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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (June 16, 1988)
Vol. 26 No. 23 Thursday, June 16, 1988 $12.00 Per Year Analysts Cite Catholics As Key Voters In Election BY STEPHENIE OVERMAN WASHINGTON (NO - Michael S. Dukakis owes “an immense debt of gratitude” to Catholic voters, “without whose overwhelming support he could not have won” key Democratic primaries, ac cording to a Washington Post columnist. “To win the White House in the fall of 1988, Dukakis has to win the Catholics,” Mark Shields wrote in the June 7 issue of the Post. According to Shields, who writes political analysis columns for the Post, Catholic voters consider Dukakis, a Greek Orthodox, one of their own because they identify with his immigrant background. Ethnicity, or at least the appearance of ethnicity, is the key, he said. Vice President George Bush, on the other hand, “in demeanor and background ... reminds Catholics more of the Yankee elite who did not welcome their immigrant ancestors with either covered dishes or open arms.” “Democratic victory could well hinge on whether the springtime appeal of a sometimes Greek Orthodox candidate to Roman Catholic voters will last,” Shields wrote. Jim Castelli. a longtime religion writer and director of church-state policy for Peo ple for the American Way, called Shield’s column "on target.... It’s really Catholics who nominated Dukakis.” Catholic support for Dukakis “has very little to do with religious beliefs, it has to do with common ethnic experience,” said Castelli, co-author of “The Emerging Parish: The Notre Dame Study of Catholic Life Since Vatican II,” and “American Catholic People: Their Beliefs, Practices and Values.” Mainly because of his strength among Catholic voters, Dukakis won critical vic tories in Texas and Florida, according to Shields. In Maryland he won 60 percent of the Catholic vote and in New York 59 per cent of Catholics voted for him. In the general election, “certainly Vice President George Bush has no intention of conceding the Catholic vote to Dukakis,” Shields wrote in his column, noting that in 1984 President Reagan won 55 percent of Catholic voters. (Continued on page 13) Catholic Social Services, Inc. Has New Executive Director BY GRETCHEN REISER Steven Brazen, who has worked as assistant to the executive director of Catholic Social Services for the past nine years, has been appointed executive director by Archbishop Eugene Marino, S.S.J. Thirty-nine years old, Mr. Brazen joined Catholic Social Services in 1978, working for one year as a program assistant before becoming assistant direc tor to Father Jacob Bollmer for the next nine years. Last October he was appointed executive direc tor on an interim basis when Father Bollmer was given a leave of absence. Archbishop Marino last week appointed him to the position to take effect im mediately. Catholic Social Services, an agency which provides counseling services and embraces major arch diocesan efforts to serve those in need, including refugees, women in crisis pregnancy, the elderly and Hispanic immigrants, has over 50 employees and a budget of approximately $1.3 million, Mr. Brazen said. “Ten years ago, it had about 15 staff members and an operating budget of about $600,000,” he said, emphasizing the tremen dous growth. Among his responsibilities as assis tant executive director were developing new pro grams, seeking grants to support them, supervising some of the agency’s pro grams, including the adop tion program, Rural Social Services in Cumming, Ga., services to the elderly and Hispanic services. He also oversaw the diocesan aspect of the U.S. bishops’ Campaign for Human Development, a na tional effort funded by a (Continued on page 10) Announcement Most Reverend Eugene A. Marino, S.S.J., arch bishop of Atlanta, has announced that Mr. Steven L. Brazen, who has recently held the position of ex ecutive director, pro tern, of Catholic Social Services, Inc., has been appointed executive director, effective immediately. FIRST CELEBRATION — Although he had been archbishop less than a month, the May 29 birth date of Archbishop Eugene Marino was not overlooked at the Catholic Center where the Chancery and Finance staff hosted an impromptu celebration. The archbishop was 54. Ecumenical Community To Greet Archbishop Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, S.S.J., will be honored at an ecumenical recep tion greeting and welcoming him to North Georgia June 20. The reception is being co-sponsored by the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta and the Georgia Christian Coun cil. It will be held from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Mary Hogan Fellowship Hall of the Grace United Methodist Church, 458 Ponce de Leon Ave., Atlanta. Invitations have been sent to over 900 clergy and lay leaders of various mainline Protestant, Pentecostal and Greek Orthodox congregations, as well as religious leaders of the Jewish com munity, according to Neal Ponder of the metropolitan Atlanta council. The recep tion will give members of the Atlanta and the larger north Georgia ecumenical communities the opportunity to meet and welcome Archbishop Marino to the area, Ponder said.
