 1960s. Francis
helped peacefully resolve in
New Orleans what had become a powder keg in other
Southern cities – the refusal
of white restaurants to serve
African-American patrons.
After working behind the
scenes with business leaders, Francis assigned Xavier
students to assemble at the
K&B drug store at Carrollton
and Washington avenues.
“At the appointed hour –
See FINNEY page 16 ➤
LOCAL
Page 4 | CLARION HERALD
July 19, 2014 | New Orleans
FRANCIS
➤ From PAGE 1
sisted of just a few permanent
buildings, several small houses and Army surplus trailers
in one city block. Xavier’s
burgeoning campus today is
dotted with 16 buildings on
63 acres, and the endowment
has grown from $2 million to
more than $160 million.
More importantly, 20,000
students have earned degrees,
and Xavier annually places
more African-Americans in
medical school than any
other college in the country.
The school also leads the nation in the number of African
Americans earning bachelor’s
degrees in biology, chemistry,
physics and the physical sciences.
Humble beginnings
Francis, the son of a Lafayette barber and homemaker,
graduated from Xavier in
1952 and became the first
African American to be accepted and graduate from
Loyola Law School in New
Orleans. His older brother
Joseph was the fourth black
Catholic bishop in the U.S.,
serving as auxiliary bishop of
Newark.
After serving in the Army,
Francis worked with the
U.S. attorney’s office to help
desegregate federal agencies
in the South. He returned
to Xavier in 1957 as dean of
men and became the first lay
president of Xavier in 1968,
getting the appointment
from the Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament on the same day
civil rights leader Dr. Martin
Photos by Peter Finney Jr. and Frank J. Methe | CLARION HERALD
In 2000, Francis led a delegation of Xavier alumni and students to St. Peter’s
Square in Rome for the canonization of St. Katharine Drexel, who founded
Xavier University in 1925. Above, Francis looks over architect Cesar Pelli’s
model for the St. Katharine Drexel Chapel, which was dedicated in 2012.
Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis.
“His assassination was like
blowing up the dream,” Francis said. “I think it dulled our
senses. We were in shock.”
Francis often reflected on
the many “miracles” produced by Xavier, but the
biggest miracle of all, he said,
is that it existed in the first
place. Xavier was founded by
St. Katharine Drexel, a Philadelphia heiress who entered
religious life, formed the
Blessed Sacrament Sisters and
then used her family inheritance to educate blacks and
native Americans throughout
the U.S.
St. Katharine opened Xavier in 1925, building an impressive administration and
classroom building out of
Indiana limestone. Xavier’s
initial focus was to prepare
African Americans, who
could not get a private school
education in Louisiana, for
future careers as teachers.
Parents were his first teachers
Francis said he was motivated by the example and
discipline imparted by his
parents, neither of whom
graduated from high school.
“But they were as smart as
anyone who had completed
college,” Francis said. “I was
full of dreams and more than
a little bit of fear. Quickly, my
fears were allayed and my
dreams began to be nurtured
by the Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament, the rest of the
caring faculty and staff, as
well as my fellow students,
who shared many of the same
dreams and fears.
“My experience as a student shaped my personal
ambitions and ideas for what
my role could be in changing
the world. My faith guided
me to apply the gifts that God
had blessed me with to serve
others.”
Francis said he had fleeting thoughts about retiring
after Katrina devastated the
Xavier campus and flooded
80 percent of the city of New
Orleans. But those notions
quickly vanished as he pulled
together a small core of administrators, faculty and staff
in temporary headquarters in
Grand Coteau, Louisiana, not
far from Lafayette, where he
had grown up.
“I thought about it, but
not for long,” Francis said.
“I couldn’t leave, not just
because of who I was, but
because I knew that Xavier
wasn’t ready to give up to a
hurricane. We had 80 people
who brought us back in 4 1/2
months, and 75 percent of
them had lost their homes.
That was not easy. There’s
something about adrenaline.
There’s something about
knowing when it’s time to
make a decision.”
Francis had lost his home,
as well, but even in the midst
See FRANCIS page 5 ➤
File photo by Frank H. Methe III | CLARION HERALD
One builder meets another
In the 1980s, Dr. Norman Francis showed off yet another building project – the
Norman C. Francis Academic/Science Complex – to then-Archbishop Philip
Hannan. The complex opened in 1988.
Student: Dr. Francis’ legacy will live on
Leah Labat is a junior art and psychology major at Xavier
University, and she’s also minoring in biology. She said
Dr. Norman Francis’ retirement came as a bombshell.
“Knowing the kind of gentlemen who came from his
era, they hold a sense of honor, dignity and integrity about
them that is really not seen in this era,” Labat said. “To see
a man like that hold this torch unwaveringly for so long is
like an epic. It’s very moving, but it’s almost heartbreaking
to know that – wait a minute – he’s actually retiring!
“We know all the trials and tribulations and obstacles
that he had to go through. Just seeing what Xavier is now
is incredible. We’re actually a part of this legacy that is
going to continue.”
FRANCIS
➤ From PAGE 4
of all the recovery efforts, he
agreed to a plea from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to
chair the Louisiana Recovery
Authority, the state panel
that provided guidelines for
how the region would use
federal funds to rebuild. In
2006, Francis received the
Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George
W. Bush.
Michael Rue, chairman of
the Xavier University board
of trustees, said there is no
true way to measure Francis’
impact on thousands of students and on the New Orleans
community.
“There’s not a lot of servant
leaders in this world,” Rue
said. “This man could have
been a politician, a successful businessman, a very successful lawyer. A lot of doors
would have opened for him.
But Xavier needed him and
the nuns needed him.”
Rue said the board hopes to
have a new president in place
by July 1, 2015, but finding
someone to replace a legend
will be a tall task.
“I can assure you that we
will never be able to replicate
Dr. Francis,” Rue said. “The
board can seek to identify
someone with similar values,
principles, energy and faith to
lead us into the future.”
Peter Finney Jr. can be reached
at pfinney@clarionherald.org.
COMMENTARY
September 13, 2014 | New Orleans
CLARION HERALD | Page 9
Pope: Iraq’s persecuted Christians are true, bold witnesses of Christ
I
raqi Christians are true and
courageous witnesses of
Christ’s message of hope,
forgiveness and love, Pope
Francis said.
“The church suffers with
you and is proud of you, proud
to have children like you,”
he said Sept. 3, in a greeting
to Arabic-speaking pilgrims,
especially those from Iraq.
The pope spoke in Italian,
with Arabic translation, at the
end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
He told the pilgrims that the
church is a mother who knows
how to help her children most
in need, “pick up the child
who falls, heal the sick, seek
the lost, wake up the sleeping,
and also defend her defenseless and persecuted children.”
The pope said he wanted
to assure Iraqis, and all those
helpless and persecuted, of his
closeness.
“You are in the church’s
heart,” he said, as he asked
God to bless and protect them.
The church is proud of those
who persevere through such
hardship, he said, because
“you are the strength and real
and authentic witness of her
message of salvation, forgiveness and love. I embrace you
all, all of you!”
The pope’s words to Iraqis
came after a catechesis on the
ABP. AYMOND
➤ From PAGE 2
John Prep, which was the
archdiocesan high school
for boys who had thoughts
about pursuing a vocation
to the priesthood. I taught
his sons David and w, so I’ve
known the family for many
years and have a great love
and affection for both Norman and Blanche.
Did you also know his
brother, Bishop Joseph
Francis?
Yes. He was a man like Norman – very smart, very kind
and a man filled with faith,
and he was very willing to
share that faith and wisdom
with others.
What do you think of
when you drive past Xavier
University every day?
Xavier University would
maternal nature of the church.
“We are not orphans! We
have a mom, a mother” in the
church and in Mary, he said.
“The birth of Jesus from the
womb of Mary, in fact, is the
prelude to the rebirth of every
Christian in the womb of the
church,” he said.
That is why a person never
becomes a Christian on his or
her own, through his or her
own efforts, but is “born and
raised in the faith inside that
great body that is the church,”
said the pope.
From the moment of Baptism, when a child is reborn a
son or daughter of the church,
the church, “just like a devoted
mother, offers her children the
spiritual nourishment that
fortifies and makes bountiful
the Christian life,” he said.
“We are all called to welcome with an open mind and
heart the Word of God that
the church offers every day
because this Word has the ability to change us from within.
Only the Word of God can do
this,” he said.
“And who gives us this
Word of God? The mother
church! She nurses us as children with this Word. She
raises us throughout our whole
lives with this Word” and she
teaches her children how to
walk “the path of salvation”
toward Christ.
“The church exerts itself
to show the faithful the road
to take to live a fruitful life
of joy and peace” in a world
filled with darkness, pain and
temptation, he said.
“The church guides us and
accompanies us with the power of the Gospel and the support of the sacraments (which
give) us the ability to defend
ourselves from evil.”
“The church has the courage of a mother who knows
she must protect her children
from the dangers that come
from Satan’s presence in the
world, in order to lead them
to an encounter with Jesus,”
he said.
The pope said people
shouldn’t be naive about evil
and temptation, but should
“resist with the advice of their
mother, resist with the help of
the mother church because a
good mother always is by the
side of her children during
hard times.”
“This is the church we all
love, the church I love! – a
not be the beacon of light
that it is today and would
not have been the success
story that it has become
without Norman Francis.
I truly believe that. He has
a way of bringing people
together and has a way of
explaining the purpose of
the university. He’s had an
extraordinary vision for the
university. After Katrina, it
was a tough time and he
could have simply said, “I’m
going to do something else.”
But he transformed the devastation into an even more
beautiful campus. Every time
I pass by there, I see another
green roof and a beautiful
chapel. I look at all that and
I say, “That is Norman Francis
at his best – a man of faith,
performing miracles.”
Questions for Archbishop
Aymond may be sent to clarion
herald@clarionherald.org.
Archbishop Aymond says Dr. Norman
Francis showed faith and perseverance in bringing Xavier University
from Hurricane Katrina.
Pope
FRANCIS
Photo by Frank J. Methe | CLARION HERALD
On the Web:
www.news.va
mother that has in her heart,
the well-being of her children
and is willing to give her life
for them.”
Christians, however, are not
only children of the church,
they, too are called to have the
same maternal instinct and
approach, he said.
“How often we are wimps!”
he said, when Christians avoid
the duty to share the Gospel
and “this maternal courage of
the church” with others and
help generate a new life in
Christ for them.
“The church isn’t just priests
and us bishops. No, it’s all of
us” and everyone is called
to have the same maternal
spirit “with the sincere capacity to welcome, forgive, give
strength and instill trust and
hope. This is what a mother
does.”
Later, when greeting newlyweds attending the general
audience, the pope told them
to stay close to God so their
love would be “true and longlasting.”
“You are courageous, I’m
saying that because you have
to have courage to get married
today! You are the brave ones!”
he said to smiles and applause
from the young couples.
– VATICAN CITY (CNS)
LOCAL
Page 16 | CLARION HERALD
September 13, 2014 | New Orleans
FINNEY
cially in light of a serious
heart attack in 1935, to be
another miracle.
“There were any number
of miracles that the Lord
provided through her, and
we’ve always called Xavier a miracle,” Francis said.
“Xavier is a miracle, not
just for all it has done, but
for the mere fact that it has
survived and thrived. Under
normal circumstances, that
shouldn’t have been the case.
If she had died at the normal
age of 70, which at that time
would have been a big age,
Xavier would have struggled.
God allowed her to live until
she was 96, and we had that
interest available for many
more years. It’s still a struggle
every day, but people know
we have a meaning.”
➤ From PAGE 2
2 o’clock – they were sent
there,” Francis said. “The
waitresses had been told to
serve them, and that was it.”
Desegregating the New
Orleans Public Service buses
also was done below the
radar. Under the old system,
blacks were required to sit
to the rear of a movable sign
that read: “Colored only.”
The bus driver determined
if a person sat in front of or
behind the sign.
Francis came up with the
solution. His group told the
officials: “When the buses
go to the barn at midnight
Tuesday night, you instruct
the bus drivers to say noth-
Man on a mission
Photo by Irving Johnson III | XAVIER UNIVERSITY
Michael Rue, left, chairman of the Xavier University Board of Trustees, joins in the applause for Dr. Norman Francis,
who announced he would step down as university president in 2015. Francis told students first of his intentions.
ing, and you instruct the
maintenance workers to take
the signs off the buses. We’ll
send the word for people to
sit where they want to sit.
We knew the legal challenge
would surely prevail, but we
did it without ‘Who shot
John?’”
Real miracle was Xavier
Francis has been called a
miracle worker, but he always has insisted that it was
St. Katharine Drexel’s faith
and God’s providence that
provided the miracle that is
Xavier University.
Drexel’s story is rich, overflowing and mind-boggling,
and it goes beyond the millions of dollars she invested
in establishing and supporting 65 schools, churches and
centers in 21 states through
her religious order.
When her father Francis died in 1885, the highpowered banker left behind
a $15.5 million estate that
was divided among his three
daughters – Elizabeth, Catherine (Katharine’s birth name)
and Louise. About $1.5 million went to several charities,
leaving the girls to share in
the income produced by $14
million – about $1,000 a day
for each woman. In current
dollars, the estate would be
worth about $250 million.
Over the course of 60 years
– up to her death in 1955 at
age 96 – Mother Katharine
spent about $20 million in
support of her work, building
schools and churches and
paying the salaries of teachers in rural schools for blacks
and Indians.
Louise Drexel Morell, her
younger sister, contributed
millions more to similar
causes. Elizabeth, the eldest,
died in 1890 in premature
childbirth, one year before
Catherine formed the Sisters
of the Blessed Sacrament for
Indians and Negroes in Bensalem.
Didn’t want ‘fortune hunters’
Francis Drexel crafted his
will carefully. His daughters controlled the income
from the estate, and upon
their deaths, the Drexel inheritance would then flow
to their children. Drexel did
this to prevent his unmarried
daughters from falling prey
to “fortune hunters.” However, neither Elizabeth nor
Louise had children, and the
will stipulated if that were to
happen, upon his daughters’
deaths, the money would be
distributed to several religious orders and charities.
Drexel, of course, had no
way of knowing that his
“Kate” would enter religious
life in 1889 and two years
later found her order. Thus,
after 1955, the Sisters of the
Blessed Sacrament no longer
had the Drexel fortune available to support their ministries.
Francis considers Mother
Katharine’s longevity, espe-
Xavier also has a mission. And for any mission to
thrive, it needs a leader with
missionary zeal, not a lawyer.
Meet Norman Francis, missionary.
“My greatest moments are
on commencement day,”
Francis said. “I can’t tell
you the pride and joy I have
with a diploma in my hand,
looking over at the next student who’s standing on top
of the steps, knowing that
I’ve got their diploma. The
look on their faces – oh my
God. They’ve worked four or
five years of sacrificing, and
here in the next 30 seconds,
they’re going to get that diploma. That, for me, has kept
me going.”
Francis also has been a
devoted husband and father. His wife Blanche, after 59 years of marriage,
has Alzheimer’s Disease
and requires constant care.
She could not make his announcement last week.
“It’s difficult because there
is no cure,” Francis said,
recalling his wife’s beautiful
singing voice. “She could
sing all those old songs.
She can listen to them now,
but she can’t sing them any
more. It’s tough, but if you
have a deep appreciation of
what that life has been, it
flows over until eternity.”
So many lives touched. So
many ripples.
Peter Finney Jr. can be reached
at pfinney@clarionherald.org.