Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan was a remarkable human being, an eminent churchman who had faith in God and his fellow man.

This was the comment of Dr. William R. Canon, dean of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, in his homily at an ecumenical memorial service for Archbishop Hallinan last Friday at the Cathedral of Christ the King.

Also taking part in the service were Dr. Bevel Jones, president of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta; Dr. A. S. Dickerson, council vice president; Rabbi Richard Lehrman; Episcopal Bishop Randolph Claiborne and Bishop Bernardin.

“I realize that Paul Hallinan was a remarkable human being in terms of natural gifts,” Dean Canon, a close friend of the archbishop, said. “He would have been a success in any field - medicine, law or business. But natural gifts, which come from God, too, are not destroyed by grace.”

“They are complemented, strengthened and transformed by the grace of God through our faith. This wonderful self-confidence given the archbishop by his faith was registered in the fact that he never let office, position, pride of circumstance compensate for the necessity of doing the job well, superlatively well.”

“This man was an eminent churchman. He was recognized as inferior to none as a liturgist and student of corporate worship in the Roman Catholic Church in America. When I needed the answer to some obscure and difficult program in liturgiology, I did not have to read the books in the university library. I realized that all I had to do was call my friend on the phone and that he would either be able to supply the answer or tell me precisely where to look to discover it.”

Dean Canon compared Archbishop Hallinan to Barnabas. “The character of Barnabas and the tremendous service in missions his character enabled him to perform were provided, Luke tells us, by his faith and his marvelous capacity to receive and to keep the Holy Spirit. This was the secret of his goodness. He was a good man because he had so much faith and because he spent his entire life in obedience to the Holy Spirit. The same was true of Archbishop Paul Hallinan.” “Faith is always double-edged. It is like a knife that cuts on both sides. As by definition, faith means two things, both intellectual assent to divine truth and confidence in God, so its activity on the one who possesses it, is two-fold. First, it gives him great confidence in himself and what he is able to do because he depends entirely on God, and secondly, it gives him confidence in other people because he knows that what God has done for him he will do for them as well.”

Dean Canon said he turned to Luke’s tribute to Barnabas in order to claim it as his tribute to Archbishop Hallinan, “whose personal devotion to God and genuine goodness blessed us and made us all better Christians.” Paul Hallinan was that kind of man. He had confidence in other people, and he always brought out the best in me. I have, of course, my own Methodist bishop whom I admire and love, but I frequently said to your archbishop that I looked on him as my archbishop, too. I said, ‘You are my bishop by adoption.’ He always replied, ‘You are my priest as well.’”

“The last time I visited him he asked me for my blessing. To give a blessing is a beautiful and wonderful act. It is a Roman Catholic custom, however, it is not a Protestant custom. So I did not know how to do it.”

“I asked him therefore to give his blessing first. He knew what I was about but smiled warmly and did so from his sick bed. Then, I put my hands on his head and said a prayer for him. Tears streamed down my cheeks and if unity could be built on what we felt, we would have it.”

In thanking the audience for coming, Bishop Bernardin said the archbishop was a true ecumenist. “He generously loved people, had faith in them and saw good in them. It was a bond uniting them and his role in ecumenism was one he enjoyed immensely.” “Perhaps one of the reasons why he was so well received is he was a realist who never expected more or less than the human situation would allow. At the same time, Archbishop Hallinan was confident that God’s grace would more than make up for our deficiencies.”