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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 1989)
The Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 27 No. 1 Thursday, January 5, 1989 $15.00 Per Year Vespers at the' Cathedral, May 4, 1988. Operation Rescue, Atlanta, Oct. 4, 1988. 1988 Was Historic For Archdiocese. Pro-Life BY RITA McINERNEY “As bishop and Church we have been called by God to walk together through the » final years of the 20th century.” (From Archbishop Eugene A. Marino’s installa tion homily May 5, 1988) * The pace of Archbishop Marino’s first eight months as shepherd was much faster than a walk. In fact, it could be said he started out running and was just beginning * to slow his stride as the year ended. Although he was Atlanta’s newest celebrity, pastoral responsibilities were his primary concern. Ecumenical invita- * tions and media interviews were squeezed into an awesome round of parish visita tions, confirmations, meetings with priests and Religious. But this was several months in the future when, as auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C., he made his first visit to Atlanta on Jan. 16-17,1988. He came then as celebrant and homilist for the fifth annual Mass honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. There was curiosity among several hun dred people filling the Shrine of the Im maculate Conception Church in downtown Atlanta for this Liturgy sponsored each year by the Office for Black Catholics and the Commission for Black Catholic Con cerns. After the Mass and reception there was a lot of hope that Bishop Marino, a Josephite priest who grew up in segregated Biloxi, Miss., would be the new archbishop. Everyone was waiting for word of a new shepherd. Archbishop Thomas A. Don- (Continued on page 8) BY GRETCHEN REISER 1988 was a year in which polarization over abortion became a major news story and pro-life activists moved from legal protest to arrest to dramatize their convic tions. In the first month of the year, on January 28, while U.S. pro-life rallies were marking the 15th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision, the Canadian Supreme Court legalized abortion on de mand in that country. Canada, up until that point, had permit ted only “therapeutic’* abortion when an accredited hospital committee ruled that the life or health of the mother was threatened. By a 5-2 vote, Canada’s Supreme Court said that that law violated Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It was immediately compared with the Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973 that made abortion on demand permissible in the United States, based upon a woman’s right to privacy. Simultaneously pro-life groups in the U.S, were marking the 15th anniversary of that decision with national and local marches, speeches and Masses. An estimated 50,000 people marched in Washington, D.C., while in Atlanta 1,500 to 2,000 people met on the steps of the state Capitol and held a silent march through downtown. There was nothing particularly unusual about the marches, which have become a January trademark of the pro-life move ment, even as the movement’s major (Continued on page 10)
