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sammmm I t PAGE 6 — The Georgia Bulletin, January 19,1989 First Kickoff Dinner Held For Archbishop's Appeal he said, is about unity in faith. Catholics cannot look for others to do the work of the church since they are the church and it is their responsibility. Tine Liegerot spoke of the Christian use of resources. Whether an individual has few or many, it is how they use their resources that determines the value of their discipleship. If God is not at the center of an individual’s stewardship, she added, the choices are not good ones. The name of the annual archdiocesan fund drive was changed this year from Charities Drive to the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal to reflect the broad range of programs and services of the church’s ministry in north Georgia. Theme of this year’s appeal is “Feed My Lambs,” the episcopal motto of Archbishop Marino. The kickoff dinners are held for pastors and volunteers who will be leading the parish campaigns. The second regional kickoff dinner for northwest metro and rural deaneries will be held Friday, Jan. 20 at St. Ann’s Church in Marietta. The final dinner will take place at St. Philip Benizi in Jonesboro on Jan. 27 for the south metro and rural deaneries. The dinners start at 7 p.m. Allocations to be made from proceeds of the appeal in clude: SOCIAL SERVICES $283,000 — rural ministry, services to the elderly, refugees, Hispanics, crisis pregnancy and adoption; and emergency assistance program. EDUCATION $518,000 — services to students in parochial elementary schools and the archdiocesan high school; religious education programs in the parishes, and services to Catholic students in six colleges and universities. SEMINARY PROGRAM $102,000 — supports seminarians in the U.S. and Ireland who will serve the archdiocese after ordination. ARCHDIOCESAN GROWTH $150,000 — for subsidizing construction or property loans to parishes and for the pur chase of future church sites. PARISH SUPPORT $97,000 — assists priests and religious in their ministry to needy urban and rural areas of the archdiocese. Abortion (Continued from page 1) she said in a telephone interview. She also criticized a report released the day before Koop’s letter to Reagan that said few women who have abortions suffer any significant physical or emotional distress as a result of the procedure. The report, by Brenda Major, an associate pro fessor of psychology at the State Universi ty of New York at Buffalo, was one of the studies presented to Koop. Ms. Major said she interviewed 600 women — most in their early 20s — before and after they underwent abortions and found that 85 percent lacked depressive symptoms. She reported most said they had a feeling of relief. Linda Mullin, a spokeswoman for American Victims of Abortion of Northern California, said in a statement that Koop relied on research that was flawed because it studied women who had had re cent abortions when, she said, post abortion syndrome is “usually a delayed reaction occurring several years after the event.” Vincentian Father John W. Gouldrick, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ pro life office, said he was “unable to com ment on Dr. Koop’s report because he has not issued it.” The priest said that both women and men “scarred by consenting to abortion” have approached the Catholic Church for reconciliation, and that the “church responds generously to these people because its mission is to mediate Christ’s forgiveness and healing presence.” He noted that many dioceses offer post abortion counseling programs. Koop Jan. 12 criticized the White House for releasing his four-page letter to the press when, he said, Reagan administra tion officials “assured me that the letter would be closely held.” His new remarks came in a letter he wrote to the 27 experts he said he consulted during a year of gathering information on abortion’s effects. He told them he had in formed the president “why such a report was not possible.” Administration lawyers had denied Koop permission to release the four-page letter to anyone other than the president. ‘ ‘The domestic policy people in the White House said after delivery of the letter that I would be hearing from the president,” Koop said, but White House officials made it available to several news organizations. After the Koop letter was made public, a Springfield, Ill. researcher who wrote a book about women who said they were harmed and victimized by abortion said he has developed a scientific method that could answer the U.S. surgeon general’s recent suggestion. Researcher David Reardon made the 5 remarks in an interview with the Catholic w Times, newspaper for the Diocese of § Springfield. g Koop said available evidence “cannot ^ support either the preconceived beliefs of g those pro-life or pro-choice” and that more research would be needed to develop any further conclusions. Reardon, director of the Elliott Institute for Social Sciences Research and author of “Aborted Women: Silent No More,” published last February by Loyola Univer sity Press, said he was ready to undertake a study of a random sample of 10,000 women. He said he hoped to receive additional funding through private foundations to boost the sample to 100,000 women. “We need a study of a large random sample over a long period of time, perhaps up to 10 years after women have abortions,” Reardon said. “Much of the research until now has dealt with women only in the first six months after their abortions.” Koop in his letter to Reagan said much of the methodology was flawed in existing studies that report on psychological aspects of abortion. He also said that a major problem in studies has been “denial,” creating a discrepancy between the number of abor tions on record and the number of women in surveys who admit to having had an abortion. MESSAGE — Archbishop Marino addresses I a itors and volunteers at the first kickoff din- LEADER — Co-chair Tine Liegerot makes ’ter held at St. Lawrence in Lawrenceville. her presentation for the archdiocesan appeal. TOCCOA GROUP — Father William E. Calhoun, pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Toccoa, is shown at left with several people from the parish in Stephens County: Jo Ann Showalter, Irene Grady, Marion Rice, Charles and Karen Poole during the kickoff dinner. Reardon said his research indicates serious problems for women do not often begin for one to five years after an abor tion. He claimed it may take as long as 10 years for women to actually cope with these problems. For his book, Reardon said, he spent five years researching the problems of 252 women affiliated with a pro-life group call ed Women Exploited by Abortion, or WEBA. He said many of them who had abortions either had a high degree of ambivalence about it or about keeping the baby, or they were pressured by a boyfriend, doctor or family member to have the abortion. “This places the women in a high-risk category for having problems later on,” Reardon said. “There is absolutely con clusive evidence that abortion hurts some women. The question is, how many women, and research is needed for con clusive evidence.” He said most available evidence shows at least 20 percent and as many as 70 to 80 percent of women who have abortions suf fer aftereffects. Reardon said he has identified about 100 negative psychological symptoms and self-destructive behaviors, including guilt, loneliness, alcoholism and drug abuse, sexual dysfunction and suicidal tenden cies. Reardon admitted that his study of 252 WEBA women, documented in his book, was not sufficient for drawing conclusions about the general population, but claimed it was one of the first to focus on the long term impact of abortions on women. The women in his survey had had their abor tions on the average of 10 years earlier. Reardon said he hoped Koop would take the lead in demanding that additional, long-term research begin immediately. speaker. He told the 125 people present of the continuing in crease of population in the archdiocese and urged parishes to go beyond the goals for the appeal. The archdiocese is one community, he emphasized, and the needs are con stantly expanding. One area he expressed a special interest in is that of helping undocumented persons. Preceding the archbishop’s talk, the co-chairs of the ap peal, Denny and Tine Liegerot, of Our Lady of the Assump tion parish, spoke briefly. Denny Liegerot underscored the diversity in the archdiocese, with so many people coming from other locations and varied backgrounds. The appeal, The first of three regional kickoff dinners to launch the 1989 Archbishop’s Annual Appeal was held Jan. 13 at St. Lawrence Church in Lawrenceville for northeast metro and rural deaneries. Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, S.S.J., was principal
