Interview with Ralph W. Beiting, July 21, 1992

Partial Transcript: This is Father Ralph Beiting being interviewed by Zack Lewton on July 21st, 1992, for the Christian Appalachian Project Oral History Project.

Segment Synopsis: Beiting talks about his childhood and deciding to become a priest. He explains how he ended up in Eastern Kentucky and describes some of the work he did while there. He talks about the poverty he saw in Eastern Kentucky and how that motivated him to start the Christian Appalachian Project.

Keywords: Berea (Ky.); Bible schools; Catholic churches; Catholicism; Christian Appalachian Project (CAP); Churches; Clare Boothe Luce; Culture; Eastern Kentucky; Great Depression; Helping; Houses; Needs; Newport (Ky.); Out-migration; Paintsville (Ky.); Poor; Prejudices; Religious community; Saint Clare Church; Stereotypes; Street preaching; Work

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Religion.; Bishops.; Catholics; Childhood.; Children.; Christianity.; Church.; Communities.; Families.; Kentucky.; Poverty.; Priests.; Religion; Seminarians.

Partial Transcript: By 1957, I felt I was ready to do something, compelled to do something besides think and pray and talk. And, um, I started a camp for children on Herrington Lake.

Segment Synopsis: Beiting talks about opening a camp for children in Eastern Kentucky and working to create jobs for the local families. He talks about starting a letter-writing campaign in order to raise money for his projects. He describes some of the other work they did to make money, including farming and timber production.

Keywords: "Building bridges"; Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani; Awareness; Berea (Ky.); Building churches; Catholicism; Christian Appalachian Project (CAP); Churches; Cliffview Lodge; Community outreach; Dale Anastasi; Dulcimers; Farming; Finances; Funding; Fundraising; George Purcell; Gray Hawk (Ky.); Helping; Income; Jackson County (Ky.); Job creation; Jobs; Lancaster (Ky.); Land; Letter-writing campaigns; Melvin Marks; Money; Parents; Prejudice; Religious organizations; Resources; Summer camps; Tents; Woodworking

Subjects: Agriculture; Appalachian Region--Economic conditions.; Appalachian Region--Religion; Camps.; Catholics; Children.; Crops; Families.; Fund raising.; Herrington Lake (Ky.); Nonprofit organizations.; Poverty.; Priests.; Religion; Schools.; Timber.; Woodwork.

Partial Transcript: So this was the beginning then. Uh, the cl--the Cliffview Lodge was now, uh, a part of this new organization. Uh, when we began to expand and say, "Okay we're going to get into job creation, whether it's agriculture or woodworking," I felt that we had to have a different name than Cliffview Lodge.

Segment Synopsis: Beiting describes his thought process of coming up with the name for the Christian Appalachian Project.

Keywords: Catholic organizations; Catholicism; Christian Appalachian Project (CAP); Cliffview Lodge; Denominations; Eastern Kentucky; Ecumenical; Ecumenism; Helping; Job creation; Naming; Philosophical; Prejudices; Religious; Thinking; Unity; Work

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Religion.; Christianity.; Religion

Partial Transcript: So that was the beginning of the idea. Out of the camp came the parents' involvement, the parents wanted jobs. We f--I felt that it was important to utilize the resources.

Segment Synopsis: Beiting talks about the Christmas wreath project he helped start that created jobs for people in the Appalachian Region.

Keywords: Beauty; Christmas wreaths; Employment; Finances; Funding; Income; Jobs; Managers; Opposition; Projects; Resources; Stereotypes; Work

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Economic conditions.; Job creation; Pine.; Wreaths.

Partial Transcript: By the time we got into, uh, oh, I would say '63 and '4, um, we were, you know, we were finding a real need for more space for the Christian Appalachian Project.

Segment Synopsis: Beiting talks about the Christian Appalachian Project growing and having to move the headquarters to a new area. He talks about visiting local families to figure out what they needed and developing programs based on their responses. He describes a program that trains parents of children with disabilities to properly take care of their children, still in operation at the time of this interview.

Keywords: "School on wheels"; Children with disabilities; Christian Appalachian Project (CAP); Community outreach; Eastern Kentucky; Education; Elderly people; Growth; Headquarters; Helping; Home visiting; Home visits; Houses; Housing; Lancaster (Ky.); Land; Needs; Older people; Parents; People with disabilities; Permanent volunteers; Poor; Programs; Projects; Response to poverty; Rummage stores; Summer camps; Used clothing; Work

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Economic conditions.; Camps.; Children.; Communities.; Community development.; Community-based social services.; Day care centers.; Volunteers.

Partial Transcript: The years demanded--every year demanded more money and, uh, the, the change that we made in our process of getting, uh, money, uh, we didn't change the, the approach in the sense of using the mails but we used a very different approach from about 1968 and '9 on.

Segment Synopsis: Beiting talks about hiring somebody to help with fundraising for the Christian Appalachian Project and describes the process of mailing out more letters to receive funding from the public. He talks about how the project has grown over the years and describes some of the programs they have developed in recent years.

Keywords: Budgets; Catholic people; Changes; Charity; Christian Appalachian Project (CAP); Donations; Donors; Eastern Kentucky; Facilities; Finances; Financing; Funding; Fundraising; Grant programs; Grants; Grayson Meijer; Growth; Headquarters; Houses; Income; Lancaster (Ky.); Letter-writing campaigns; Materials; Money; Non-Catholics; Operation Sharing; Organizations; Permanent volunteers; Poverty; Printing; Programs; Resources; Self-sufficient; Supplies; Warehouses; West Virginia

Subjects: Appalachian Region.; Charities.; Community development; Employees.; Finance.; Fund raising.; Schools.; Teachers.; Volunteers

Partial Transcript: Well, can you tell me something about how this has been for you personally as you've seen this organization grow beyond sort of I, I would guess even maybe your, your original dreams for it.

Segment Synopsis: Beiting talks about his decision to step down from his position as president of the Christian Appalachian Project and creating a board of directors to run the organization. He talks about his faith and how that impacts his view of his work.

Keywords: Adaptability; Adaptation; Board of advisors; Board of directors; Catholicism; Chairman of the board; Changes; Christian Appalachian Project (CAP); Continuation; Control; Dioceses; Eastern Kentucky; Executive directors; Father Terence Hoppenjans; Growth; Michael McLaughlin; Mike McLaughlin; Mission work; Needs; Organization presidents; Organizations; Parish work; Praise; Programs; Recognition; Retirement

Subjects: Bishops.; Children.; Christianity.; Leadership.; Priests.; Travel.

Partial Transcript: This makes me think of your street preaching because although CAP has been very, you know--worked really well with meeting people's material needs, it seems very unusual to me that a Catholic priest would still be devoting time to street preaching--to, to the spiritual needs.

Segment Synopsis: Beiting talks about the role of spirituality in his work and how material and spiritual needs coincide. He talks about his street preaching and his attempts to reach a wider audience. He talks about his work to end some of the prejudice in Eastern Kentucky.

Keywords: Attitudes; Churches; Denominations; Eastern Kentucky; Ecumenical; Louisa (Ky.); Material needs; Ministers; Permeating; Preachers; Proselytism; Proselytizing; Religious groups; Respect; Street preaching; Welfare; Working together

Subjects: Appalachian Region--Religion.; Appalachian Region--Social conditions.; Chapels; Christianity.; Faith.; Prayer.; Preaching.; Prejudices.; Spirituality.

Partial Transcript: Well, did you feel that--I, I sense that you feel very strongly about the division in the Body of Christ. That the various denominations, that's not a good thing.

Segment Synopsis: Beiting discusses his opinions about the divisions within Christianity and how he thinks the different denominations can come together.

Keywords: Body of Christ; Branches of Christianity; Catholicism; Denominations; Divisions; Ecumenical; Ecumenism; Re-unification; Unity

Subjects: Christian sects.; Christianity.; Prejudices.; Religion.