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APRJL 23, 1938
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
FIVE
Confraternity Practically Doubles Objective
MEMBERS SECURED
NOW NUMBER 2,600--
2,000 WERE SOUGHT
Every Section of State
Oversubscribes Its Quota
in Subscriptions and Num
ber of Members
(Continued from Page One)
comer of the state, seven and a half
times the size of Massachusetts. They
ascertained that the state’s Catholic
population was nearly 25,000 an
increase of about five thousand over
the last available figure.
Having compiled a tentative pro-
Gram, Bishop O’Hara then consulted
groups of leaders in various sections
of the state on what could be done
to put the program into effect. One
such meeting was held in Savannah
and another in Atlanta, attended by
the district pastors, heads of Catholic
organizations and other leaders, to
consider the possibilities. It was de
cided that the minimum amount nec
essary to start the program was $100,-
000 to be expended within a period of
two years. It was . estimated that
about 2,000 members could be secured
for an organization which would un
dertake to finance the campaign, mak
ing the individual contributions fifty
dollars.
The Confraternity
These conferences, therefore, sug
gested an organization to be
known as the Bishop’s Confraternity
of the Laity for the purpose of fi
nancing the Bishop’s program, that it
undertake to secure 2,000 members,
and that membership in the Confrat
ernity be fifty dollars or more, pay
able within two years. The services
of Mr. John F. McKeown, a national
ly known director of movements for
financing Catholic efforts, including
such efforts as the Catholic Charities
of New York, and the Diocesan ac
tivities of Newark, Mobile, Omaha
and Reno, were secured, it being felt
that an enterprise of this magnitude
required such expert and experienced
advice.
Bishop O’Hara agreed to serve as
honorary chairman, the Rt. Rev.
Msgr. Joseph F. Croke, chancellor of
the Diocese, as general director, the
Rev. Joseph G. Cassidy, of Savannah,
and the Rev. Thomas L. Finn, of At
lanta. as district directors, Dr. J. Reid
Broderick, as Savannah lay chair
man; Dr. Alfred M. Battey, of Au
gusta, as district vice-chairman,
James L. Dickey, of Atlanta, as At
lanta district chairman, and Estes Do-
remus, as vice-chairman.
Savannah Dinner
To present the program to the lay
men of the state, they were invited to
attend dinners in their respective dis
tricts, one in Savannah at the De-
Soto Hotel Monday evening, March
28, and one in Atlanta two days lat
er at the Piedmont Driving Club. The
number responding to the invitation
■ for the Savannah dinner was 488, in
cluding delegations from Brunswick,
Waycross, Thomasville, Blackshear,
Valdosta, Augusta and other cities in
the district Dr. Broderick presided
at the dinner, Bishop O’Hara present
ed his program and a resolution in
troduced by Thomas F. Walsh, K. S.
G.. formally organizing the Confrat
ernity of the Laity for the purpose of
financing the program was anany-
mously adopted.
Father John F. White
If the campaign had done nothing
but introduce Father John F. White
to the Catholics of Georgia, it would
have been more than worth while.
After Bishop O’Hara’s address and
the adoption of the resolution, Father
White spoke to the gathering in a
manner which none present will ever
forget. Seasoning his address on
Catholic Action with the most exqui
site humor, he deeply impressed his
audience with the thought of the op
portunity which the program and the
campaign presented to the Catholics
of Georgia for the advancement of
both Church and State.
The evening's program was for
tunate to in its genial master of
ceremonies, Paul Delaney, of Phila
delphia, who contributed numerous
vocal solos and other entertaining
numbers to the program and who led
the diners in group singing.
At the Dinner in Atlanta
SOME MAJOR GIFTS
IN THE CAMPAIGN
Some of the larger contributions to
the Confraternity of the Laity cam
paign, a list which will be supple
mented, by the other contributions in
future issues of The Bulletin, follow:
56.000— Mrs- Joseph N. Mooody, At
lanta.
55.000— Mrs. Kate Flannery Semmes.
Savannah; the Doonan Family, At
lanta.
$1,600—Congregation of Nativity
Parish, Philadelphia, where Bishop
O'Hara was formerly pastor.
$1,200—Mrs. P. O. Herbert, Atlanta.
$1,000—His Eminence, Dennis Car
dinal Dougherty, Archbishop of Phil
adelphia; the Dooley family, Savan
nah; Miss Mary Moynihan, Augusta;
J. J. Haverty. K. S. G., Jack J. Spald
ing, K. S. G„ K. M„ Mrs. J. Carroll
Payne, Mrs. Alice Kuhn, Atlanta.
$750—Mrs. Robert Troutman, At
lanta.
$600—James 11. McKenna, Savannah.
$500—Bishop O’Hara, Henry B.
Brennan, Joseph F. Griffin, Dr. W.
B. Crawford, Al Remler, Savannah;
Miss Margaret Bartley, Carling Dink
ier, Miss Annie Mae Gallagher, James
J. Glynn, James Ignatius Murphy,
James L. Dickey. Clarence Haverty,
Mrs- Charles T. Hopkins, Mrs. Eliz
abeth Powell, Mrs. Alex Smith, Jr.,
Miss Hannah Kuhn, Atlanta; Mrs. A.
N. McSorley, Mrs. Mary L. Wood
ruff, Columbus.
$300—Hughes Spalding, Atlanta.
$250—Albert Goethe, Dr. John Paul
Jones, Timothy K. Joyce, Dr. J. Reid
Broderick, Cletus W. Bergin, Dr. Mi
chael J. Egan, Mr. and Mrs. John W.
Gleason, John F. Gleason, W. A.
Semmes, Dan J. Sheehan, Savannah
Council, Knights of Columbus, and
an anonymous donor, Savannah; Ed
mond Brady, Harold Brady, Stephens
Mitchell, A. J. Ryan, Miss Ida Ryan,
R. A. Ryan, Atlanta; the Catholic
personnel of Fort Benning; Dr. and
Mrs. R. Frank Cary, Macon.
After Father White’s address, Jul
ian F. Corish announced in the name
of the committee that Mrs. Kate Flan
nery Semmes had that day indicated
her interest in and endorsement of
the Confraternity and its purpose to
aid the Bishop by contributing $5,000.
Bishop O’Hara announced a gift of
• $1,600 from his former parish in Phil
adelphia, that of the Nativity, and
one from His Eminence, Cardinal
Dougherty, Archbishop of Philadel
phia, for $1,000, half of each to be *
credited to the Savannah and half to
the Atlanta District.
These announcements were follow
ed by subscriptions from the gather
ing to tile amount of $35,000. The de
tails of these contributions will be
published in the next issue of The
Bulletin.
Atlanta Dinner
Two days later in Atlanta, at the
dinner at the Piedmont Driving Club
at which Bishop O’Hara also present
ed the program and Father White
spoke, James L. Dickey, Atlanta dis
trict lay chairman, presiding, the
guests at the dinner subscribed about
$37,000, headed by a contribution of
$5,000 from the Doonan family, one of
Georgia’s pioneer families; it was in
the home of Terence Doonan, grand
father of the present senior Doonans,
that Mass was first said in Atlanta.
Appropriately enough, the contribu
tion is for a memorial which is to
take the form of a chapel. Mrs. Joseph
N. Moody contributed $6,000 during
the general campaign.
The number at the Atlanta dinner
was in excess of 400. Paul Delaney
was master of ceremonies here also;
the resolution in which the gathering
pledged its support to the plan of the
Confraternity was presented by Jo
seph B. Brennan, Esq. Those at the
dinner came not only from Atlanta,
but from places as far north as Rome,
near the Tennessee and North Caro
lina border, from Fitzgerald and Al
bany on the fringes of Florida, from
Macon, in the center of the state, from
Columgus, across the Chattahoochee
from Alabama, from Milledgeville,
Athens, LaGrange and numerous
other cities and communities inter
vening.
At Atlanta the letter front Presi-
At the Savannah Dinner
_. , ,, . . Courtesy of the Savannah Press.
Bishop OHara addressing the Savannah banquet, attended by 488 men at the De Soto Hotel. Left to right,
Monsignor Croke, Dr. Reid Broderick, lay chairman and toastmaster, Bishop O’Hara, Alfred M. Battey, Augusta,
district vice-chairman, Father John F. White of New York and the Rev. Joseph G. Cassidy, director of the Sa
vannah district.
dent, published elsewhere in this is
sue, was read by Richard Reid. At
Atlanta and Savannah Bishop O’Hara
directed attention to the serious in
juries sustained by R. W. Hatcher, of
Milledgeville, a leader in the Confrat
ernity, and prayers were offered for
his recovery.
Mass Meetings
In Augusta the following night,
Thursday, in Savannah the next night,
Friday, and in Atlanta Sunday there
were mass meetings of men and wo
men workers in the campaign and of
the general public, addressed by
Bishop O’Hara, Father White and the
district directors, Father Finn in At
lanta. and Father Cassidy in Augus
ta and Savannah. The Augusta meet
ing was held at Mt. St. Joseph's Acad
emy, the Savannah meeting at the
Catholic Association and the Atlanta
meeting at the Biltmore Hotel. These
meetings were supplemented by radio
addresses over WSB, Atlanta, WRDW,
Augusta, and WTOC, Savannah, for
ten days before the opening of the
campaign, climaxed by a final ad
dress Sunday afternoon over WSB by
Bishop O’Hara, one which reached
every comer of the state.
co-operation from one end of the
state to the other, the unanimous re
sponse to the inspiring leadership of
Bishop O’Hara, the interest of non-
Catholics in the campaign, the fine
spirit of the press, the generous as
sistance also of the radio stations, all
combine to make this one of the great
est efforts of its kind anywhere in the
Uinted States at any time under con
ditions anywhere approaching those
of Georgia and the Diocese of Savan-
nah-Atlanta.
The Campaign
Sunday a special Bulletin devoted to
the campaign was distributed in the
churches of Georgia, each person re
ceiving one. As on previous Sun
days, the pastors and priests empha
sized the campaign and its purpose.
Monday evening, April 4, the parish
chairmen and workers gathered in
their parish halls or rectories for fin
al preparations. Tuesday morning
the campaign started, and the re
sponse was immediate and over
whelming. Tuesday night, when the
reports began to pour in by telephone
to the district directors, it was evi
dent that the objective of $100,000 was
passed. But the higher the total went,
the greater became the enthusiasm of
the workers. Some of the parishes
passed their quota the first day. Prac
tically all passed it early in the week.
When the scheduled time for the clos
ing of the campaign arrived Friday-
night, after four days of work, the to
tal for the state was about $75,000 be
yond its $100,000 mark, with returns
still coming in.
The details of the returns will be
given more at length in the next is
sue of The Bulletin. But the full sig
nificance of the campaign is already
evident The magnificent ’spirit of
MISS NORAH ROUSELLE, a grad
uate of Loretto Academy, Toronto,
and a member of a widely known
Catholic family, is the present teach
er of the Dionne quintuplets.
Father Irwin Going to
Budapest Congress
New Bern, N. C., Pastor to
Attend Ceremonies
RALEIGH, N. C.—The Rev. Michael
A. Irwin, pastor at New Born, and
one of the pioneer priests of the Dio
cese of Raleigh, where he served with
Father Thomas Price, co-founder of
Marknoll, will attend the Inter
national Eucharistic Congress at
Budapest, leaving earl in Mai for
the ceremonies. y
Message of the President
to Confraternity of Laity
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Warm Springs, Georgia
March 29, 1938
My Dear Mr. Reid:
May I, through you, express my hearty appreci
ation of the welcome to Georgia which you extended in
behalf of the Bishop’s Committee of the Laity. It is
always a delight to return to Georgia and my visit, I
may assure you, is made doubly enjoyable by the kind
thoughtfulness of friends such as you and the Committee
in whose behalf you write.
I am glad to hear of the practical program you are
initiating, under the direction of Bishop O’Hara, to form
a Catholic Charities Bureau in the Diocese of Savannah-
Atlanta and to carry out other good works. It is indeed
gratifying to know that your group is unwearied in these
undertakings to carry light into dark places and to bring
joy into the lives of the underprivileged. I send you
and those associated with you my hearty greetings and
best wishes.
Very sincerely yours,
(Signed) FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Mr. Richard Reid,
Executive Secretary,
Bishop’s Committee of the Laity,
6 West Harris St.,
Savannah, Ga.