By Thea Jarvis

Three groups and seven individuals were recognized as “Those Who Have Worked for Peace and Justice” at the 10th annual archdiocesan celebration in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The event, a noon Mass celebrated by Archbishop John F. Donoghue and a luncheon reception following, was sponsored by the Secretariat for Black Catholic Ministry and held at St. Ann’s Church in Marietta on Jan. 15, Dr. King’s birthday.

The peace and justice recognitions were the first to be given in the archdiocese and are expected to become an annual tradition.

Award winners included the Social Action Committee of St. Paul of the Cross Church in Atlanta, the Social Concerns Committee of St. Mark’s Church in Clarkesville, and the Student Council of Christ the King School in Atlanta.

Individual recipients were Pat Bowman of Most Blessed Sacrament Church in Atlanta, Sister Mary Kay Finnernan, SC, of St. Pius X High School, George Roach of St. Oliver Plunkett Church in Snellville, Gina Baehl and Meg Helmer of St. Lawrence Church in Lawrenceville, Lucious Rakestraw and Sylvia Paul of St. John the Evangelist Church in Hapeville.

Father Bruce Wilkinson, Secretary for Black Catholic Ministry in the archdiocese, said the awards honor those who show “our living is not in vain by what they share with others.” A committee composed of Howard Brown, Mary Allen and Lorraine Mencer selected this year’s winners from applications submitted by archdiocesan parishes and institutions.

Some honorees were unable to attend because of a continuing commitment to their work. Father Wilkinson announced that Sister Finnernan, who coordinates outreach programs for the archdiocesan high school, was busy at a Habitat for Humanity site. Gina Baehl and Meg Helmer, who have been assisting an elderly Bosnian couple in their relocation to North Georgia, were helping the couple’s relatives develop job resumes.

Pat D’Entremont, on hand with her husband, Phil, to receive the award for St. mark’s Social Concerns Committee, has been active in the group since its beginnings in 1976, when it started as a peace and justice committee at the small, close-knit parish. She said the circle of seven to 10 regular members currently supports a soup kitchen, interfaith emergency assistance program, a home for abused wives and local Habitat for Humanity projects.

Over the years, members have initiated letter-writing campaigns to U.S. senators and representatives, promoting, among other goals, Bread for the World’s push to end hunger, and peace initiatives in Central America. The committee now distributes a quarterly newsletter focusing on peace and justice concerns at parish, local and global levels.

“For a little parish we’re pretty active,” Mrs. D’Entremont said as she waited for lunch at St. Ann’s with Tom and Helen Gagnon and their young daughter. Along with Mary Ruth Jones and her son, they had all traveled from Clarkesville for the King birthday celebration despite bitter cold temperatures and a bone-rattling wind.

Father Charles Smith, SVD, who ministers to youth nationwide through the John Bowman Project in Atlanta, had earlier warmed the congregation with a spirited homily comparing Dr. King to the biblical Joseph. Both survived the wrath and envy of their brothers and became leaders of their people.

Joseph “had the audacity to dream,” said Father Smith, and because of his dreams, Joseph’s brothers plotted against him.

“What do you do about a black man” -- or a woman, refugee, a gay or lesbian -- who dares to dream? he asked. Though people attack the dreamer and defer the dream, “they (can) not kill the dream.”

“Joseph didn’t make up the dream by himself,” Father Smith told the congregation. “The giver of the dream never took his hands off Joseph. The same God who gave the dream” used hardship to fortify the dreamer. “Somehow, through it all, (Joseph) kept the faith.”

“At the mountaintop is the crucifixion,” he said. But beyond the mountain is the stone rolled away. Dr. King left “a value, a vision and a promise to sound the alarm.” We are called to “move beyond the political to the prophetic.”

Father Smith, dressed in a colorful African-American robe that covered a traditional black cassock, was part of a celebration that drew representation from a host of archdiocesan parishes. Priests and deacons, some wearing stoles in African-American colors of red, black and green, processed into St. Ann’s before Mass with the Ladies of St. Peter Claver and parishioners bearing festive church banners.

Archbishop Donoghue was joined on the altar by St. Ann’s pastor, Father Robert Susann, MS, Father Wilkinson, Father Terry Young and deacons Nick Morning and Fred Sambrone. Connie Sambrone assisted as lector and Karen Morning offered intercessory prayer. Altar servers included Kieran Belanger, Patrick Dunley, Kirt McCaw and Jeff Siegret.

The liturgy was enhanced by St. Ann’s music ministry under the direction of Terese Patterson, the choir of St. Anthony’s Church in Atlanta directed by Darren Williams and the Hispanic Youth Choir, led by Rody Padilla.