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j 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.