By Rita McInerney

The dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., lives on, Bishop Eugene A. Marino, auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C., said in his homily during the fifth annual Mass honoring the slain civil rights leader Sunday, Jan. 17 at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Atlanta.

Several hundred people comfortably filled the historic Shrine church for the Mass sponsored by the Office For Black Catholics and the Commission For Black Catholic Concerns of the archdiocese of Atlanta.

Bishop Marino, a Josephite priest born in Biloxi, Miss., was consecrated bishop on Sept. 12, 1974 at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. He was the third black priest of modern times to be elevated to the episcopacy in the United States.

He recalled, in his homily, the 1963 march on Washington, when the Rev. Dr. King”…touched the hearts and stung the consciences of his fellow Americans…In words that will live in our hearts the rest of our lives, he proclaimed his dream for this nation – a dream that coincides with God’s plan for all men and women – ‘that they all may have life and have it to the full’,” he said.

“Knowing full well that the prophet who faithfully speaks God’s word to a sinful world must inevitably suffer and die for his fidelity,” Martin Luther King nevertheless challenged this nation to rise up and live out its creed. He told us that we could be better than we were, and he dared us to “be the best that we could be,” the bishop said.

“…we are here today to tell the world that the dream of Martin Luther King lives on…it lives on in us. Dr. King’s dream is alive in every one of us who cherishes the hope that true freedom and genuine equality will one day become a reality in the lives of all our people.”

“We’ll keep on working – we’ll keep on singing – we’ll keep on registering and we’ll keep on voting – we’ll keep on praying – until that dream becomes a reality and all across this great land freedom truly rings.”

Things have changed for the better, he said, in the quarter century since Dr. King spoke in Washington. Yet "“much remains the same, and in some respects have gotten worse. In the richest country in the world hunger and homelessness are everywhere, poverty and unemployment still abound…many seem content to let these shameful conditions go effectively unchallenged. And all the while a stubborn and now not so subtle racism eats away at the guts of this nation,” the bishop said.

“We are no longer a people filled with outrage at the sight of poverty and injustice. In recent years, it has become acceptable not to care about those who are less fortunate. In fact, it has even become fashionable to criticize the poor and the victims of injustice, and even to blame them for their condition. The vision of America has become clouded, the dream has grown dim…”

“If today we seem to point a harsh accusing finger at our nation for losing their vision of Dr. King, we are at the same time pointing at ourselves for allowing the dream to fade. It is up to us, to you and me…”

Concluding his homily, Bishop Marino said, “Let every one of us go forth from this church pledging to do all that we can to make sure that each of our sisters and brothers who wants to work can have a job and a decent home. And let us not look to anyone else to do it for us…With complete conviction in the righteousness of our cause, with the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. clearly before us, with the strong arm of a loving God as our only support, depending fully on our prayers, let us go forth from this place with renewed determination to live the dream. Let freedom ring!”

The combined choir of member churches in the Commission for Black Catholic Concerns led the entrance procession, singing the joyous “I’m So Glad, Jesus Lifted Me.” As the singers “danced” in, swaying from side to side and clapping their hands, the congregation erupted in singing with them.

Six young liturgical dancers who performed during the offertory and presentation of gifts; Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver, altar servers, permanent deacons, priests of the archdiocese who concelebrated, also preceded Bishop Marino.

The mood of the processional, both exuberant and solemn, continued throughout the Liturgy. Bishop Marino joined with the congregation in its appreciation of the exceptional choir performance, singing the hymns and spirituals and applauding the soloists. Victoria Jackson, of St. Anthony’s, was choir director.

Rhonwyn V. Rogers, director of the Office For Black Catholics, was worship leader. Father Bruce Wilkinson, pastor of St. Anthony’s and priest-secretary of the Commission for Black Catholic concerns, spoke briefly at the conclusion of the Liturgy. A reception followed.

In an interview with the Georgia Bulletin before the Mass, Bishop Marino talked about his responsibilities as one of three auxiliary bishops in the archdiocese of Washington, D.C. Three bishops each serve a region. Bishop Marino’s includes most of the District of Columbia and two-thirds of Prince Georges County in Maryland.

“My work is to be primarily a pastoral presence,” he said. His region includes 30 parishes in the district and 20 in the county, and includes urban, suburban and rural congregations. Most of his time, Bishop Marino said, is spent visiting parishes for confirmations, anniversaries, formal visitations and other functions.

Prince Georges County, he said, “has its share of bigotry. We recognize that it’s there.” There had been trouble years ago when blacks started moving into the county, he added. Now there are a significant number of blacks and Orientals and Hispanics. “The feelings of bigotry are still there, as they are in all parts of the country, but we don’t have overt actions.”

Is the Church doing enough to break down bigotry among Catholics? “The Church always can do more. It’s a matter of recognizing what people feel is significant. Most of the pastors feel they are doing enough. The Church has been preaching about sin for 2000 years and it’s still around.”

“How do we address the underlying effects in ways to move people in mind and heart? We have to develop programs to get people working together on what the Church is called to do in worship, education, social outreach and evangelization,” the bishop said.

The Washington archdiocese has just completed a spiritual renewal program of several years duration for the priests. “Halfway through we initiated RENEW. Over half the parishes in the archdiocese participated. There was a great deal of interest.” He said a parish leadership development program continued for five seasons. “People need encouragement, leadership and direction,” he said.

Included in the development program was an intensive day of training on the diocesan level. At the next one, coming up soon, he said he would be giving a workshop on the theme of the National Black Catholic Congress held last May at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Bishop Marino said that there are about 70,000 black Catholics among the approximately 400,000 Catholics in the archdiocese.

After the congress, an archdiocesan coordinating team was selected. They took the pastoral plan created at the congress and “developed a Washington version. We tailored it to our own use,” Bishop Marino said. “We took the various priorities established for evangelization, education, black Catholic identity, worship, social outreach, and established objectives and strategies of our own.”

The coordinating team, he went on to say, has had four post-congress reflection days in various parts of the archdiocese, particularly areas with large numbers of black Catholics.

The archdiocese offers great variety and challenge, he said. Here are found some of the most influential and powerful people in the world along with some of the poorest. And the Church is trying to help the latter while “struggling to keep schools open, and through a large Catholic Charities organization trying to provide services people need.”

The archdiocese has increased the number of shelters for the homeless in the last six or seven years, Bishop Marino said. “The cutback in programs have had their price in human suffering,” he said mentioning St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for the mentally ill where the patient population has dropped from about 8,000 to 1,500 in the past decade. Many of these people are on the street.

While the church has been innovative in converting convents into shelters, it has raised opposition where nearby residents see the people being sheltered – the mentally ill, drug addicts, alcoholics – as contributing to the deterioration of the neighborhood. “The neighbors don’t like it, they’re afraid. And we need to do more than just warehouse these people at night,” the bishop said.

“We’re doing as much as we can. We would like to do more in the area of housing, and keeping the schools open. The teachers are so low paid, but thank God they stay. We’ve already priced many of our people out of our schools. The tuition is higher than ever.”

But, he added, “We haven’t had to close any of the city schools in the 13 years I’ve been there.”