The
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 27 No. 3
Thursday, January 19, 1989
$15.00 Per Year
Parish Banners Are Carried Into Shrine Before Mass For Dr. King.
Archbishop Marino:
Dr. King Undeterred By Evil
BY RITA McINERNEY
Martin Luther King, Jr. did not permit
evil to deter him in his journey, but rather
taught the power of love, Archbishop
Eugene A. Marino, S.S. J., told an overflow
congregation at the Shrine of the Im
maculate Conception on Sunday, Jan. 15.
The afternoon liturgy at the historic
downtown church was the sixth annual
Mass in honor of the slain civil rights
leader. It was the second at which the
archbishop was the celebrant. In January,
1988, he came to celebrate the Mass as the
guest of the archdiocesan Commission for
Black Catholic Concerns. This year he
came as “a true son of the city” and the
shepherd of Catholics in Ncrth Georgia.
The stirring music for the celebration
was by the combined choir of the commis
sion’s member parishes.
Dr. King proved to blacks and whites,
■the archbishop said in his homily, that “it
is the determination to love which lifts us
above ourselves and makes us the exalted
children of God, the Rock, the Church.”
“The doctrine of original sin reminds us
that we are born into a world which often
proves a natural habitat for greed,
jealousy and destruction in all their ugly
guises,” the archbishop said.
Part of Dr. King’s greatness, he con
tinued, was that he did not permit such
evidence of evil to deter him in his journey
of hopes and dreams.
“He believed and taught the power of
love, the power which defies all evil, even
(Continued on page 11)
Koop Says Data Unclear
On Post-Abortion Trauma
BY JULIE ASHER
WASHINGTON (NC) - U.S. Surgeon
General C. Everett Koop said Jan. 9 he
would not issue a long-awaited study on
mental and physical health effects of abor
tion on women because the evidence on
any such effects was inconclusive.
In a four-page letter to President
s Reagan released by the White House, Koop
q said that despite “diligent review on the .
m part of many in the Public Health Service
z and the private sector the scientific studies
” do not provide conclusive data about the
health effects of abortion on women.”
Koop, who is an opponent of abortion,
also said more research would be needed
to develop any further conclusions on the
impact of abortion.
Reagan ordered Koop in July 1987 to
prepare a comprehensive medical report
on abortion’s effects on women.
Koop in his letter to Reagan noted that in
a year of gathering information he talked
with 27 scientific, medical, psychological
and public health experts who had varied
opinions on abortion.
He also said that the abortion issue was
“so emotionally charged that it is possible
that many who might read this letter
would not understand it because I have not
arrived at conclusions they can accept.”
But he said the available evidence “can
not support either the preconceived beliefs
of those pro-life or pro-choice.”
Koop, whose term will expire in
November, has come under attack from
pro-life supporters who said he has drop
ped his longstanding repudiation of abor
tion. He has supported the use of condoms
to fight AIDS and also suggested that a
pregnant woman suffering from AIDS be
told abortion would be an option.
In a March 1987 interview with NC News
he reaffirmed his strong opposition to
abortion, but he added that he was surgeon
general for all Americans, whatever their
ideology or religious and moral beliefs.
In reaction Jan. 10 to Koop’s decision on
the report, Nellie J. Gray, president of the
annual March for Life, which marks the
1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing
abortion, said the surgeon general had
“totally lost touch with women who have
been exploited by abortion.”
“I don’t know why he wasn’t able to find
the truly anguished souls we hear from,”
(Continued on page 6)
Jan. 22 To Be Day
Of Prayer For Nation
WASHINGTON (NC) - Archbishop
John L. May of St. Louis, president of
the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops, has backed George Bush’s re
quest that Jan. 22 be observed as a Na
tional Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving.
“It is a good thing for a country when
its leaders acknowledge and express
their absolute dependence on God,”
said the NCCB leader, in a Jan. 13 state
ment.
He noted that Bush “requested the
cooperation of the churches of this
country in making the first Sunday of
his presidency a National Day of
Prayer.”
After being inaugurated Jan. 20, Bush
was scheduled to attend a Jan. 22
prayer service in Washington at the
Episcopal Church’s National Cathedral
“to participate in an ecumenical prayer
service thanking God for his blessings
on our country and imploring his
wisdom and guidance,” Archbishop
May pointed out.
Cardinal James A. Hickey of
Washington was slated to deliver one of
the biblical readings at the ecumenical
prayer service.
Bush also was invited to attend a
Mass — the official Catholic com
memoration of the inauguration — the
evening of Jan. 21 at the National
Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in
Washington. The Mass, with Cardinal
Hickey as celebrant and homilist, was
intended to invoke God’s blessings on
the nation and its newly elected govern
ment. Members of the Bush Cabinet,
Congress and the judiciary also were
invited to attend.
“A new president faces many
challenges and also deserves the sup
port of his fellow citizens, not least in
their fervent prayers that he be in
spired always to act justly and wisely
and truly in the spirit of
righteousness,” Archbishop May said
in his statement.
In supporting Bush’s request “that all
of us strive to make the Sunday follow
ing the inauguration a day of prayer for
this country,” he said that “I am confi
dent Catholic parishes throughout the
land will enthusiastically participate in
this endeavor.”
