By Gretchen Keiser

In an interview about the pro-life cause, and particularly about planned demonstrations by Operation Rescue in early October, Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, urged Catholics to take action in support of life.

"I would encourage people to give serious consideration to participation in Operation Rescue since that is what is going on in our city" during Respect Life week, the archbishop said in the Sept. 24 interview. He pointed out that Operation Rescue has invited people to take part at various levels -- by prayer support, by legal picketing in support of "rescuers," or by taking part in "rescues" that block abortion clinic entrances and invite arrest.

In the interview he also asked Catholics to take the occasion of Respect Life Sunday, Oct. 2 and the month of October, to consider "what, if anything, they have done" in the recent past to support pro-life efforts in a practical way and to plan some future action.

"Operation Rescue is one very dramatic and courageous effort to impact the reality of abortion in the community," he said. He also cited prayer and fasting, legislative lobbying, support for women seeking alternatives to abortion, and positive sex education for young people as other possibilities for action.

He recalled Jesus' instruction to his disciples that some evil can only be removed by prayer and fasting and said of abortion, "I think we are in the grip of one of those evils that can only be cast out by prayer and fasting."

Continuing to list possibilities, he added, "I wonder how many of our Catholics have considered sending a letter to their legislators" expressing their opposition to abortion and to the use of tax dollars to support abortion.

"How many Catholics have said to their priests or parish council president, 'We ought to do something in this parish to educate our young people about the beauty of sexuality and the need to avoid casual sex. We need to do something practical in our parish to help young girls'" in problem pregnancies.

"I would ask that question" during this time dedicated to life issues, he concluded. "What have we done -- what have I done -- in a practical way in support of life and in opposition to the destruction of life."

The archbishop also issued a statement on the anti-abortion activity in Atlanta, noting that "recently some have begun to employ the practice of non-violent resistance in an attempt to rescue intended victims from the fate of abortion."

He said participating in such activity "can be decided only by an individual's conscience" and those who do so must remain "scrupulously non-violent in every way -- physically, verbally and emotionally."

Operation Rescue, after a lull in activity in September, has said through spokespersons that actions will resume at abortion clinics beginning Oct. 4 and continue throughout that week. Rallies, which in the past have emphasized prayer, hymn-singing and brief talks, will be held nightly at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 3 through Oct. 7 at St. Jude's Church in Sandy Springs. A planning session has also been scheduled at the church from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 3.

A number of archdiocesan parishes, including St. John the Evangelist, St. Thomas More, Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. Jude's and All Saints, have hosted hours of prayer in recent weeks, followed by question and answer sessions about Operation Rescue.

Auxiliary Bishop Austin Vaughan of New York, who has been arrested in previous "rescues" in New York and Pennsylvania, said in a telephone interview Sept. 26 that he would come to Atlanta Oct. 3 to take part. The length of his stay here, he said, "may depend on the authorities."

Although some Atlanta religious figures have spoken in opposition to Operation Rescue's approach, Archbishop Marino said that "you can tolerate the breaking of civil man-made laws when they are directly in opposition to divine law."

However, he noted that anyone who breaks the law has "an obligation to accept the consequences of breaking the law." He also mentioned the U.S. bishops' pastoral on peace, which includes a section on non-violent protest. That text "offers some guidelines as to when non-violent protest is permissible and the conditions under which it is permissible," the archbishop said. One point would be that the protest "is truly non-violent -- that it does not assault (a person) psychologically or verbally through threatening postures or language."

Asked what guidelines he might offer to Catholics about Operation Rescue, the archbishop said he supported the group's request for prayer and fasting. "I would urge and encourage every Roman Catholic in the archdiocese to support his effort in that way, by prayer and sacrifice."

He also noted that people could take part in legal picketing if they chose. As to risking arrest through "rescues," he said, considerations would be the effect upon the person and his or her family of taking such a risk; the effect of having a criminal record; and the other obligations that the person has that might not be able to be faithfully carried out if the person was arrested.

Archbishop Marino said that he saw similarities and dissimilarities between the current moment and historic civil right confrontations.

A native of Biloxi, Mississippi, who grew up in a racially segregated society, the archbishop said that he believes the civil rights movement drew strength from "a much broader-based recognition of the injustice of segregation and racial inequality in our nation."

There was a general acceptance that what blacks and other minorities had to endure was manifestly wrong. Even in the South, even in the white community, I think there was a sense -- this isn't right."

By contrast, the archbishop said, "I don't think there is that general acceptance in the nation that this (abortion) is fundamentally evil and wrong." Perhaps the American public has this conviction under a layer of apathy, he said; Operation Rescue appears to be based upon a hope that this conviction exists and can be roused into action.

Despite the lack of awareness, the archbishop said that he believes abortion is a more profound evil.

"I think that abortion is much more fundamentally evil than racial inequality. I believe the unborn is a person and that abortion is the destruction of human life."

A greater degree of malice takes place in abortion, with the "abrupt and final deprivation of the most fundament right" the right to life, he said.

In the view of the Catholic Church, that deprivation of life is considered most serious and carries an ecclesiastical censure, he said, because not only is the unborn child deprived of life, but also of the possibility of sharing in the sacramental life of the church.

When an unborn child is deprived of the sacrament of baptism, which is "a sacrament of the living," the child is deprived of the ordinary sacramental means of becoming a part of the kingdom of God, the archbishop said.

"I'm not saying God can't bring these most innocent into His kingdom," he said, but in the eyes of the Church the act of abortion deprives the unborn of both natural and sacramental life.