Members of the City Council of Oak Park, a suburban community of 28,000 which borders on Detroit, rescinded a resolution which was charged with being in violation of the principle of separation of church and state.
When a Catholic church, Our Lady of Fatima parish, was completely destroyed by a fire on February 17, the Councilmen, in a resolution drawn up “in the spirit of brotherhood” which was being celebrated during Brotherhood Week, organized a committee of private citizens to raise funds to aid the stricken church. Immediately, the Greater Detroit Evangelical Minister’s Fellowship, an organization of 40 churches, issued a statement opposing the action as a breach of church-state separation.
Meeting on March 5, the Council rescinded the resolution and issued a substitute proposal which merely authorized a campaign among the city’s residents and businessmen. A committee of five–two Jews, two Protestants, and a Catholic–which had been appointed by Oak Park Mayor Richard W. Marshall, was dissolved. It was immediately re-formed at its own request, and will function as a private entity, without official government sponsorship. Our Lady of Fatima, valued at $250,000, was insured for only $136,000.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
