By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Renewed prayers have been requested for Father William Calhoun after doctors at the Shepherd Spinal Center determined this week that damage to his spinal cord is permanent.

Surgery was scheduled for Jan. 11 to stabilize the priest’s neck. The intent of the surgery, which was postponed until after the spinal cord injury was verified as permanent, is to permit safe head movement. Until now such movement was prevented by a halo brace so no further injury would be done to the spinal column.

Archbishop John F. Donoghue and Father Calhoun’s family have asked for continued prayers for the pastor critically injured in a car accident in Fayetteville in December.

His spirit reaches out to others even as he rests immobilized in the intensive care unit at the Shepherd Spinal Center.

On Jan. 6 during a brief permitted visit to him, Father Calhoun smiled warmly and asked for prayers. His visitors have been restricted at his request so that he can rest.

His physical therapist , Karla Schell, who is a parishioner at St. Anthony’s Parish, Atlanta, and who knew Father Calhoun prior to caring for him as a patient, is at his bedside regularly.

“I will spoil him,” she assures concerned friends.

Father Calhoun smiled and agreed that God has had a hand in sending him this particular therapist, who is both a familiar face and a veteran of 10 years of work at the Spinal Center.

Ms. Schell said because the number of people concerned about the priest is so great it has been necessary to restrict visitation. He receives cards and messages daily that are read to him by his family, she said.

According to Gerry Lueck, archdiocesan benefits coordinator, Father Calhoun had progressed prior to surgery from spending one and a half hours a day in a wheelchair to four hours with a goal of eight hours.

The Shepherd Spinal Center is one of 13 centers in the U.S. called model spinal cord injury centers by the federal government, and the only model facility in the Southeast.