Healing the Culture 2009 Cultural Hero Award
The following is the text of the 2009 Cultural Hero Award Announcement, written and read by Michael Pauley:
"Every year, Healing the Culture presents a very special honor called the "Cultural Hero Award." It is bestowed upon an individual who has been a heroic witness to the great dignity of human life.
"The Board of Directors of Healing the Culture selects the recipient, giving preference to ordinary people who do extraordinary things.
"This year's recipient is the late Fr. Thomas King. Fr. King was a Jesuit priest, a prolific author, a powerful pro-life witness, and a dear friend to many of us at Healing the Culture.
"For more than 40 years Fr. King taught theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He passed away on June 23 of this year at the age of 80.
"Ordinarily, a member of our Board would announce this award. However, as a former student of Fr. King's at Georgetown, I've been given the honor of sharing a few words about him.
"When I first came to Georgetown in 1985, I was an impressionable 17-year old kid. I knew very little about Fr. King. He struck me as a very mysterious figure - a reserved man with a quiet voice. His demeanor seemed a little mystical or ethereal. Fr. King was famous at Georgetown for saying a late-night Mass in the main campus chapel. It began at 11:15 p.m and finished right before midnight. He would turn off every light in the place, and say the Mass in almost complete darkness. Illuminated only by the light of the altar candles, his face would take on a ghostly appearance.
"There was a popular but silly rumor that swirled around among the students that Fr. King was a priest who performed exorcisms. Some students believed that he was the real priest who served as the basis for the character of Fr. Damien Karras in the movie, The Exorcist. As some of you know, The Exorcist was a disturbing and controversial film about demonic possession, released back in 1973.
"These rumors about Fr. King were unfounded. But like many crazy rumors, they emerged from a tenuous connection with factual events. The movie The Exorcist was actually filmed at Georgetown University, during the time that Fr. King was teaching there. The movie crew experienced a series of terrible misfortunes, including the death of one of the actors. Fr. King was asked to give a blessing to the sets and the film crew, and he obliged. The blessing took 60 seconds, and it's probably not fair to interpret it as an endorsement of the film.
"Fr. King wrote about this many years later. He said,
- "Back in the days when The Exorcist was being filmed on campus, Bill Blatty (author of the book and producer of the movie) would come to the Mass each evening and drop by afterwards to tell me some movie gossip of the day. I forget much of it, but I do recall the evening he explained why he wrote the book: (He said), 'The reason people do not believe in God these days is that they don't believe Evil is real. Yes, they will agree that all of us could be a little nicer. But that is not the same as confronting real Evil.'" Fr. King later recalled, "I thought there was great wisdom in what he said, and it gave me a better perspective on both him and the movie."
"Fr. King saw abortion, euthanasia, and the entire "culture of death" as a corrosive evil that had to be confronted, no matter how unpopular it was with certain elements of society.
"To better describe Fr. King's pro-life witness, I want to quote from a remembrance of Fr. King that was published in the National Right to Life News. This remembrance was written by Susan Wills, who is the Assistant Director of the Office of Pro-life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"She writes,
- "Several years ago, Father King wrote a little essay, [entitled] "Abortion: Why This Issue?" The reflection was prompted by the question of a student who knew of (and presumably approved of) Fr. King's active concerns over other issues, but could not understand why he'd been so involved in pro-life causes. Fr. King blurted this response: "'Because I cannot stand the lying, the cover up, the deceit.' I could have given other reasons, he explains, "but the lying gets to me in a special way."
"Of course, there's the fundamental injustice of destroying the life of an innocent child, as well as the deep spiritual and emotional wounds suffered by countless women and men in the aftermath of abortion. But what allows the injustice and pain of abortion to continue unabated? What shields the horror of abortion practice from scrutiny and exposure? Lies. Whole webs of deceit. Mountains of evasions and denials and a cultural elite ("the high culture, the intelligentsia," he calls them) who know, but don't want to know, the truth.
"Father King [helped create] forums where the case for life would be made in an intellectually rigorous fashion. He served as faculty advisor for Georgetown Students for Life, host of the enormously successful Cardinal O'Connor Conference [on Life Issues] held each January on the eve of the [annual] March for Life. Father King also gave support to American Collegians for Life (precursor to Students for Life of America) which held an annual conference in Washington.
"The most intensive focus of Father King's pro-life work was in co-founding University Faculty for Life (UFL) in 1989 and serving as UFL's founding president until 2004. Pro-life academics are a rare and endangered species. They know they risk their jobs and even careers every time they publicly speak out against abortion. Their vulnerability to reprisal could lead the faint of the heart to remain silent on the sidelines.
"Fr. King and his co-founders gave hundreds of professors (from over 100 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada) a forum to engage in multi-disciplinary dialogue - in law, political science, philosophy, theology, history, medicine, and communications.
"Each year, University Faculty for Life convenes a conference that features expert speakers from many academic disciplines to address abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, stem cell research, and other issues where life is threatened. Past speakers make up a pro-life "hall of fame."
"Conference proceedings, published since 1992 [under the name] Life and Learning, are distributed to the libraries of over 700 colleges and universities across North America. They are an invaluable body of peer-reviewed, clear-reasoned research on the most critical issues of our day.
"In 2005, when receiving an award for "Distinguished Contributions to Pro-Life Scholarship," Father King urged UFL scholars to "remain steadfast in their devotion to truth and to devote their work to building a civilization of life and love." The best way we can honor his life and work is to follow this wise advice.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, it is our plan that the 2009 Cultural Hero award for Fr. King will be sent to the student pro-life group at Georgetown University. We'll be requesting that they find a suitable place to display this award, and that it will serve as an inspiration for young people to continue his life-saving work.
"I feel confident that Fr. King is in heaven and able to witness us gathered here this evening. In thanksgiving for a life lived in service to the most vulnerable, I would ask that you please rise, and join me in an expression of gratitude to Fr. Thomas King.