Local News
They Hear His Call To Journey On In Faith Fearlessly
Published: October 16, 2003
ATLANTA—A businessman, a teacher, a photographer, a mom, a lawyer, a “prayer ranger.” In the workplace, at church, while driving a child, traveling or just trying to walk. To the young, the middle-aged, the old.
Throughout his 25-year papacy, Pope John Paul II has challenged all everywhere to “be not afraid.”
Miraculously, at times, he has served as an example of the words he speaks, not without pain, not without knowledge of loss, but being one with a suffering Christ who has kept his drive and his smile.
“Suffering seems to belong to man’s transcendence,” he writes in his 1984 apostolic letter entitled Salvifici Doloris. “… the need of the heart commands us to overcome fear...”
In this article are the testimonies of those inspired by the courageous life of Pope John Paul II. They also share how the words “be not afraid” have played out in their own life journeys.
Disciple Carries Christ’s Cross Into The Marketplace
A photographer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, John Spink was working as a copy boy at the Kansas City Star at the time of the pope’s election in 1978. A lapsed Catholic then, Spink said John Paul II’s election “didn’t mean anything, really.” The following year, however, he met his wife, Carmen, who attended a dynamic Catholic church, and she asked him to try it. “I got hooked, line and sinker.”
Years later, Spink realized that the Vatican II message preached to the laity by his parish priests to bring Christ into the marketplace came also from the pope’s challenge to “be not afraid.”
“He had been saying this almost all of his pontificate. I thought, ‘Where have I been?’ He was saying, ‘Hey, don’t be afraid to go in with the message. Yeah, you’ll be persecuted. Yeah, you’ll be talked down to, but don’t let that stop you. Blessed are you for being persecuted … This is what it means to carry the cross for Christ.’”
During Spink’s Cursillo weekend in 1987, “I was hit over the head,” he said, and he felt compelled to authentically live the “be not afraid” message.
“I had to go into the marketplace. I had one of the hardest places, within the media culture, where 90 percent are unchurched ... Religion and spirituality are considered old-fashioned,” he said. “They’re beyond that. Philosophy and democracy are all they need to be a good person and to do the right thing.”
He sees the main focus of the culture war as being over respect for the dignity of life and the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.
“The media is redefining these in the name of freedom,” said Spink. “What lies in the Decalogue (Ten Commandments) and the Gospel are things of the past.”
“When I left the monastery I knew what I faced, but I was reassured at Cursillo that grace is greater than that.”
Spink spoke of his first major “litmus test” for being fearless in faith one year later when he was assigned to cover the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. Operation Rescue, a nonviolent, militant anti-abortion group, came to Atlanta as well. As he witnessed the organized sit-ins, he questioned whether as a Christian he should make a statement also supporting life by putting down his camera and joining the protest. “Through grace I heard, ‘Your job is to record it – do it.’”
Spink covered the protests, bringing back to the office photographs that included families praying the rosary and people crying—not photographs buying into the stereotype of those opposing abortion as being mainly “angry white men,” he said. He simply presented an event as it happened. When a co-worker called those in his photos “anti-abortion nuts,” Spink retorted, “There’s nothing crazier than killing people in the womb.”
His comment brought silence among his colleagues and other consequences at work. Inevitably fall-out occurs when he takes a stand, he said, but he tries “not to be afraid to speak out.”
As to the courage of John Paul II, Spink recalled his reservist father who was the assistant mobilization commander for NORAD in Colorado Springs, the nuclear center of the United States at the height of the Cold War.
“The nuclear threat was no clearer to me than in my own household growing up,” explained Spink. “I remember my Mom telling me, ‘your Dad’s biggest concern is what kind of world he’s left you to carry on with.’”
In his civilian job, Spink’s father was the director of emergency preparedness for Kansas City where he oversaw the conversion of limestone caves, which companies used for storage, into fallout shelters in the mid-1970s.
“He was one who took the threat pretty seriously. So the courage and the call of this Holy Father to ‘be not afraid,’ literally, brought us out of these caves to later tear down a wall in Berlin some 12 years into his pontificate. Praised be God! More powerful than a nuclear bomb if you ask me.”
Spink also points to, among other things, the pope’s love of Mary as inspiration. Living with his family on a 210-acre community of Catholic families affiliated with the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, this father of three boys recalled a short term as the community’s elected leader. He gained a greater respect and understanding for the pope’s role in shouldering “the yoke of society.”
Spink described the pope as a “bull in the ring” when tackling certain issues within the church but said that he acts as its “shepherd and father.”
“When there is a crisis, he systematically and lovingly unfolds church truths ... He’s not legalistic but allows for conversion.”
Despite Tragedy Husband Tries To Run The Good Race
Richard Kessler has learned that despite terrible loss, “the heart is big enough to love.” Kessler’s first wife, Kathleen, died on May 11, 1996, when Valujet Flight 592 crashed into the Florida Everglades just shortly before they were to celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary. Two years after his wife’s death, Kessler was introduced to Susan Schladenhauffen Perkins through friends. Close to three years later, the two married and merged their families into one, which now numbers seven children.
John Paul II knows and has dealt with tragedy in his own life, Kessler said.
“You learn that you never get over (tragedy); you learn to live with it. (The pope) has a positive attitude; he hopes. It’s what I do now that counts, at the end of the day when I cross the finish line or, as St. Paul says, ‘I’ve run my race.’ He’s a symbol of that.”
In his illness John Paul II could recoil from society but chooses to go out instead. “He does not have to do the things he does. He could just draw into himself. With his Parkinson’s he is impaired, but he doesn’t stop. His message of hope is what I focus on: ‘What can I do. Let go of what I can’t do. Get up every day and have joy in my heart.’”
Given his experience Kessler has learned that it’s not the past or the future where one should live.
“I tell people to live in the present. You can’t live in the past,” he said.
The pope does not go back to the day of his assassination attempt in 1981, he said. “Of course he has remnants of that. You never get over something like that. I’m sure that when he walks or sits a certain way the wound still hurts him.”
He compared the pope’s physical injuries to those of psychological loss.
“The loss or death of a spouse or child is not like a sickness; it’s an injury. There will always be a scar; it never heals completely, and you learn to live with it.”
But you can’t live on that day, he said.
“Some people give up living and are resigned to the sad remainder of their life. I look at quadriplegics. They’re amazing. I talk to them and they say, ‘Yes, I can’t walk so I focus on the 10 things I can do, not on the 10,000 things I can’t do.’ And they do them the best they can.”
Kessler likes to interpret the pope’s message of “be not afraid” to mean “everything in life is a risk.”
“I wake up and take a breath, and I risk that I can’t take the next breath. I risk when I cross the street that I might be hit by a car. When I enter into a love relationship with a child, a spouse, a parent, I risk that they won’t love me back or I risk the fact that they may die. But the joy, the reward, in taking the risk outweighs the pain I might experience. Many focus on the pain and are risk-avoiding. They avoid the pain. The pope says, ‘Take the risk. The benefits, they are so much greater.”
He gave the example of a child being afraid to get out of bed because the boogey man might grab him. “But if you don’t get out, you can’t go swimming or play baseball. We risk the boogey man being there. Then we realize there is no boogey man. We need to have that attitude: ‘I can love.’”
Kessler said he’s thought a lot about how a loving God can allow tragedy and whether or not God, indeed, has a grand plan. “There is a plan, no doubt about it, but I signed up for it. I agreed to it. Stuff happens in life. But when I endure whatever it is, I must have a joyful heart, not meaning a happy state all the time, but joy, in that I can go through something and know I’ll come out of it.”
Kessler felt the Holy Spirit was at work in the election of John Paul II. “It was clear to me after he was wounded that he was special if he could survive that.”
He was impressed by how the then Karol Wojtyla handled the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust. His role in the fall of communism without bloodshed was “incredible,” he added.
“He has followed God’s call. Not only do I see him as a man of holiness but also as very personal,” he said. “He could wall himself inside the Roman castle we know as St. Peter’s, but instead he goes out to the people. He’s the people’s pope.”
Kessler admitted that he does not agree with the pope on every issue. “But he handles issues from the heart, not just the mind. Personally, he helps me to handle (my difficulties). There’s always hope.”
As he sees John Paul II suffer from the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s disease, he appreciates the pope’s “optimistic mindset.”
“He does not dwell on the past or ‘what if this happens.’ So he can’t run the 100-yard dash anymore. He can walk 10 steps. He does the best he can. He is a model to folks.”
Mother-Son Team Chisel Away At Barriers
At 31, Drew Blanton calls himself a “prayer ranger” and has probably read everything written by Mother Teresa and his other hero, Pope John Paul II.
“The pope was very courageous to call our culture a culture of death,” Drew said.
His mother, Libby Blanton, recalled a woman who approached her in the grocery store. She said that her two boys have stopped complaining about having to genuflect before Mass as they’ve witnessed Drew maneuver out of his wheelchair to genuflect before taking his front-row seat. “He really lives his faith,” Libby said.
Drew experienced a traumatic brain injury at the age of 19 months.
“At one point he took a breath only four times a minute. I remember we’d count and think, ‘Is he going to take another breath?’ He always did.”
Drew’s vision is impaired, and while he can walk if he holds onto a walker or another person, he uses a wheelchair to get around.
“I have a lot of challenges due to my disability,” Drew said. “One I really struggle with is getting from place to place. I’m unable to drive and I need rides.”
Drew has lived for the past six years on his own in a HUD apartment located in Lilburn. He has an attendant who comes once a day to help with meals and general care. Drew is a “computer person,” Libby said. He e-mails “everyone in the country,” participates in many Catholic chat rooms and when he misses Mass on television, will find one on the computer. He also prays the rosary through the computer.
On Saturday Libby picks him up and the family attends Mass at St. John Neumann Church in Lilburn with him on Sunday evenings as Drew serves as a greeter, waving and shaking hands with others as they arrive.
“It’s the only ministry he is allowed to participate in,” Libby said. “He’s very proud of that.”
A mother of four, Libby has witnessed the “attitudinal barriers” in the church toward people with disabilities. “Most people usually think in physical terms. They’re not malicious. It’s just a matter of not knowing.”
Those with disabilities teach us perseverance, Libby said. “It’s exhibited by their lives. They do accept where they are in time and space and they let God’s love show through them.”
And they seek to find their place in the church. “Our church has very little room for persons with disabilities to be involved in ministry,” Libby said. “Even people with less disability than Drew find trouble being eucharistic ministers, altar servers, etc. There are many who even have problems making first sacraments or receiving sacraments regularly. Certainly we have not (historically) gone out of our way to be inclusive.”
In their quest to be fearless, those with disabilities often encounter pain.
“The saddest thing I see in Drew’s life is the fact that he so often feels ‘abandoned’ at best, ‘mistreated’ at worst, by his church because of his disabilities. When he was 10 or 12 years old, all he wanted was to grow up ‘to be a priest or to love like Mother Teresa.’”
Libby recalled her son’s words, which came straight “from the gut.”
“It took him a long time to understand he couldn’t be a priest … I told him that God is calling him to the single life; that’s a vocation.”
Libby said Drew wants to do more. As her son’s advocate, she has acted boldly on his behalf, arranging for him to attend CCD classes when he was young and making sure he received the sacraments. “I’ve had to be pushy about it, obnoxious about it, in order to be heard,” she said.
Libby believes the archdiocese has taken steps to address this area by establishing an archdiocesan office, Ministry With People With Disabilities, but much depends on individual pastors. She remains involved and committed, which has not always been easy given the demands of raising four children while also dealing with the effects of her own multiple sclerosis.
“Somewhere way back in grammar school I heard the words, ‘God never gives a burden he does not also give the strength to bear.’”
She recalled one of her life mottos – “If you can’t do something, don’t complain about it” – and remembered a time when she was counting checks for a school milk program even though her multiple sclerosis had diminished her sense of touch. “I said, ‘God, I could do so much more for you if I had better use of my hands.’ And before I could finish my thought, I heard, ‘No, you’re learning to be patient, just not the fun way.’”
God doesn’t make bad things happen but allows them, she said. “He also gives you the grace to live with it if you choose to accept it.”
Some refuse the grace, she added, and their growth is “stunted.”
Drew’s faith continues to flourish. He and Libby have worked two years to coordinate a February trip to visit the Mustard Seed community in Jamaica. And Drew said he continues to try to live out the pope’s challenge of “be not afraid” by “helping people.”
“Ultimately, (Drew’s faith) is the grace of God,” Libby said. “In terms of the concrete life on earth, he was totally impressed by Mother Teresa at an early age.”
One other woman in history has caught his eye. “Jonathan is Drew’s real name but there is no St. Jonathan,” Libby said. “Joan of Arc is his patron saint. She fought against all odds and did things.”
Letting Go Of Fear Lets Christ In, Priest Says
Father Tim Hepburn serves as the Catholic chaplain at Emory and Agnes Scott universities and is the assistant vocations director for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
He believes the pope is truly an ambassador for Christ.
“Because of his faith in who God has made us to be, he’s not afraid to go into areas —whether they be areas of human psychology or whether they be physical areas, nations like Poland or Cuba — and tell people who they really are.”
The pope’s message that “you’re not the sum of your sins” delivered during World Youth Day is a message he remembers, as well as his efforts to end communism.
“His courage comes from faith, a faith given to him to know who he is and why,” Father Hepburn explained. “He can say who God is. He said it so strongly in Poland that it brought the Iron Curtain down.”
On a personal level, Father Hepburn confessed that he has often defined himself “by my sins, my inconsistencies, by what I am not rather than by what I am in Christ.”
“Fear tries to convince me that to let Christ control my life threatens my hopes and dreams, my individuality, my personality. ‘If he is Lord,’ I sometimes think, ‘then I am not’ and fear tries to tell me that this is a bad thing, which will limit my freedom and control. It is this fear that, at a very personal level, the pope has helped me to overcome by his message, ‘Be not afraid.’”
John Paul II has helped him to connect his Christianity with his humanity. He also has helped him “to know that the lordship of Christ is the only way to know who I am as a human being and as a priest.”
“So, I step out in faith every day and believe that in God I am wonderfully made, and in Christ I am a new creation, and in his priesthood a priest – even on days that I don’t feel so wonderful, new or priestly. This isn’t just the power of positive thinking; faith breaks through fear to the reality of who I am in God’s eyes. That’s where true peace and security is found.”
Grace Empowers Least Likely
Keri Allen, director of adult enrichment and evangelization at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta, has been a wellspring of leadership within the Archdiocese of Atlanta. As she continues to serve the church, she is raising her four grandchildren, ages 5, 6, 9 and 11.
“People are always saying to me, ‘I don’t know how you do it.’ It’s strictly by the grace of God,” she confirmed. “He empowers you to do what he asks you to do. Sometimes I question it, ‘Are you sure this is the right thing? I’m the right person?’”
Humor is not only a human characteristic, Allen believes, as God has his hand in the roles to which one is called.
“It takes great courage to be a parent and a great sense of humor. God has a great sense of humor; he usually chooses the least likely.”
Allen finds hope and strength in the example set by John Paul II.
“His whole 25 years has exemplified nothing but courage.”
She recalled how the pope asked forgiveness from specific religious groups. “He became truly repentant and encouraged all of us to be repentant. It took courage, especially for someone in his position to be willing to say ‘we were wrong; I apologize.’”
She also called courageous his recent restating of the church’s position on homosexuality. “John Paul speaks the truth with love.”
One challenge to her faith that comes to mind for Allen was when she was asked to organize perpetual adoration at the Cathedral of Christ the King, the first parish to do so in the archdiocese.
“I don’t know that it was fear so much as questioning how to do this. ‘How is this possible?’ It takes a lot of people. If there was fear, it was ‘why ask me? I’m unbelievably unqualified.’”
Allen owned a business at the time and was trying to retire.
“My background was not in the church; it was in the business world. It didn’t make sense, but I’ve learned that when what you’re asked to do doesn’t make sense, it’s a good indication that it’s from (God).”
After she prayed about it and decided to do it, “it all came together.”
Allen said she could think of others more courageous than she is.
“To me, to hear the pope say ‘be not afraid,’ there are so many different levels. First, I hear ‘be not afraid of where you are in life. Be not afraid of what you see happening in the world. (God says) I’m in control; I have a plan and you’re in that plan.’”
She explained another interpretation of these words.
“On another level I hear ‘don’t be afraid to do whatever the Lord asks.’ Courage is not being in the absence of fear. It’s doing whatever he asks of you in spite of fear. That’s courage.”
All worthy vocations require one to pursue them in love. “It takes a tremendous amount of courage to go into the priesthood, for a woman to become a Religious, to go into ministry, to raise a child,” she said.
But one is not left alone. “It’s all about grace, isn’t it?”
Allen served as a main organizer of the first Eucharistic Congress in the archdiocese. “That was so grace-filled. I certainly couldn’t have done it myself. The whole team felt led. Sometimes pride gets in there. For me, I’m the type that if I throw a party I’m afraid no one will come. That’s pride. Once you turn it over to him, and say, ‘It’s for your glory and honor, let it be as you want it,’ the grace just falls.”
Following the success of the first Eucharistic Congress, others have come forward to help. “What has happened since is because of the people who were willing to accept his grace to fulfill his mission and I’m not talking about myself … It’s all grace. There’s no doubt in my mind. It’s all grace. It’s certainly not me.”
Being guided by grace is one of Allen’s daily requests.
“Whether you’re in the professional world, called to ministry, a stay-at-home mom, a parent – it takes a tremendous amount of grace. My prayer each day is ‘let me be open to receive all the grace you want to give to me today.’”
Couple Shows How Love Extinguishes Fear
This year Tita and Cucho Garcia, both 49, will celebrate their anniversary as long-standing active members in the Cursillo movement in this archdiocese and in their native Puerto Rico. After their return to Atlanta about six years ago, they helped to restart Spanish Cursillo weekends, which are “at full blast,” said Tita, a Spanish teacher at Pinecrest Academy in Cumming where their youngest son is a freshman. They also have twins and another child.
Tita is a fan of John Paul II. “He’s just been wonderful. His outreach to the whole world; he is an example of what he says, ‘Be not afraid.’ He’s not afraid to reach out to others.”
Cucho also commented on the pope’s extraordinary life and recalled some of his history. “He has led a very complex life, growing up in the worst time ever in Eastern Europe, in Poland, as a layman and a priest.”
The pope’s mother died when he was very young. His father raised him and had a large impact on his faith, Cucho recalled. The pope had a normal childhood playing sports, acting, writing poetry and even working in a factory when he was older. “He did all kinds of things. He did them in a way that he never compromised his faith. I find that very inspiring as a layman.”
John Paul II’s papacy has not been without conflict. “As a priest, some of his positions have not been very popular, things like abortion and the sanctity of life and that the priesthood is only for men—I could give you a laundry list. His positions have been so strong at times, and they have also been so compassionate. He reconciled with the German Protestant church and asked forgiveness of the Jewish people. You can see his compassion. It’s just remarkable. God is really guiding him.”
The pope’s health has been an issue of speculation for quite some time.
“He looks very frail, but he still keeps going. He has a clear vision of his role, and his mission is not completed. There’s more road for him to travel down, more promises to keep. He keeps going by the grace of God. The love of God gives him strength. Human strength is not enough.”
Enduring the death of his mother at a young age and then later his father and surviving an assassination attempt, the pope is not a stranger to loss and suffering.
“Suffering is part of life,” Cucho said. “You can only make sense of it with God, through grace.”
He gave an example of his sister who recently underwent surgery for colon cancer. “It’s a tough reality to be faced with your own mortality. She told me that she would offer up (her surgery) for the Cursillo weekend candidates. Only through grace can you do something like that.”
Today we see pictures of an ailing pope still traveling to places like Slovakia to visit the faithful.
“The pope’s suffering is a reality. Christ made sense of suffering. That’s why he redeemed us: his Passion, death and resurrection. I’m not saying that I’m all for suffering, but great things can come out of it.”
The Garcias have worked closely with Father Jose Duvan of San Felipe de Jesus Mission. They are so close that Cucho has affectionately been referred to as Father Duvan’s “bodyguard,” joked Tita. The two men accepted the call to go out in faith for the people of the mission. “They were unafraid to ask, were committed to the mission,” Tita said. “It’s been amazing to see.”
For about 15 years Hispanic immigrants had gathered to celebrate Mass in a parking lot enduring the cold days of winter and the summer sun. Cucho recalled seeing people kneeling on the summer’s hot asphalt during the Consecration at Mass.
“It was unbelievable to see the emotion of all that,” he said.
Members of the mission raised $100,000 toward building a church by selling tacos after Mass.
When Father Duvan was assigned to the mission, he asked Cucho for help.
“The only way I know is to go to the source, talk to the archbishop, and suggest a solution,” he recalled.
The archbishop was very supportive, and eventually the archdiocese offered a substantial financial gift to fund the church. Father Duvan and Cucho persisted, and after a thorough search, the mission bought and took over a former Baptist church in Forest Park whose pastor had died and whose members had disbanded.
“‘Be not afraid’ is my favorite Scripture quote,” said Cucho, who likes to use it on Cursillo weekends.
“I, we, cannot be afraid. When I’ve been afraid it’s because I’m not counting on God; I’m counting on myself. When I rely on God, the fear goes away. It’s like what St. Augustine says: ‘Where there’s love, there is no fear.’”
