By Rita McInerney and Thea Jarvis

Spokespersons for the clergy, Religious and lay leaders of the archdiocese expressed the feelings of most Catholics on hearing the news of Archbishop Lyke’s illness.

Reached following an April 28 morning staff meeting at Our Lady of Lourdes in Atlanta, Father Henry Gracz, pastor, said there was a “feeling of heaviness” in the meeting, yet a realization that “there has to be the hopefulness of being a Christian.”

“People who know the archbishop know he’s a man of strong faith,” Father Gracz said. Faith, for example, like that expressed in the hymn, “We’ve Come This Far By Faith,” he said.

“We’re in an age of rediscovering the healing power of faith. Our whole parish is praying that this healing power will renew us. I think it would be wonderful if, in all our parishes this weekend, when the archbishop’s name is mentioned in the Eucharistic prayer, we all stop for a lengthy time and pray for his healing. Specifically for his healing rather than for him.”

“I would love the Lord to do wonders for him,” Father Gracz said.

Sister Margaret McAnoy, IHM, president of the Atlanta Conference of Sisters, said she had been out of town and learned from a friend on Sunday evening that Archbishop Lyke was in the oncology section at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Her friend told her “it was more serious than pneumonia.” On Monday evening another friend called and mentioned “inoperable cancer.”

She watched the 10 o’clock news with “a sinking feeling, only to hear the word confirmed.”

“I’m a believer…in the power of prayer, that is. I also believe in the communion of saints and when I turned off the television, Sister Thea Bowman was very present to me. I knew that she and Archbishop Lyke were very close friends and I found myself praying to her that she might strengthen and comfort her friend.”

“I’m certain that my prayers were heard and that in the difficult weeks and months ahead, Archbishop Lyke will be strengthened and supported by our loving God and all the saints who have gone before us—especially Sister Thea and his parents.”

“What we need to do, and I think I can speak for all the Religious women in the archdiocese, is to continually place our archbishop before our God in our minds and hearts.”

Ed de St. Aubin, chairman of the archdiocesan Planning and Development Council, first heard the news of the archbishop’s diagnosis as he was unpacking from a five-day trip April 27.

“He’s so important to us,” de St. Aubin said, adding that the archbishop’s insight and vision have been a real gift to members of the archdiocese council.

“I felt so strongly that he is so needed” by the people of the archdiocese, he said. “There’s only one place we can look to get him back healthy,” and that means “a lot of faith, a lot of prayers.”

De St. Aubin has been particularly impressed with the way Archbishop Lyke views the church of the new South and the leadership he has undertaken here.

“He is a (right) fit for this place,” he said, “a very special man.”

Father Thomas J. Carroll, MS, pastor of St. Oliver Plunkett parish in Snellville, said he is “very saddened to hear of Archbishop Lyke’s illness. He has given so much of himself in the very short time he has been with us; trying to be present at so many parochial functions…meeting the many demands of the office of archbishop…and above all, being a true pastor and father to his brother priests.”

“The priests and parishioners here at the parish family of St. Oliver in Snellville and St. Matthew’s mission in Winder will pray daily for the archbishop’s complete recovery. With this intention in mind there will be added a special prayer at Communion time in every daily and weekend Mass.”

Gonzalo Saldana, Secretary for Hispanic Ministry, said he and members of the staff shared their concern for the archbishop and for all the people of the archdiocese at an April 28 staff meeting.

It was a deep concern “for the pastor of the whole community.” Just as “when a dear family member or a friend is ill, we worry and pray for his recovery,” he said.

Saldana said he would “encourage our Hispanic community to continue offering prayers for his recovery and to be hopeful in taking one day at a time – as well all continue our personal pilgrimage through life.”

“I encourage the Hispanic community to be supportive of him in the same way he has been supportive toward our ministry.”

Rhonwyn Rogers, Secretary for Black Catholic Ministry, said it seemed as if once again the archdiocese was “forced back” to continue a process in which the leader of our archdiocesan community had to suffer.

“We share our strength with him, our collective prayers, our faith that is unshaken” no matter what the circumstances may be, Mrs. Rogers said.

Personally, she finds strength in the passage from Hebrews 11, which says that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

“I encourage our community to take a quiet moment, read Scripture, find a consoling passage and seek answers through the Word,” she said.

Reflecting on the past as well as the present, Mrs. Rogers said the Catholic community has had much to endure but that God has promised not to burden us with more than we can bear.

“It’s a time to renew my faith once again, to continue in the struggle,” and, in the midst of that struggle, “to come closer and closer to what I believe in.”

Mrs. Rogers said the archdiocese has been blessed with spiritual leaders who, in the midst of their own pain, have continued to think of the people before themselves.

“Our shepherds,” she said, show us how to go through the worst of times and still continue the work of the church.

“We are one. We suffer as one. We rejoice as one,” she said. “We have overcome in the past and we will overcome this.”