Sen. Robert F. Kennedy has joined the immortals of the nation and his death caused grief, disquieted, uneasiness, unhappiness and dissatisfaction, Father John McDonough said at an ecumenical memorial service Sunday at Sacred Heart Church.

Father McDonough, pastor of Holy Spirit, said grief over the Senator’s death was “evidenced on our television screens during the past few days. President Johnson’s own sense of personal dismay, shock and horror was shared by hundreds of thousands of Americans who stood long and weary hours to walk silently by his bier.”

“We do not propose to eulogize too effusively Senator Robert Kennedy. History, in due time, will assess his position in American life far better and much more effectively than we can.”

“But it is impossible for us not to recognize that the man felled by an assassin’s bullet was an extraordinary person. As President Johnson said, ‘During his personal life, he knew far more than his share of personal tragedy, yet he never abandoned his faith in America, he never lost his confidence in the spiritual strength of ordinary men and women. He believed in the capacity of the young for excellence and in the right of the old and poor to a life of dignity.”

Father McDonough said Senator Kennedy born into affluence, had a feeling for people that few others have had.

“He had sympathy for and empathy with those who were oppressed and discriminated against. He was above all a compassionate seeker of justice. He spoke out again and again for impoverished Negroes, the striking grape pickers, the neglected American Indians and all the other lost and defeated people.”

However, the priest said, it was foolish only to talk. “Something must be done to alleviate the poverty, to curb all violence, to put an end to discrimination. A controversy rages in our country today -- Is America a sick country? I don’t know.”

“It seems to me that on the national day of mourning there are good people in our country. For the past few days some 1,500 people have searched the rugged terrain of North Carolina for 4-year-old Cenda Schweers. One man has given his life, many have been injured. There is love and dedication here.”

“We all know what one man has done in our own city, Mayor Ivan Allen. We know what many of our businessmen are doing...devoting time, energy and talent in the pursuit of well-being of others.”

“But in the last analysis, it is we who have to examine ourselves, find out what we can do, search and keep searching until we have in our own individual lives the goals of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.”

Five hundred persons attended the service, one of several memorial services held in Atlanta Sunday on the day of mourning.