Early life and education edit

Marino was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, the sixth of a total of eight children to baker and Puerto Rican Jesús María Marino and Lottie Irene Bradford Marino, an African American maid. He attended parochial schools in Biloxi before joining the Josephites. He attended Epiphany Apostolic College in New York and later earned his master's degree from St. Joseph's Seminary in Washington, DC. He also completed a master's degree in religious education at Fordham University in The Bronx. He was ordained a priest in 1962.

Priesthood edit

After ordination, Marino taught religion and physical science at Epiphany College in Newburgh, New York, for seven years. He was the spiritual director at St. Joseph's Seminary in Washington, D.C., from 1968 until 1971, when he became vicar general of the Josephites.

Episcopacy edit

In September 12, 1974, Marino was named an auxiliary bishop for the Washington Archdiocese, the first of several African Americans to hold this position. He became the secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1985, the first African American to hold that position.

In 1987 he organized a trip for a number of African-American Catholics to see Pope John Paul II; during a talk with these men and women, he stated:

Up as a young boy in Mississippi, with the double—I was going to say handicap, but I'll say blessing—of being black and Catholic, I never thought I would see the day when I would be standing here preaching God's holy word in this place, as a priest, indeed as a bishop. Generations of black Catholics never lived to see a black priest or sister, let alone ever dream that their son or daughter might become one.^[1]

Marino became the first African-American archbishop in American history when he was installed as Archbishop of Atlanta on May 5, 1988. He would later be involved in efforts to address the sexual misconduct of priests.

Marino was engaged in an affair with a female lay minister during his episcopacy, and it became public knowledge in 1990. A lay minister, Vicki Long, revealed that she had been secretly married to Marino in 1988.^[2]

Following these events, after just two years as Archbishop of Atlanta, Marino, who had been in seclusion since June 1, 1990, resigned on July 10, 1990, citing "spiritual renewal, psychological therapy and medical supervision" as the reason. He then underwent a six-week-long period of counseling. Retaining his title of archbishop, Marino quietly moved to Michigan and took a post as chaplain with the Sisters of Mercy in Alma, where he remained until 1995. From then until 2000, he worked in a counseling program at St. Vincent's Hospital Westchester in Harrison, New York, counseling on sexual behavior and substance abuse.

Death edit

In the early morning hours of November 12, 2000, while employed at Salesian High School in New Rochelle, New York, as a counselor and confidant for fellow priests and nuns, Marino died at age 66 in the St. Ignatius Retreat House in Manhasset, New York. He was discovered in bed by the housekeeper and it was established that he had died of a heart attack. He was buried in Biloxi, Mississippi. Of his eight siblings, one brother and four sisters survived him.^[3]