Parishes to honor legacy of
Martin Luther King Jr.

By Mary Ann Wyand

Archdiocesan parishes are encouraged to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day during Masses on Jan. 14 and 15.

This year, the archdiocesan Office of Multicultural Ministry prepared an educational packet for parish use during weekend liturgies instead of scheduling an archdiocesan Mass at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis.

“It is customary for the archdiocesan Multicultural Ministry Commission to

celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. on the Sunday before the holiday,” said Father Kenneth Taylor, director of the Office of Multicultural Ministry.

“This year, that is Jan. 15, the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time and his actual birth date,” Father Taylor said. “Martin was born on Jan. 15, 1929, and died on April 4, 1968. Had he lived, he would be 77 years old.”

Father Taylor said the archdiocesan-wide observance during Masses will help Catholics in central and southern Indiana remember King’s legacy of promoting respect for every person, nonviolence and peace throughout the world.

“This year, in order to touch more people, the commission strongly encourages every parish to incorporate the message and memory of this man of God and prophet for our times into the regular Sunday liturgies,” Father Taylor said. “No matter where you are located in the Indianapolis Archdiocese—urban, rural, suburban—[parish] communities are

urged to make the life and work of this courageous, nonviolent American a part of your prayer together.”

The educational packet for use during liturgies includes a prayer for peace as well as a commitment card that asks Catholics to work for nonviolence in the world by meditating on the life and teachings of Jesus every day, and to remember that the nonviolent movement seeks justice and reconciliation instead of victory.

It also invites Catholics to pray that all people might live in freedom, to commit to working for peace and justice for all people, to participate in regular Church and community service to help others, and to refrain from “violence of fist, tongue or heart.”

Father Taylor also serves as the pastor of Holy Angels Parish and the administrator of St. Michael the Archangel Parish, both in Indianapolis.

Holy Angels School students will celebrate King’s birthday on Jan. 13 with a 10 a.m. march starting at 28th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. in Indian-apolis. A liturgy at Holy Angels Church, 740 W. 28th St., will follow the march.

Holy Cross Sister Gerry O’Laughlin, the Holy Angels principal, said Holy Cross Central School students in Indian-apolis will join Holy Angels students for the march and Mass for the first time.

“We will begin our celebration with a march down Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street in front of our school,” she said. “Our whole school—pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade students—will participate, and we’ve invited the fifth- and sixth-grade classes from Holy Cross Central School to join us this year. Each year, we invite students from another [Catholic] school to help us celebrate Dr. King’s birthday.”

The U.S. government designated the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday in 1986.

“It’s something that we can never forget,” Sister Gerry said about King’s life and legacy.

“We talk to our children about helping them to remember [and] celebrate … this day,” she said. “Unfortunately, I think some of our parents have forgotten the whole story and struggle of the civil rights movement.

“But at Holy Angels School, it’s something that we just cannot ever afford for our children to forget,” she said. “It means a great deal because that’s the perspective of our school as well—the African-American perspective—and it’s just such an important day, such an important event.”

Sister Gerry said Holy Angels School’s enrollment is “100 percent African-American” this year, and the Indianapolis West Deanery school’s 139 students have writing assignments about King that are due next week.

“The teachers want them to experience the march and the worship again,” she said, before completing their essays. †