Archbishop Dolan's Thought for the Week

January 20, 2009 - Year of St. Paul

Dear Friends united in love and service of Jesus Christ and His Church: 

This week summons us to what is most noble in the human spirit.

Yesterday we observed the birthday of the Reverend Martin Luther King. His ability to inspire was legendary. He called forth what was best in our nature, and in the American enterprise.

Simply put, he preached that every human person was created in the very image and likeness of God. Therefore, to deny any person dignity, respect, or his or her legitimate civil rights, was a gross violation of God’s basic design. He reminded us cogently that this creed was part of the American birthright, codified in our normative documents.

While Dr. King had much to say on a wide range of issues, he concentrated, as we know, on the civil rights of African Americans who were still treated as less than human by American law and practice. He was a man of faith, a man of the Bible, a Christian preacher, a loyal and prophetic American who confronted us with how we were acting while calling us to regain our nobility as children of God, due in justice to give all the rights recognized in the American experiment.

Today we unite in prayer for our new president, whose election could never have occurred without the prophetic preaching and progress made by Reverend King. While we might differ in our levels of support of the new president -- another American right -- we owe him our fervent prayers and best wishes today.

And while, as of this early morning writing, I do not know what he will say in his inaugural address, if his rhetoric of the last two years is any indication, he will indeed inspire us, and summon us to recapture the virtue, nobility, and respect for the rights of all that have made us a luminous nation.

Then on Thursday, January 22, we somberly recall the discredited Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade handed down on this date thirty-six years ago.

It would have made Reverend King weep, for once again, tragically, a whole group of human beings -- pre-born babies in the womb -- was denied the most fundamental civil right of all: the right to life. The pre-born infant was reduced to the condition of an African American slave, treated as mere property, able to be disposed of at the whim of another.

Rather than depress us, January 22 can renew us. Read Dr. King’s Letters from the Birmingham Jail to rekindle hope. For, at a very low point, when his cause seemed lost, he was most eloquent, most trusting in Divine Providence, most unflagging in reminding America of its birthright.

It’s an important week for us as believers, as Americans.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan

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