Joseph Aloysius Durick was a U.S. Roman Catholic bishop and civil rights advocate. He publicly opposed the Vietnam War and the death penalty, which led to criticism from conservative circles. Durick also directed efforts at ecumenical cooperation with Tennessee state's Protestant and Jewish communities, as well as introducing Project Equality. He had the image of an amiable country vicar, so much so that the newspapers called him "the happy priest."
Early life
Born in Dayton, Tennessee, he was the seventh of twelve children. He grew up in Bessemer, Alabama, during the height of anti-Catholic violence in that state.
Ordained on March 23, 1940, Durick became the assistant director of Catholicmissions in North Alabama; by 1943 he was the director. On December 30, 1954, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Mobile-Birmingham, Alabama, and titular bishop of Cerbali. His Episcopal Motto was "The love of Christ impels us". April 12, 1963 Durick signed his name alongside seven other religious leaders on the open public letter urging African-Americans to withdraw their support of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to which Dr. King responded in his famous "A Letter from Birmingham Jail." At age 40 he was one of the youngest bishops in the U.S. On December 11, 1963, he was promoted to coadjutor bishop of Nashville, Tennessee by Pope Paul VI with right of succession to Bishop William Lawrence Adrian. Durick was inspired to lead the Catholic Church in Tennessee into a new era by the reforms initiated by Pope John XXIII in the Second Vatican Council. To help present his reforms, Durick consulted with Catholic laymen, as well as a number of journalists including John Popham, John Seigenthaler, Joe Sweat, and Father Owen Campion. Originally a conformist cleric, Durick and seven other colleagues wrote the letter "A Call For Unity", calling on Martin Luther King, Jr. and "outsiders" during the Birmingham protests of 1963 to stop and let the courts work toward integration. King responded with his Letter from Birmingham Jail, voicing disappointment in the white clergy, who should be "among our strongest allies". This, and the message he got from Vatican II, led Durick to become a strong voice for civil rights in the segregated South, for which he was called a heretic and a communist by his tradition-bound congregation. In 1968–69 especially, he faced serious opposition in the form of boycotts of his public appearances. He succeeded as bishop of Nashville on September 10, 1969, and resigned April 2, 1975, devoting himself fully to prison ministry. After six years of ministering to prisoners in various locations he was forced to semi-retire due to a severe heart problem and had to go through surgery.
