By Rita McInerney

The congregation was young, six men in their twenties and thirties. The room was small and narrow with benches around three walls.

Four Catholics and two non-Catholics, they had been admitted into the room one by one. They carried Bibles, spoke quietly and smiled when introduced to the others in the room.

They were present to attend a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, on March 28 for Death Row prisoners at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center in Jackson, about 60 miles south of Atlanta. He was assisted by Deacon Tom Silvestri.

All six were murderers, condemned to die by Georgia courts. Two have been on Death Row 13 years, two for 12 years, and two for five years.

Before the Mass began, the archbishop and one of the Catholic inmates had faced each other through a barred door leading to a row of cells. With purple stole around his neck, the archbishop heard the young man’s confession. Out of sight, another doomed man waited to confess his sins.

Minutes before, the group from Atlanta had walked along an iron catwalk. From that height they could see men lying on their cots reading, watching television or staring at the intruders. It was an uncomfortable moment.

In the small room where the archbishop celebrated Mass, windows opened the area to watching eyes in the next room and in the corridor.

During his brief homily, Archbishop Marino spoke quietly of God’s forgiving love and mercy as proclaimed in the day’s readings from Isaiah and St. John.

After Mass, he told them he is trying to find a priest to visit the facility on a regular basis. They, in turn, mentioned their appreciation for Deacon Silvestri, of Holy Cross parish, who has been coming to the prison on Wednesdays since last July. He conducts a Communion Service for the Death Row men and another for the general prison population.

He’s doing a great job,” they told the archbishop. “We’re happy to have him whenever we can get him.”

Two recalled Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan’s celebrating Mass for them April 3, 1985. They spoke names of other priests who had celebrated the Eucharist with them: Bishop Raymond Lessard, of Savannah; several priests of the Atlanta archdiocese, Fathers Nick Novario, Richard Wise, Tony Green and most recently Dan Stack.

One inmate, a native of Springfield, Mass., told of being brought back to the faith by Father Joseph Drohan, while held in the youth facility at Milledgeville.

To the surprise of the Georgia Bulletin staff member permitted to accompany the archbishop the six men on Death Row are weekly readers of the archdiocesan newspaper. Several mentioned how they look forward to getting it from the deacon.