BY PRISCILLA GREEAR

Staff Writer

CUMMING--At the first Atlanta Marian conference, Catholics humbly venerated the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, an exact replica of the image left by the Blessed Mother in Mexico in 1531.

“I will give all my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to the people. I am your merciful mother,” read a plaque in front of the image. Those were Mary’s words to the Indian peasant Juan Diego, on whose tilma, or cloak, the original Marian image appeared 465 years ago.

The significance of this and other Marian apparitions and of Mary’s role in the church were explored at the “Mary, Mother of God Conference” held Feb. 13 at Pinecrest Academy. Over 400 people, many carrying rosaries and wearing Miraculous Medals, participated. The program was led by Father Linus DeSantis, OFM Conv., and concluded with a Mass celebrated by Archbishop John F. Donoghue.

Father Paul Williams, administrator of Sacred Heart Church, Griffin, opened with a talk on the essential role of Mary in Catholicism, drawing from “The Credo of the People of God” written by Pope Paul VI.

“It’s very important for us to understand these doctrines concerning Mary because they lead us to Christ ... and by understanding Him we understand our own salvation,” Father Williams said.

“Mary is essential to the understanding of Christ, to the understanding of the church and to the understanding of who we are as Catholic Christians.”

Father Williams affirmed how, as Christ was human and divine, Mary was both a human mother and the Mother of God. He said Pope Pius IX in 1854 officially declared that Mary was born without original sin and lived with more grace than any other person and without personal sin.

Father Williams said Scripture indicates and the Catechism of the Catholic Church states Mary remained a virgin throughout life and, while it is unclear how she died, she was taken up body and soul into heaven and is now Queen of Heaven.

Graces of the Holy Spirit “flow through her from God in cooperating with Jesus,” he said. “We’re not saying that these are graces of her own, but it depends entirely on the graces of God working through her.”

In his homily, Archbishop Donoghue described Mary’s exemplary human virtues for which Catholics are devoted to her.

“I think our love and devotion to Mary springs really from the admiration and identification with her human virtue--the simplicity of her obedience--the constancy of her humility--her devoted motherhood and her long-suffering endurance at the side of her Son, Jesus Christ, as He travailed, suffered and died,” he said. “These are the qualities that draw us to Mary, the Mother of God, and make us quick to understand that she is our Mother in Faith as well.”

He called those gathered to renew their devotion to Mary and follow her “superb example.”

“Mary’s is the kind of conduct, the kind of attitude, the kind of spirit that we need to admire, to study, to ponder, and somehow try to work into every moment of our conscious lives, if we are to benefit from the great blessing God has given us in her person.”

Sister Isabel Bettwy, author and director of the National Shrine of Divine Mercy, spoke on the significance of various Marian apparitions.

“There’s no person here who’s not dear to Our Lady’s heart. She wants you to be completely happy with her in heaven and that’s one of the reasons that, throughout history, she comes to call the people of God back to (being) the children of God,” Sister Bettwy said. “She wants no attention for herself.”

She described the Guadalupe apparition where Mary brought about the conversion of the Indian people of Mexico to Christianity and delivered a message of love and compassion to help them overcome sorrow and misfortune which had befallen them as a conquered people. At Medjugorje, where Marian apparitions reportedly began in 1981, Sister Bettwy said the message is one of peace and conversion, which must be lived in daily life. She added that many people go on pilgrimages to Marian sites for physical healing when they need spiritual healing through the sacrament of reconciliation.

When Our Lady appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, she urged people to recite the rosary, do good works for the conversion of sinners and establish devotion to her under the title of her Immaculate Heart.

“Our Lady comes to lead us to deeper conversion. Say all those rosaries and go to all those Masses,” Sister Bettwy said. “(Yet) if it doesn’t change our lives, then why bother. It’s the testimony of our lives that’s going to bring people to conversion.”

Speaker Bud MacFarlane, Sr., a Knight of the Immaculata, said Catholics are awaiting a period of victory and peace promised by Our Lady of Fatima through consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Explaining the devotion of the Miraculous Medal, MacFarlane said that Mary appeared in 1830 in Paris to Catherine Laboure and commissioned her to spread devotion under the title of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. MacFarlane said it is one of the most important apparitions, as it connects the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

MacFarlane said that Catholics, who number over one billion worldwide, must set holy examples and that Americans, as the richest people in the world, have a particularly important responsibility to evangelize.

“We’re called to be truly holy saints,” he said. “The consecrated life is a foretaste of heaven.”

He said Mary has called Catholics to make Mass the center of their lives, to go to monthly confession, to fast twice a week on bread and water and to live prayerful lives.

Fasting and frequent confession “gives you a closer view ... of how God sees you,” MacFarlane said.

Dee Dee Holbrook, a parishioner at Transfiguration Church in Marietta, particularly benefited from hearing Marian messages on fasting and prayer.

“She’s calling us to pray more,” she said. “It’s hard for all of us. We’re all so busy, but I think ... it’s a matter of love. If we love something we do it.”

A Baptist convert to Catholicism, she said she struggled initially to accept Marian theology, but through prayer before the Blessed Sacrament perpetual she came to know Mary.

“She means to me the ultimate mother--a mother that’s very patient and peaceful. She’s definitely brought me closer to her Son--helped me to understand his suffering more than I had before. I think she brings important messages and I guess that’s what brought me here today,” Holbrook said.

Joseph-Henri Fradet, a parishioner of the St. Francis de Sales Latin Mass Community in Mableton, was reminded of the importance of evangelization.

“She’s calling us to come to Christ and we need to hear that message. We’re just bombarded by the media all the time and we need to be reminded every day to evangelize others and to reach out to help others and to help to bring about that kingdom on earth.”

Genny Hoene, who chaired the conference committee, has traveled five times to Medjugorje, pilgrimages which inspired her to initiate the conference. She views Mary as her spiritual mother who comforts and guides her.

“She watches out for each of her children. Just as she comforted her Son, she comforts us,” she said. “When she says, ‘Pray, pray, pray,’ that is one of the exercises ... to get us to heaven. In the same way, it helps us to renew our faith.”

MARIAN DEVOTION -- Marian conference facilitator Father Linus DeSantis, OFM Conv., talks with Janice Murphy, director of the archdiocesan Office of Young Adult Ministry, during a break in the program.
Photos by Michael Alexander

PARTICIPANTS -- Joe Myers, left, and Carolyn Maynor of St. Philip Benizi Church, Jonesboro, are among 400 people on hand for the First Atlanta Marian Conference held at Pinecrest Academy, Cumming, Feb. 13.

NATIONAL SPEAKER -- Bud MacFarlane, Sr., of the Maximilian Kolbe Institute, speaks on approved apparitions of Mary. MacFarlane is a Knight of the Immaculata, an association dating back to 1917 that promotes consecration to the Immaculate Virgin Mary.