Newspaper Page Text
The
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 23. No. 39
Thursday, November 7, 1985
$12.00 Per Year
A Gift From God
Family's Faith Triumphs
Over Medical Prognosis
BY GRETCHEN REISER
In the middle of the kitchen table at the Slagles’ home in
Griffin sits a baby carrier. Jonathan, the newborn in fuzzy
yellow baby pajamas, rests quietly, a sweet smile on his
face as he sleeps.
Two of his 10 brothers and sisters are coloring in the next
room, while the older ones are at school. A hallway near the
kitchen is filled with pegs for coats and hats, umbrellas,
sweaters and parkas, and the sizes and shapes and colors of
all the children's clothes fill an entire wall. Snapshots of the
family dot a corkboard bulletin board near the refrigerator
and Laurie Slagle, mother of the family, has a pot of
homemade soup on the stove in the rambling old farmhouse
which has been rearranged, added to and expanded as the
Slagle family grew.
Tom Slagle, her husband, sits at the wooden kitchen
table, taking a midday break from his hectic work at his
own business, a combination “heating, air conditioning,
plumbing and electric” firm which serves the rural homes
and farms nearby.
A new baby for the Slagles would normally be good news
that would reach their immediate circle of family and
friends. But in the case of Jonathan, his birth, which is be
ing called a miracle, is likely to provoke much more atten
tion.
“It’s strange that my wife and-I, who always fought abor
tion, were the ones that had to be put to the test,” said Tom
Slagle, as he reflected upon the extraordinary events that
had enveloped his family in the last year. Of all the books in
the Bible, “Job’s been a big help to me,” he said.
Aside from the attention their big family draws, the
Slagles normally shun the limelight, even turning down re
quests in the past from newspapers to do stories on how a
family of 10 manages these days, said Tom, who is a perma
nent deacon in the Catholic Church.
But in March 1985 Tom and Laurie found themselves in
the midst of a time they call being “in the fire.” During the
course of routine visits to her doctor for her eleventh
pregnancy, Laurie, who is
37, was told that she might
have breast cancer and
was advised to see a
surgeon. She had just lost
her father in January to
lung cancer and had other
family members afflicted
with cancer. Abruptly
shaken from the normal
course of a pregnancy, the
Slagles found themselves
at Emory University
Hospital in Atlanta where
Laurie was scheduled to
undergo a mastectomy, or
removal of a breast. But
even that grim prognosis
worsened.
After performing a biop
sy op Laurie, the doctor
emerged from the ope
rating room, Tom Slagle
said, and told him, “We
can’t do anything. Your
wife is going to die.”
The biopsy had revealed that Mrs. Slagle had an in
operable form of cancer, the Slagles said, which would only
worsen with surgery. The couple was told that she would
live perhaps a year or two. Rather than surgery, a treat
ment of radiation and chemotherapy was recommended,
but the doctors were not encouraging that it would succeed,
the Slagles said. The particular cancer, called ductal
adenocarcinoma, “is not that rare, but in a pregnant
woman, it’s very rare,” Tom Slagle recalled. In addition,
doctors said that in pregnant women, “it’s aggressive,” or
particularly fast-moving, Laurie Slagle added.
At that time, the Slagles learned that abortion was
GIFT FROM GOD — Tom and
Laurie Slagle of Griffin cradle
their newborn son, Jonathan,
whose life they shielded with their
faith despite grim medical
prognosis.
recommended for pregnant women with this type of cancer.
Several different doctors involved in Mrs. Slagle’s treat
ment asked the couple whether they would have an abor
tion, Tom Slagle said. “The radiologist just assumed we
were” going to have one, he recalled. Later it was brought
up again. “We said no,” Tom Slagle said, and went to the
chemotherapist and “said no again.”
Mrs. Slagle was already undergoing radiation treatment,
but had not yet begun chemotherapy, according to the cou
ple. When they arrived at the hospital for the first
chemotherapy treatment, they were instead brought to an
(Continued on Page 6)
Shelter Ministry
John Bray’s Place To "Do Some Good"
BY RITA McINERNEY
John Bray is attuned to the outdoors. He loves the
air, the woods, the horse trails near the comfortable
home he built among the tall hardwood trees. He
would like, he admits, to light the fire in the big
stone fireplace in his living room, take the telephone
off the hook and enjoy the peace of home for a few
days.
But this season, with the cold nights coming on,
he’s back at his special ministry to the street people
at Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Atlan
ta and at the shelter in Jonesboro. Instead of the
piney air that refreshes him, he’ll be at the night
shelters where anger and despair are nightly guests
and the air is fetid with the sour stench from the
breaths and bodies of defeated and sick men and
women.
John Bray’s connection with the people adrift
through misfortune or folly began six years ago
with a call from Betti Knott, volunteer coordinator
for the Central Presbyterian shelter. She told him
she needed someone to stay overnight. Could he
volunteer?
“I went down. I don’t know why — just because a
friend of mine had given her my name. I got down
there and met some folks and realized I could do
some good.”
That was before the shelter had cots for its over
night guests. They would come in wearing their
newspaper and cardboard-lined rags and flop down
in any corner or space they could find. It was, John
Bray recalled, “a stinking, smelly, dirty, loud,
nervewracking crowd. But I felt like I needed to be
there.”
Gradually, that first year, “it clicked that I could
do something. I was gullible. I listened to their hard
ship stories.” He befriended some of the men, tried
(Continued on Page 8)
Archbishop Lefebvre
Fears Synod Will Back
Vatican II Changes
BY JOHN THAVIS
ROME (NC) — Dissident French Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre has predicted that the Nov. 24-Dec. 8 extraor
dinary Synod of Bishops will take the church a step closer to
“self-destruction” by uncritically ratifying changes made
by the Second Vatican Council.
Archbishop Lefebvre also said he might decide to ordain
bishops, an act which would cause a schism in the church.
“If it is shown that in Rome there is a schism with the
tradition and the church of old, I may decide to take this
serious step. But if Rome returns to the doctrine of old,
there will be no reason to do so,” he said.
The archbishop made his comments in an interview Nov.
1 with the Italian news agency ANSA in which he also said
that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican Con
gregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has a more negative
view of the post-conciliar church than he does.
The goal of the synod is “to exclude all judgment or
criticism of the council,” the 79-year-old archbishop said.
He said the two-week event would be a debate “among
liberals only” because no true conservatives were left in
the church.
(Continued on Page 13)