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FOUR—A THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA AUGUSTA 25, 1945 Former Pastors of St. Theresa’s, Albany MONSIGNOl. CASSIDY The Very Rev. Monsignor Joseph G. Cassidy, rector of tlxe Cathed ral of Christ the King, in Atlanta, was pastor of St. Theresa’s Church, Albany, Ga., from March, 1943, un til April of this year. It wa' during Monsignor Cassi dy’s sta„ in Albany that the move ment to build a new church, rec tory, sc tool and convent was inau gurated several months ago. FA11HER BRENNAN One of the most esteemed of the priests who have served at St. Theresa’s Church in Albany, is the Rev. Thomas A. Brennan, now pastor of the Blessed Sacrament Church in Savannah. First as assistant to the late Father Leo M. Keenan, from 1926 to 1930, and then his successor as pastor, from 1930 to 1941, Father Brennan made a host of friends in Albany. Parochial School in Albany Begins Classes Next Month (Special to The Bulletin) ALBANY, Ga. — The year which marks the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the first offering of the Holy Sac rifice of the Mass in Albany, will witness also another important event in the history of the Catho lic Church in this community— the opening of Albany’s first ♦’Catholic school. With a teaching staff com posed of Sisters Adorers of the Most Precious Blood, St. Theresa's parochial school is scheduled to open on September 5, the same date as that set for the opening of the other Catholic schools of the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta. Operating without tuition charges, the new school will be gin with six grammar grades and n kindergarten, and will be housed in a former residence which has been reconstructed and converted into a school. There will be four class rooms, a reception room, a lunchroom, a kitchen, and reift rooms. The work of remodeling has been done by the Hodges Build ing and Supply Company, under the supervision of Joseph Dio- i guardia. superintendent of con- , struction for the Diocese of Sa- i vannah-Atlanta, with the Very j Rev. Daniel J. Bourke. V. F.. pas tor of St. Theresa’s Church, and George Mock and J. II. Wigger- man. representing the parish, serv ing in advisory capacity. A nearby dwelling will be used by the Sisters as a residence un til such time as a convent can be erected. Members of St. Theresa’s parish and their friends in Albany will welcome the four Sisters Adorers ' of the Most Precious Blood, who will compose the faculty of the new school, at a reception to be held on the afternoon of Septem ber 2, at the school. The Right Rev. T. James Mc Namara, of Savannah, Superin tend of Schools for the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta, will attend, and invitations have been extended to the Superintendent of Schools of Dougherty County, members of the Board of Education, and city and countv officials as well as to the Catholic and non-Catholie resi dents of Albany. A musical urogram is being ar ranged for the occasion bv Mrs. Robert E. McCormack, while the decoration of the school building and the serving of refreshments will be taken care of by members of the Altar Society, under the direction of Miss Margaret ♦"“'Stenhens. Th Altar Society of St. Theresa’s Church also has accepted the rc- sponsibilitv of furnishing the con vent which will be the residence of the Sisters, and the committee now engaged in that task is head ed by Mrs. William Rakel. Sr. munity, which was established on March 4, 1834, on the mountain of Acuto in Italy, has been stamped with the mark of poverty, and its progress has always been accompanied by difficulties and trials. The zeal of the foundress sought its first and most impor tant outlet in the many schools which she established throughout Italy for the education of girls be longing to the poorer classes, yet her ardent spirit, animated by a great*longing to glorify the Most Precious Blood, did not confine it self to the work in schools alone. Whenever the work of Christ was to be found, there was Mother de Mattias to be found, and there, too, were her daughters. True to the spirit which char acterized its foundation, the com munity, in the course of its de velopment, has identified itself with, almost every type of labor peculiar to the active apostolate, particularly that among the poor and neglected. Today, it numbers that capacity she served until 190G, when, complying with the expressed wish of the Superior General, Mother Catherine Pavoni she embarked with a small group of Sisters to America. Responding to the urgent re quest of Mother Theresa Repking, Vicaress of the Ruma foundation, to help supply Sisters for the new hospital about to be opened in Taylorville, 111., Mother Pauline and her Sisters settled in Alton, 111. With the passing of time it became evident that the Sisters were in general better equipped for a teaching career than for hospital work, and were finally withdrawn. Great difficulty had neverthe less to be surmounted before the Sisters acquired a command of the English' language sufficient to enable them to teach successluly. Some of the Sisters cared for tho sick in their homes, and in spite of its crowded condition, a small frame house in Alton was pressed into service as the be ginning of a Home for the Aged. Soon too, the Sisters were able to take over several schools, and having come from Bosnia, they were peculiarly fitted to teach in the schools of those parishes with a predominant Crotian member ship. In 1908 a plot of land was pur chased and the erection of a rather spacious building, known as Nazareth Home for the Aged, was begun. It served as a Motherhouse until a . more suit able- one could be obtained. During 1924, instructions came from the General Motherhouse in Rome directing that the Sisters seek a location further removed from the already existing Vica riate of Ruma—a location which would open to the Sisters a wider field of activity. Through the sale of the Naza reth Home, the Sisters realized a sum sufficient to purchase the Senator Matthew Quay farm near Mounlville, Pennsylvania. Assured of a welcome in the Diocese of Harrisburg, the first group of Sisters arrived in Co lumbia on March 26. 1925. In spite of the depression period, which followed rather closely their arrival, the Com munity has grown steadily, if not rapidly. The three American groups, which had been termed “vica riates," became “provinces” in 1927. Under the title of Provin cial Superior, Mother Pauline continued her leadership of the Community until 1929 when she was succeeded by Mother Engel- berta Mueller. In 1934, the centennial of the founding of the Sisters Adorers of (lie Most Precious Blood was houses throughout Italy, Get- i celebrated solemnly throughout many, Jugoslavia, Liechtenstein, 1 the entire Congregation. In the Switzerland, and the United j same year, the Sisters of the three States. Its most recent founda- American Provinces received per- tion is that in Albania, while as mission to exchange the tradi- missionaries. the daughters of j tionai garb worn in the rest of Mother de Mattias have carried | the institute for one less conspi- the banner qf the Most Precious cuous and better adapted to their Blood into China and Brazil. However, the Columbia Pro needs. In the autumn of 1938, Mother The Religious Order which will staff the new school, Sisters Adorers of the Most Precious Blood, is a community founded a little more than a century ago by Venerable Mother Marie de Mattias. under the inspiration of Blessed Gasper del Bufalo, founder of the Missionary Fathers of the Precious Blood. Since its beginning, the com- vince of the Sisters Adorers of i llildegarde Arnold became the the Most Precious Blood, in com- third Provincial Superior of -the mon with the other American pro- Columbia Province, and shortly vinces of Ruma, Illinois, and j after plans began to be formulat- Wiehita, Kansas, does not trace ! ed for the construction of the its origin directly to the Italian much-needed new Motherhouse. foundation, but to a very humble j By March of the following year beginning at Steinerburg in Switz- the new building was ready for erland. Here a group of pious dedication. young women banded together to 1 The following autumn its doors form a community whose primary : were opened to girls seeking an objective was the perpetual adora- opportunity to complete their tion of the Precious Blood in the high school education in a private Blessed Sacrament. academy. In the few years of its During the stormy period of existence the academy has made 1848, this small community, ban- notable progress, and its high islied from Switzerland, sought 1 standards are a tribute to the refuge at Ottmarsheim in Alsace. At Ottmarsheim, the Sisters led ability of the Sisters as teachers. Besides teaching in schools a life much like that at Steiner- and caring for the aged, which burg although it became increas- the Sisters have been engaged in ingly evident that the grow'ing since coming to this country, they community would be forced to have more recently taken over adopt some form of active work the management of the domestic in order to sustain itself. departments of several seminaries Those Sisters who still felt the desire for the contemplative life were affiliated with a community and Episcopal residences A new field of endeavor is that of conducting Retreats for lay of Benedictine Nuns, while those j women and girls during the sum- who were willing to carry on the ‘ mer months. active apostolate opened a school ■ At present, the Columbia 1 ro- for orphans at Gurtweil in Baden, i vince, from which will come the and in the year 1865 were affiliat- I Sisters who will staff the school ed with the Italian community ’ in Albany, is represented in the founded by Mother de Mattias. Dioceses of Harrisburg, Altoona, Several other schools were ; Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, Spring- opened and work of the Sisters I field in Illinois, and Raleigh, as prospered until the Kulturkampf j well as in the Archdioceses of St. broke over Germany and set the Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia and community adrift again. j New York. For several years Sis- The greater number of the ters Adorers of the Most Precious Gurtweil Sisters set sail for Am- ! Blood have been in charge of the erica and became the pioneers of i domestic affairs at the rectory of the Ruma Province. Others for the Cathedral of St. John the Bap- the time being, withdrew to Feld- I tist in Savannah, so they are no Kirch in Voralberg, Austria, and in 1879 formed the nucleus of the Province of Bosnia in Jugo slavia. Among this group was a pos tulant, Paulina Schneeberger, who later, in 1890, became Superior of the foundation at Bosnia. strangers to this Diocese. “WOOL MERCHANT OF SE GOVIA”—a biography of St. Alphoi.sus Rodriguez, Jesuit lay brother, by Mabel Farnum, is the choice of the Catholic Literary In ' Foundation for September. Held in Blessed Memory in Albany FATHER KEENAN Outstanding among the priests who served as pastor of St. The resa’s parish in Albany, and on its missions, was the Very Rev. Leo M. Keenan, who died two years ago while serving as pastor of St. Patrick’s Church in Augusta, to which parish he had been trans ferred after being pastor of the parish in Albany for more than nine years. Father Keenan had served as an assistant in Albany and on its mission for some years prior to being appointed pastor. FATHER McMAIION One of the most beloved of the priests who have served as pastor of St. Theresa’s Church, Albany, Ga., w s the Very Rev. P. H. Mc Mahon, who was called to his eter nal reward in 1920 while serving as pastor of St. Patrick's Church in Augusta. Father McMahon was the sec ond resident pastor in Albany, and after serving a number of years in other places in Georgia, returned to Albany as pastor for the second time in 1907, serving then for two years. Catholics in Albany Plan Extensive Building Program (Special to The Bulletin) ALBANY, Ga.—The observance- oil the last Saturday of October of the centennial of the first celebra tion of Mass in Albany, will find the members of St. Theresa’s par ish well advanced in their plans and in the raising of funds for the construction of a new church, rec tory, convent and school here. The building project, which is expected to require an expenditure of $100,000 or more, and which will extend over several years, will be inaugurated as soon as war-time priority regulations have been removed to allow construc tion to begin. Henry D. Dagit and Sons, of Philadelphia, who were the aelii- tects for the new Blessed Sacra ment Church and school in Sa vannah, have' been authorized to executed the plans for the new Cathdlic church and other build ings in Albany. The undertaking, which will re sult in the erection of a Catholic Community Center in Albany, had its origin last December, when the Very Rev. Msgr. Joseph G. Cassi dy, now rector of the Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta, was pas tor of St. Theresa’s Church, and it is being continued under the gui dance of the Very Rev. Daniel J. Bourke. V. F... who succeeded Monsignor Cassidy as pastor here. Bob McCormack is general chairman of the parish commit tee, with J. L. Rau as chairman of the finance committee, and Miss Margaret Mock is serving as sec retary. Associate members of the finance committee are J. R. Pinks ton, James Gallagher, W. J. Rak el. Paul Keenan, M. M. Wiggins. William Mock, Jr.. Fred Mills, Mrs. D. G. Davis, Mrs. Darien P. Tomp kins, Mrs. Y. G. Hilsman, Mbs Ann Sneed, Miss Mary L. Brosnan and Heads St. Theresa’s Parish Committee ROBERT McCORMACK Miss Margaret Stephens. George Mock heads the building committee, which includes J. II. Wiggerman, D. W. Brosnan and T. II. Coleman. The men’s division of the Parish Activities Committee has as its chairman, Retro Stephens, and in cludes J. J. Romeo, L. E. Goth, J. R. Flock, O. T. Kenan, L. E. Mock and Eugene Clark. The women’s division of this commit tee is headed by Mrs. K. M. Russ, with Mrs. Fred Mills, Mrs. Mary Lewis, Mrs. J. L. Rau, Mrs. J. H. Wiggerman, Mrs. L. E. Mock, Mrs. J L. Bacon and Miss Helen Smith as members Sturkie Furniture Co. Furniture for Less 2079 Millcdgevillc Road Phone 2-2162 IRA B. MERRY, Mgr. Augusta, Georgia “TUFF-KOTE PAINT” Quality Paint & Roofing Company Paint and Roofing Headquarters PAINT’S, GLASS, GRATES, BRUSHES, ROOFING CALCIMO, TILE, CEMENT 509 Ninth Street Augusta, Georgia