Nation’s 1st Black Archbishop Installed
The Most Rev. Eugene A. Marino became the nation’s first black Roman Catholic archbishop Thursday, telling his mostly white parishioners that his status need not “affect the quality of my ministry.”
An overflow crowd at the Atlanta Civic Center applauded Marino, a native of Biloxi, Miss., as he entered the hall and interrupted him several times with more applause.
“There can be no escaping the fact that I am the first black bishop to serve in Atlanta and the first black archbishop in the nation,” Marino said. “Having noted that, I hasten my deep personal conviction that it need not affect the quality of my ministry among you nor the nature of our relationship with each other.”
More than 800 clergy, including nearly 100 Roman Catholic bishops and three cardinals, attended Thursday’s installation Mass.
Archbishop Pio Laghi, Pope John Paul II’s representative in the United States, called it “unique” because of the outpouring of interest. The crowd proved “that the selection made by the Holy Father has been the right one,” he said.
Among local leaders attending the Mass were Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King III, along with other relatives of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Mayor Andrew Young.
The archdiocese covers 69 counties in north Georgia, with a Catholic population of about 156,000, including about 10,000 blacks.
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