By Gretchen Keiser

In a section of southwest Atlanta, many people are experiencing a first – the first face-to-face invitation they’ve received to join the Catholic Church.

Sponsored by St. Paul of the Cross parish, a small group of men and women from Georgia and neighboring states are going door to door in an area around Southwest Community Hospital near the Adamsville section. Imitating a work which began among the monks of Europe in the sixth and seventh century, and which was resurrected in Dublin, Ireland in the 1920s, the group is taking part in a “peregrinatio pro Christo” or pilgrimage for Christ.

They hope to bring to people “the truth about the Catholic Church,” according to Bob Blackburn, a Hollywood, Fla. layman who is leading the team. In many cases, they are also bringing the first personal invitation to join the church to those whom they are meeting in neighborhoods, housing complexes and playgrounds.

The pilgrimage is a work of the Legion of Mary a lay Catholic apostolate which began in Dublin in 1921 as its founder, Frank Duff, foreshadowed the century’s unfolding of lay evangelization work in the church. In its first two years, the Legion became known as the “Society of Miracles,” Blackburn said, as members worked in a notorious and crime-ridden Dublin neighborhood which had been virtually abandoned by civil authorities. The dramatic conversions experienced in that area during the first days of the Legion of Mary provided a base for tremendous growth. Outstanding missionaries for the Legion, such as Edel Quinn, a young woman whose work in Africa is expected to be recognized by her beatification in Kenya next year, and Alfie Lambe, who brought the Legion to Latin America, carried evangelization to new continents. The Legion has existed in the United States since the 1930s, seeking to embody an active devotion to Mary which brings the Gospel of her Son, Jesus, to all people.

The group gathered in Atlanta is made up of eight to nine people who go door-to-door in teams, inviting those they meet to an open house at St. Paul of the Cross Church held on two succeeding Friday nights in May. As the conversation unfolds, the Legionaries answer questions about the Catholic Church and devotion to Mary and distribute pamphlets and the Miraculous Medal to those who will accept the material.

The team includes several retired people, a construction worker, a student, a seminarian and a housewife.

“We go in pairs, but Mary is with us, too,” said Charles Fairbanks, an 82-year-old retired postal worker from Florida. “Lots of times it’s almost apparent she’s been there ahead of us and almost prepared them for us.”

Despite the natural apprehension people have toward strangers who appear at the door – and the questions that might be raised about the church by non-Catholics – team members said they have not encountered hostility. “Most contacts are very, very good,” Blackburn said. On some, he said, “We encounter ignorance or apathy or indifference, but not hostility.”

Surprisingly, also, team members find that many Christians are curious about Mary, the Church’s devotion to her, and the miracles associated with apparitions at Fatima, Lourdes and Guadalupe. Rather than challenging Catholic teaching on Mary, “Most Protestants I’ve come in contact with have wondered why in their own beliefs she is not thought of, because she is the mother of God,” Blackburn said.

On a recent Thursday morning, the group had encountered a variety of people, including a woman who was no longer a practicing Catholic, but who sought prayers for her children; a wheelchair-bound woman in need of special care; and a Methodist man who accepted a Miraculous Medal and said he was in need of Mary’s help.

In addition to the invitation to come to St. Paul of the Cross, people receive help and support from the visiting group and from the parish network if they request it. The Legion pilgrimages are always done at the invitation and under the direction of the pastor and depend, for their fruitfulness, on the follow-up work that the parish Legion group and the parish as a whole does after the visiting is through.

“We’re only human instruments. We’re Mary’s instruments, going out, visiting her children, bringing her greetings,” Blackburn said.