Fifteen years following his assassination, Martin Luther King was memorialized in his own federal holiday by President Ronald Reagan. He is given an honor reserved for no other native son excluding George Washington. It is my understanding that there are number of Catholic Churches that venerate this day. While not Catholic, many believe Dr. King embraced many truths of the Catholic faith.
In some ways, our celebration of Martin Luther King Day reminds me of the charge to declare John Paul II a Saint upon his death. Others have given him the appelation of “The Great”. I don’t believe the appelation unbecoming so much as premature. We are a 2000-year-old Church. There still as yet has not been really thoughtful introspections on how John Paul II fits into the publicly venerated Saints. While certainly a thoughtful pontiff – considering how far his intellectual rigor surpassed mine, I do not presume to answer the question of placement – are we to offer sainthood to all post-Vatican II popes? Bringing this back to Martin Luther King, in reflection we are recognizing are very influential man in the civil rights movement. He also was leader in the movement when it peaked. What is not often recognized is the great men who walked before Dr. King, men such as Thurgood Marshall. The were of course other minister leaders in the Civil Rights movement, some contempories of Dr. King and others predating him. What I write should not be seen as denigrating the memory of Dr. King. If anything, I would like this brief commentary to be a recognition of the contribution of others in the Civil Rights movement, including those in whose footsteps men like Dr. King followed.
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