Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2 — The Southern Cross, April 23, 1987
Archbishop Struggled In Telling Of AIDS Death
BY JERRY FILTEAU
WASHINGTON (NC) - For Archbishop
James A. Hickey of Washington, dealing
with the death of one of his priests by AIDS
involved a delicate struggle between
privacy and confidentiality on the one
hand and what he considered the “curative
value of truth" on the other.
In an interview in his office on Holy
Thursday, just a week after Father
Michael Peterson died of AIDS. Arch
bishop Hickey said he would never have
said a word about the cause of death
without Father Peterson's prior agree
ment. Trust and confidentiality with his
priests is “at the core of who I am as a
bishop,” he said.
While he was convinced that it would be
better for Father Peterson to acknowledge
to others that he had AIDS, Archbishop
Hickey said he could only “recommend''
that course to the dying priest, and not
“push” such a decision on him.
Father Peterson, 44, was a psychiatrist
before he became a priest of the
Washington Archdiocese in 1978. Almost
immediately after ordination he founded
St. Luke’s Institute in Suitland. Md.. one of
the most successful institutions in the
country in treating priests and Religious
who suffer from alcohol or drug dependen
cy or psychiatric problems. His effec
tiveness in that field made him nationally
known to bishops, priests and Religious.
A month before Father Peterson died, he
and Archbishop Hickey wrote confidential
ly to priests of the Washington Arch
diocese and to bishops and religious super
iors across the country, informing them
that the priest was dying of acquired im
mune deficiency syndrome.
When Father Peterson died. Archbishop
Hickey, acting on an agreement reached
before his death, acknowledged the cause
of death in response to inquiries from
reporters.
The archbishop himself did not know
Father Peterson had AIDS until Feb. 27,
but from that date on he visited the dying
priest almost daily in the hospital, and he
was chief celebrant at his funeral Mass in
St. Matthew's Cathedral.
“One thing this taught me is the human
dimensions of this disease," Archbishop
Hickey said in the interview. “I saw this at
the Gift of Peace House (an AIDS hospice
the archbishop founded in Washington,
staffed by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of
Charity) in the first patients there, and
when I visited the patients at Christmas
and said Mass for them.
“But obviously I’m not as close to them
as I was to Michael. And to see him — to
see him going down, down, and to see the
physical ravages — it really was quite a
preparation for Holy Week. It really talks
about the Cross and — you know, it really
makes our faith more operative. I mean,
the Cross brings redemption, the Cross
brings hope, the Cross brings resurrection.
“It all sounds like a homily, but ... we
gain a deeper, deeper insight into suffer
ing.
“I think, too, it challenges us to respect
both the human dignity to which we reach
out in AIDS sufferers and also our great
Christian belief that in treating that per
son, that sick, dying person, we treat the
Lord Jesus.
“That’s the whole theology, if you will, of
our church.... It shows our faith in action. I
think it also helps us to appreciate more
the redemptive value of suffering and ...
for that reason helps us to understand bet
ter the saving, healing mission of the
church.”
Archbishop Hickey spoke of a theology
behind Father Peterson’s decision to share
the truth of his disease with his fellow
priests as well.
“I think that (sharing) is a good model”
for other priests who may have AIDS, he
said. “Our whole theology of the
priesthood says that the presbyterate (the
body of priests) of the diocese has a unique
bonding of fraternal charity and concern
for one another.
“And I think it's important to share not
only the good news, but the sorrowful and
the difficult, because your friends are a lot
more help when things are going wrong
than when they’re going right.
“I must say, I was so proud of my
priests,” Archbishop Hickey added with
an emotion-filled voice. “There was no
slip-up at all. I think it’s a demonstration
of the bonding (among priests).... The ccn-
BY LIZ SCHEVTCHUK
WASHINGTON (NC) - A federal judge,
ruling on a government program aimed at
preventing teen-age pregnancies, said
April 15 that funding church agencies
under the program is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Charles R. Richey
ruled that the provision of the Adolescent
Family Life Act allowing religious groups
to get money for pregnancy prevention ef
forts violated the First Amendment’s man
date of separation of church and state.
Richey’s ruling was promptly criticized
by Mark E. Chopko. general counsel for
the U.S. Catholic Conference, who said the
program did not violate the Constitution.
Richey issued an injunction preventing
religious organizations from receiving
funds but left open the question of whether
the entire law, passed by Congress in 1981,
should be thrown out.
Obituaries
* Mark Anthony Guzzo - Macon -
April 4.
* Dennis J. Collins - Augusta - April
9.
* Margarita H. Dooley - Savannah -
April 17.
* Neger Young - Savannah - April
18.
* John L. Nugent - Savannah - April
19.
ORATORICAL WINNER —
Stephanie Canon (left) Girls win
ner of the city-wide contest spon
sored by the Optimist Clubs of
Savannah. Stephanie is a Seventh
Grader at Sacred Heart Inter-
parocial School. Jermal Patter
son (right) from Sacred Heart
was an earlier contest winner.
fidentiality that he asked for was
respected right to the end."
Archbishop Hickey said he encouraged
Father Peterson to break the barrier of
silence, but ultimately he left the decision
completely up to the dying priest.
“Indeed,” he said, “had he enjoined me
to respect that privacy, I would have had
to observe it, I would have felt bound by it.
I was scrupulous about that.... I did not
want to push my recommendation on a dy
ing man.
“We went back and forth (on whether
anything should be said or how) a number
of times, and I said, ‘Michael, this plan of
The law “seemed to offer a choice — a
choice that Congress was entitled to
make.” Chopko said April 16. “What I’m
disappointed with is it appears we (church
groups) will be excluded just because
we're religious. I don’t think that's what
the Constitution requires."
Often dubbed the “chastity law,” the
program authorized by the legislation pro
vides grants for projects that encourage
“self-discipline and other prudent
choices” to the problems of adolescent
sexual activity and pregnancy.
The program specifically denies funds
for “abortions or abortion counseling or
referral” and calls for support for efforts
by “religious and charitable organiza
tions” and other private sector entities.
The law was attacked in a 1983 lawsuit
against the government by a coalition of
citizens, by the American Jewish Con
gress, and by three United Methodist
clergy.
The lawsuit said grants in the program
included $75,000 to Catholic Charities of the
Diocese of Arlington. Va., for a sex educa
tion program in Catholic schools and
parishes; $446,806 to St. Margaret's
Hospital, Dorchester. Mass., for a pro
gram of parochial school sex education;
and $177,437 to the Mormon Church’s
Brigham Young University for running
sex education classes in public schools.
The judge ruled that although the provi
sion of the law at issue “has a valid secular
purpose, it is unconstitutional on its face
because it has the primary effect of ad
vancing religion and fosters an excessive
entanglement between government and
religion."
“Because these religious organizations
ORATORICAL WINNER —
Luke Urbine, Seventh Grader at
Nativity of Our Lord School (left),
was Boys winner of the city-wide
oratorical contest sponsored by
the Savannah Optimist Clubs.
Shelly Carroll (right) from
Nativity was an earlier contest
winner.
action has to be yours. You have to see
that.’ And so, I think it would have been
lacking respect for his person to have
pushed him. I pointed out to him that in my
opinion this was the way to go (informing
his fellow priests confidentially while he
was living, and agreeing that no effort to
cover up the cause of death should be
made after he died), but I said, ‘Michael,
we’ll go along with whatever you decide.’”
In 20 years as a bishop. Archbishop
Hickey said he has had numerous con
fidences from priests, but he could not
recall any other case in which he had
reason to ask the priest to make a personal
matter public.
use federal funds to educate or counsel on
matters inseparable from religious
dogma, the constitutional implications of
the grants are clear and clearly
troubling,” the judge wrote. “The in
escapable conclusion is that federal funds
have been used by pervasively sectarian
institutions to teach matters inherently
tied to religion.”
Citing examples involving Catholic and
Lutheran agencies, he noted that at the
Dorchester hospital a counselor was told to
follow the “Ethical and Religious Direc
tives of Catholic Facilities.”
In another example he said that in the
Archdiocese of Washington employees of
St. Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home
“may not counsel or refer patients for
abortions, nor do they encourage any
method of birth control not permitted by
Catholic doctrine.”
Opponents of the law contended that
besides allowing government to fund
religious organizations, it also
discriminated against some religions
because church agencies holding “conflic
ting religious doctrines are, in effect, dis
qualified from receiving funds under the
act."
Necrology
* Reverend Charles W. Vogel, April
26, 1935.
* Reverend Monsignor James J.
Grady, April 26, 1955.
ORATORICAL SECOND AND
THIRD — Shari Roberts and
Michael Hennessy, Eighth
Graders at Savannah’s Most
Blessed Sacrament School placed
second and third respectively in
the Savannah Optimist Clubs’
Oratorical Contest.
Pregnancy Prevention Funds “Unconstitutional"