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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1987)
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 25 No. 9 Thursday, February 26, 1987 $12.00 Per Year BLESSED WITH ASHES — Mary Fagan of Roanoke, Va., prays during Ash Wednesday services at St. Andrew’s Church last year. Ash Wednesday, March 4, begins for Christians the traditional 40-day period of fasting and prayer leading to Easter. Lenten regulations appear on page four. (NC photo from UPI) Charities Drive Sister Brings Church To Rural Counties BY RITA McINERNEY Sister Catherine Concannon, SSND, has been a ‘‘Catholic presence” in Banks and Jackson counties in northeast Georgia for the past six years and in other rural Georgia areas for 16 years. In her daily rounds she is teacher, counselor, friendly visitor, Eucharistic minister. It’s a job she loves, a job made possible by funding from the archdiocesan Charities Drive. The Catholic population in the two counties is ex tremely low, almost ‘‘zero percent,” she estimates. Those practicing their faith go to either St. Michael’s parish in Gainesville or St. Joseph’s in Athens for Sun day Mass. In Banks, where the population is about 8,000, and Jackson, where it’sabout25,000, Sister Cath erine is concerned about a number of former Catholics who opted for joining one of the local Christian congregations rather than drive week ly the 20 or so miles to a Catholic church. Once a month, bn the first Wednesday night, Father Richard Kieran, pastor at St. Joseph’s, celebrates Mass in Commerce, Jackson County. The other three Wednesday nights, Sister Catherine celebrates the Liturgy of the Word (Continued on page 8) Cgtfio lie Cmr\Wes DriVe^i., 1987 ^ IWITTEO TO LIFE | **«« x HIGH Mcmo-Jjj STUDENTS FOR LIFE — Under a banner from St. Pius X High School, students take part in a pro-life march Sunday, Feb. 22 from the state Capitol to Midtown abortion clinic in Atlanta. The march in the rain drew an estimated 1,800 people who were memoralizing the Jan. 22 anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abor tion on demand. The original January march was postponed by snow. More photos on page six. (Photo by Don Tortorella) Indiana Girl Death Row Teen Asks Pope's Help BY AGOSTINO BONO ROME (NC) — Paula Cooper, a teen-ager on an Indiana death row, has asked Pope John Paul II’s aid in having her death sentence commuted. The request was made in a letter sent to the pope by her lawyer, said the 17-year-old Miss Cooper in an interview published Feb. 20 in the Rome daily, II Messaggero. “I hope that he will want to help me,” she said. Miss Cooper, who is not Catholic, said she has a photograph of the pope hanging in her cell in the women’s prison in Indianapolis. “I don’t dare imagine him in flesh and blood, but I hope just the same that he takes an interest in me," she said. On Feb. 20 a Vatican press spokesman said the letter had not arrived. Miss Cooper was sentenced to death for the 1985 (Continued on page 8) Annual Financial Report Of Archdiocese, Page 1A Pope's Trip S.C. Service Open To Public BY RITA McINERNEY An ecumenical prayer service at Wil liams - Bryce Stadium at the University of South Carolina will be the only public event during the visit of Pope John Paul II to Colum bia, S.C., on Sept. 11. The pope will travel to the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina in the afternoon after celebrating an outdoor Mass in Miami, the first stop on his United States visit. He will arrive in Miami from Rome on Wednes day, Sept. 10. His visit will conclude in Detroit, Mich., on Sept. 19. Bishop Ernest L. Unterkoefler, bishop of the statewide Catholic diocese of Charleston, in announcing the papal visit said it will have “spiritual significance to all believers” in the state. As head of the Atlanta Province, which in cludes South Carolina, Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan will be in Columbia for the pope’s visit. He also plans to attend the meeting of the pope and the bishops of the United States during the papal visit to the Los Angeles area. Admission to the Columbia prayer service will be by ticket, according to Paul Beach, director of communications for the Charleston diocese. The stadium holds (Continued on page 8)
