Newspaper Page Text
Miracles At 80 Butler St.
BY KAEDY KIELY
Arnica was bom at Grady Hospital
19 months ago. She weighed two
pounds, five ounces at birth and, as a
result of her prematurity, she had
severe lung problems. Arnica has
another problem too -- an infection
called septic hip which required a
special brace to be made for her.
Arnica is just one of many
hundreds of premature babies who
have struggled for life in the High
Risk Nursery of Atlanta’s Grady
Hospital. The nursery is a temporary
home for these babies, especially
designed to tackle the complications
which accompany prematurity.
A visitor to the nursery walks into
a world of incubators and monitors
(which display brightly colored,
hand-made name tags and infant
toys) and unbelievably tiny human
beings, attached to these machines,
whose difficulties range from
bleeding in the brain, to heart and
lung damage.
“You have to remember that this
is just a tiny baby we’re talking
about,” explains Donna Carson,
social worker for the nursery, as she
tells Arnica’s story. “Arnica had to sit
awkwardly in this brace (which
resembled a little chair on a slope)
for quite some time.” Trying to
combat the hip problem was
somewhat easier than overcoming
Arnica’s breathing problems. Cysts
had formed within her tiny lungs and
one lung was almost totally
non-functional, requiring the infant
to be supplied with oxygen. “The
baby’s problems were so extensive
that she literally ‘died’ several
times,” remembers Donna. “We were
all ready to give up on Arnica, but
she’s a real fighter.”
Because of the severity of Arnica’s
problems, she was home with her
family only a total of one month out
of the next eleven. But now, after
nine months at home, her lungs are
finally healing. Arnica’s mom played
a key role in her daughter’s recovery.
“The mother never gave up,” recalls
Donna. “She was there every single
day - she was not going to let this
baby die. This mother’s attachment
kept her baby alive.”
Not all premature babies recover
from their difficulties as Arnica has.
An average of five premature babies
die in the High Risk Nursery at
Grady per month. But Donna is
quick to point out that “the smaller
the baby, the better the chance it has
to survive here at Grady than
anywhere else in this area.”
Donna Carson’s job as social
worker in the nursery varies from
day to day. She learns what sort of
admissions have come in overnight
and speaks with parents on a daily
basis about the condition of their
child. “We deal more with the
parents,” the pretty, young, master’s
graduate from University of Georgia
explains. “We have to be especially
attuned to them and their needs.
They need lots of encouragement,
particularly when their baby is dying
- it’s extremely important for us to
humanize that aspect of their trial.”
Donna’s job also involves sitting in >
on sessions with the child’s family w
and the medical staff. She says that, *
sometimes, “the medical staff
doesn’t have the time or the skills to
explain a baby’s difficulties
adequately to the parents. Some
(Continued on page 3)
DONNA CARSON holds little three-month-old
Demarquis, who weighed one pound, three
ounces at birth. Demarquis is a favorite in the
nursery because he is one of only two babies to
have survived at such a low birth weight.
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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 19 No. 16
Thursday, April 16,1981
$8.00 per year
THE JOY OF THE RESURRECTION is
renewed this Easter Sunday, as Christians
throughout the world gather to celebrate the
Lord’s victory over death. Priests and parishioners
from Corpus Christi Church in Stone Mountain,
SUMMER CAMP PROGRAM
along with many other north Georgians, will take
the long walk up the state’s most famous hill to
share an ecumenical sunrise service, held annually
atop the mountain.
Before The Doors
Msgr. Cassidy Awarded
“Lumen Christi
BY GRETCHEN KEISER
To the children she’s helping to
serve, June must still seem a long,
long time away.
But to Sister Margaret McAnoy,
who is coordinating the
Archdiocese’s summer day camp
program, the eight weeks between
now and then are short compared to
the work to be done.
In her second-floor office at the
Catholic Center on West Peachtree
Street, a stack of volunteer forms is
piled on a chair. The forms, which
will be placed in all churches in the
Archdiocese after Easter, will be used
to coordinate those donating time
and talent to the day camps, with the
three sites where the program will be
offered: Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Paul
of the Cross and St. Anthony’s.
Her phone has started to ring on a
regular basis, as the first calls come in
from those looking for a way to help
or asking for more information about
the program. In between, Sister
Margaret, who has taught and served
as a school principal in the
Archdiocese since 1969, leafs
through a catalogue showing
brightly-colored crafts for children,
looking for ideas and an address to
ask the manufacturer, “What can you
give us for free?”
HELP WANTED - Sister
Margaret McAnoy, coordinator
of the Archdiocese’s summer
day camp program, has an open
door for volunteers who want
to help some of Atlanta’s
children this June.
Open. . .
The first volunteers have been as
different as their talents: a woman
who has offered to help out in the
office with clerical and secretarial
work, a hefty St. Pius student with a
black belt in karate who’s offered to
teach kids self-defense, a tennis
teacher who wants to help the
program and a group of Dunwoody
women offering housing to sisters
who are coming from out of town to
work for the program.
The response has been very
encouraging to Sister Margaret, who
is working full-time coordinating the
summer program. “I’m really excited
about people wanting to do
something,” she said. “It just goes to
show you that if you put the need
before people, they’ll respond.”
A collection taken up in the
parishes on Palm Sunday will provide
the basic funds for the program, but
the heart will be volunteers and
donated supplies. To accommodate
the schedules of volunteers, they are
being asked to think about giving
two weeks of time during the
summer to the program, but the
guidelines are flexible. There will also
be some working full-time at each of
(Continued on page 6)
BY MSGR. NOEL C. BURTENSHAW
Georgia mission priest, Monsignor
Joseph G. Cassidy, has been named
the 1981 recipient of the Lumen
Christi Award by the Catholic
Extension Society. The annual
award, initiated by the Society four
years ago, is given to an “Exemplary
Home Missioner” recommended for
the prize by the Bishop of a Diocese.
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan
presented the name of Atlanta’s
oldest priest, Monsignor Cassidy.
The award carries with it a prize of
$25,000 given to the Diocese of the
recipient for the purpose of Religious
Education.
Speaking in Chicago, Father
Edward J. Slattery, president of the
Extension Society, said, “Four years
ago we decided to seek out those
hidden heroes of home mission work
and light up their deeds for our
people. We called the prize Lumen
Christi - Light of Christ - in their
honor. The Gospel says, ‘Let your
light shine before men.’ These heroes
have and surely Monsignor Cassidy is
one of them.”
Who can disagree?
On hearing of the award,
Monsignor Cassidy, who resides in
Dalton, said, “I think it’s unusual
that they would think of me. But I’m
glad to accept it for the Archdiocese.
The prize of $25,000 will be most
useful for the work of Religious
Education, so on the whole it’s
pretty wonderful.”
The 83-year-old priest can truly be
called a Georgia Mission Priest. For
the past 58 years he has served
communities in every area of the
state. When Monsignor Cassidy came
to Georgia in 1923, it was one
Diocese and his career began in the
ABORTION BILL
WASHINGTON (NC) - Congress
clearly does not have the
constitutional authority to pass the
proposed “human life statute”
defining personhood as beginning at
conception, according to the U.S.
bishops’ chief legal counsel.
In a memorandum commenting on
the legal questions surrounding the
proposed statute, Wilfred R. Caron,
general counsel for the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops and
U.S. Catholic Conference, said that
while the effort may be laudable, the
bill has several deficiencies and likely
would not survive a court test.
The statute, introduced by Sen.
Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and Reps.
Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and Romano L.
Mazzoli (D-Ky.), would declare that
for purposes of the 14th Amendment
mother city of Savannah.
“The whole state had only 22
priests,” said Monsignor, “and not
too many Catholics either. We were
all on the missions in those days.”
And that’s how he wanted it.
Ordained a priest in St. Joseph’s
Seminary in New York, the young
Joe Cassidy at first wanted to go to
the Far East with Maryknoll, but a
Father Tim Foley, in New York on a
visit from the deep South, persuaded
him to turn his eyes to the needs of
the home missions - the vast
no-priest land of the South. So he
came to Georgia.
“I never regretted the decision,”
said Monsignor Cassidy from his
home near St. Joseph’s Church in
Dalton. “I have had wonderful years
in Georgia.”
to the Constitution human life begins
at conception.
The 14th Amendment says states
cannot deprive any “person” of life,
liberty or property without due
process of law. It also grants
Congress the right to pass legislation
enforcing the amendment’s
provisions.
Pro-life groups have been split on
the measure. While some strongly
support it, others say it would be of
little benefit and might delay efforts
to gain a full human life amendment
to the Constitution.
Caron’s memorandum, dated April
8 and made public a day later, cited
several problems with the bill,
including such questions as judicial
supremacy, due process and the
possibility that the bill could be
” Prize
He certainly burned an
adventurous trail. After serving in
parishes in Savannah, Atlanta, Rome
and then back to Savannah, the then
Father Cassidy was appointed
director of the Rural Life
Apostolate. This meant grasping the
“Trailer Ministry.” It was 1936 and
this ministry was rapidly spreading in
the wilderness of the Appalachian
Mountains.
“The trailers were, in fact, parishes
on wheels,” said the Monsignor.
“The priest was driver, mechanic,
pastor, teacher and street comer
preacher. I remember my first day
with the trailer. I took it to a place
called Lakeland near Valdosta and
set it up in O’Brien’s field. Along the
side of the 26-foot mobile home we
(Continued on page 6)
Says
amended.
Proponents of the legislation base
much of their argument on the
enforcement clause of the 14th
Amendment. But Caron remarked
that past cases touching on the issue
“do not support the proposition that
Congress may overrule or alter the
Supreme Court’s interpretations of
basic constitutional concepts.”
Rather, he said, Congress’
enforcement powers merely allow it
to adopt legislation designed “to
avoid practices which infringe on
those rights” or “to achieve other
legitimate ends.”
When the Supreme Court issued its
abortion decisions in 1973, said
Caron, it rejected “as a matter of
constitutional law” all efforts to root
(Continued on page 6)
Congress Lacks Authority,
Bishops’ Attorney
Monsignor Joseph G. Cassidy