BY PAULA DAY

Their uniforms were Nikes, Reeboks, winter coats and knitted caps. Their weapons were prayer and anti-abortion signs.

Focused Catholics were among those who came to march in silent protest of what one speaker called an 18-year war on the unborn that has claimed an estimated 25,000,000 victims.

Representing parishes ranging from Cedartown to Thomson, and many areas between, Catholics were among the 15,000 who gathered January 23 for a pro-life rally and march, marking the anniversary of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision.

In a Mass for the unborn celebrated at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception before the rally, Father Edward Dillon told the congregation, “Our faith does not depend on any manmade legislation, but comes straight from the heart of God.” Furthermore, the vicar general noted, “Our faith gives us the strength to defy anything which stands contrary to it.”

The Gospel recounted the confrontation between the Herodians, sympathetic to peaceful coexistence with the Romans and Jews. Using Jewish law, the politicians tried to discredit Jesus when he healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath.

Father Dillon interpreted Jesus’ meaning: “Would you have me follow the letter of the law and send this man away to continue in his misery and suffering? Or would you have me follow the first law of God and show compassion to this man, God’s child? Is it permitted to do a good deed to the Sabbath, or an evil one? To preserve life or destroy it?”

“On this 18th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, we find our numbers swelling and our determination unswerving,” Father Dillon continued.

“In permitting abortion, our society deals in death, the death of the most innocent and helpless among us. As long as this generation is at peace with the unjust death of the unborn is it any wonder that we are so ineffective in challenging this generation to respond to the poor, the hungry and the homeless?” he asked.

“In this church dedicated to the Blessed Mother, we have gathered ... to plead with the Almighty to bring resolution to our efforts...”

Father Dillon concluded, “Let us feast on (Jesus’) body and blood, and fortified by His grace, let us continue the long battle to save life and to return all people to the healing love of God.”

Twelve priests, including Father Ferris Kleen, a visiting Maronite from the Brooklyn diocese, concelebrated the liturgy with Father Dillon. Deacon Tom Zaworski, assigned to Fort McPherson and Fort Gillem, assisted. The 450-seat church was filled for the celebration. Musicians from St. Jude in Sandy Springs provided the music. Alan Brown was organist, Linda Sinanian, violinist, and Mary Rogers, cantor. Students from St. Pius X High School and Marist School brought the gifts to the altar. David Dye, director of the Catholic Center at Georgia State University, was the lector and Lynda Von Kanel of St. Thomas Aquinas parish and Jane Connolly Goodwin of Christ Our Hope Interpreted for the hearing-impaired.

Before Mass Peggy Sinanian, director of the archdiocesan Pro-Life Office, read a letter from Bishop James P. Lyke, OFM.

Today, life is threatened from many directions – “by poverty and by poverty’s desperate solution, violence,” the Apostolic Administrator said, “by the pollution of the environment, the legacy of the great Industrial Era, and by an ever-increasing surrender to greed and self-gratification. Today, in fact, life everywhere in the world is witnessing a daily display of the precise technological means by which we may one day destroy ourselves.” Bishop Lyke urged those at the Mass to continue to pray for God’s help “as we labor to fulfill His promise, for what we undertake is to His glory and on behalf of His creation.”

Bishop Lyke, who is recuperating from surgery, was unable to celebrate the Mass.

Father Dillon issued a statement at the “Together for Life” memorial service for the unborn on the steps of the Georgia Capitol. He asserted “the basic human rights guaranteed by our American laws are inalienable because their source is not manmade legislation but the creator of all mankind, almighty God.”

“No right is more fundamental than the right to life itself,” he said, “and no innocent human life already begun can be deliberately terminated without offense to the Author of all life.”

He concluded, “There can be no moral acceptance of the United States Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade which professes to legalize abortion.”

Cal Thomas, keynote speaker at the rally, also emphasized the inherent right to life of those who have not been born and called for a new civil rights movement to safeguard this right.

The nationally syndicated columnist indicted his own profession. “There has been no choice,” he said. “Choice implies freedom of access to information, and journalists have lied to women” about the consequences of abortion.

Thomas compared the efforts of the pro-life movement to an 18-year war saying this is “a war based on spiritual things, not politics.”

Dr. Robert Rohm, a pastor at First Baptist Church of Atlanta, compared casualties in the present Mideast war and the 25,000,000 “casualties” of 18 years of legalized abortion, saying, “It’s safer to be in Iraq than in a woman’s womb in the United States.”

Absent from the program this year was a proclamation by the governor designating January 23 Respect for Life Day in Georgia.

The lack of this proclamation made no difference as far as the day was concerned, according to Mary Boyert, director of the Georgia Right to Life.

However, it will be more difficult to pass anti-abortion legislation without the governor’s support, she pointed out. “It will mean we must not just come to the door of the Capitol, we need to take the fight inside the Capitol. The Capitol belongs to the people and we must recapture it from the other side. We can be successful if we follow up on today.”

Using stickers distributed at the rally as participants entered through limited access points, organizers estimated that more than 15,000 people were massed in front of the Capitol and on Washington Street from Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive to Mitchell Street. Blue and lavender balloons and American flags waved above the heads of the crowd in the crisp winter wind. Red and white “Stop Abortion Now” signs bobbed when the hands holding them applauded speakers.

At the close of the memorial service the crowd formed a silent march at the corner of Washington Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. The marchers followed a course up MLK to Peachtree Street to Woodruff Park and back past Georgia State University to the Capitol. Lunchtime commuters, office workers and students watched from sidewalks.

The day was not without its mini-dramas. One 10-year-old boy, Michael Garcia-Carreras, was holding a sign for his brother, Eugene, when a woman jumped from a car, grabbed the sign and tore it in half. The two brothers patched it together again. It read, “It’s safer to be in Iraq than in a mother’s womb.”

It was evident from a sampling of the Catholics who participated in the rally and march that many had personal reasons for their involvement.

Francoise Fussell of St. John Vianney parish in Lithia Springs lost a daughter prematurely in 1983. She believes such a loss gives a person a different perspective on how precious a baby is.

“If the presence of this many people could convince even one woman to change her mind and keep the baby and give it up for adoption,” she said, “it would be worth it.”

“I’ve lost half my children,” she said. “I’ve had six pregnancies, but have only three live children.” Two of Mrs. Ross’ pregnancies ended up in miscarriage, another baby was born prematurely and died.

“I don’t see how people can cause an abortion when other people are trying so hard to have children.”

Kay Troncalli of St. John Neumann parish in Lilburn has 11 grandchildren, the last three of whom are adopted. “They’re as dear to us as the other children,” she commented.

Father Tom Kenny, rector of Christ the King Cathedral, came to the rally “to lend support to a movement that I believe in and to life.” One of his parishioners, Nick O’Connor, expressed a commonly heard reason for attending the day’s activities. “It demonstrates to the whole city that there are a tremendous number of people who are pro-life.”