Newspaper Page Text
Published by the
Catholic Lay
men’s Association
of Georgia
“To Bring About
a Friendlier
Feeling Among
Neighbors Irre
spective of Creed”
Vol. XXVI. No. 9 THIRTY-TWO PAGES AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, SEPTEMBER 29, 1945 ISSUED MONTHLY—$2.00 A yeah
Catholic Hospital to Be Erected in Augusta
Directing Augusta
Hospital Project
GEORGE A. SANCKEN
One of Augusta’s outstanding
business executives and one of the
community’s civic leaders, George
A. Sancken, president of Georgia-
Carolina Dairies. and Sanckcn’s
Dairies in Augusta, and Dixie
Dairies, in Macon, has graciously
consented to serve as chairman
of the committee which will con
duct a campaign to raise funds for
the Catholic hospital which is to
be built in Augusta.
MONSIGNOU GRADY
The Very Rev. Monsignor James
J. Grady, V. F„ pastor of St.
Mary’s-on-Thc-lIill Church in Au
gusta, who is general director and
supervisor of the Catholic hospi
tal project. Monsignor Grady re
cently discussed the plans to build
the hospital before meetings of
the Richmond County Medical So
ciety and the Rotary Club of Au
gusta.
To Head Hospital
Fund Campaign
To Launch Campaign on Behalf of
Catholic Hospital in Augusta
George A. Sancken to Head Hospital Building Fund
Campaign Committee—Lee Blum, Alvin McAluiffe,
Patrick H. Rice to Serve as Vice-Chairmen—Mon
signor James J. Grady as General Director—Father
Finn as Secretary-Treasurer
AUGUSTA, Ga.—Plans are be
ing perfected to launch within the
next few weeks a campaign to
raise a substantial portion of the
half-million dollars which is
estimated as the cost of the erec
tion and equipping of the Catholic
hospilal which is to be erected in
Augsuta for the Sisters of St.
Joseph of Carondelet.
The Very Rev. Msgr. James J.
Grady, pastor of St. Mary’s-on-The-
Hill Church, and Vicar Forane of
the Augsuta Deanery, who has
been designated by the Most Rev.
Gerald P. O’Hara, D. D„ J. U. D„
Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta, as
the general director and supervisor
of the local Catholic hospital pro
ject, has announced that George
A. Sancken, president of Georgia-
Carolina and .Sancken’s Dairies in
Augusta, and of Dixie Dairies in
Macon, has graciously agreed to
serve as chairman of the commit
tee which will conduct the fund
raising campaign on behalf of the
hospital.
Mr. Sancken is one of this
city's most prominent business and
civic leaders, and it is remembered
that he served with exceptional
success as chairman of the first
Community Chest campaign in this
city.
LEE BLUM, A VICE-CHAIRMAN
Aiding Mr. Sancken, as his vice-
chairmen, will be Lee J. Blum,
owner of Stark-Empire Laundry
and Dry Cleaning Company; Al
vin M. McAuliffe, of Lockhart-
McAuliffe & Company, and P. H.
Rice, business manager of The Au
gusta Chronicle.
The Rev. Thomas L. Finn, direc
tor of Catholic Charities of the
Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta, will
serve as secretary-treasurer of the
Augusta Catholic Hospital Fund
Campaign Committee
Father Finn, who is a native
of Savannah, and who was en
gaged in the cotton business in
that city before entering the
seminary to begin his study for
the priesthood, is a veteran of the
First World War. He has secured
offices in the Masonic Building as
headquarters for the campaign.
Monsignor Grady, in outlining
plans or the hospital before a
meeting of the Rotary Club of
Augusta, and a meeting of the
Richmond County Medical Sociely,
stated that the proposed hospital
would be a memorial to those who
served this country in the war just
ended, and mentioned, as a
coincidence, that the first con
tribution to the building fund was
made by a wounded veteran.
“As we believe that all will
appreciate the fact that a Catholic
hospital does not serve Catholics
alone, but serves Catholics, Pro
testants and Jews, we are appeal
ing for contributions of all individ
uals and firms in Augusta,” said
Monsignor Grady.
SERVING NON-CATHOLICS
"In this connection.” said Mon
signor Grady, “according to fig
ures complied by the Catholic
Hospital Association, the 755
Catholic hospitals in the Uinted
States offered accommodations to
more than three million patients
during 1944, and of this number
well over two million, or 62.2 per
cent, were non-Catholics. In our
own part of the country, the South
Atlantic and Southern States, 79.2
per cent of the patients admitted
to Catholic hospitals were not
members of the Catholic Church.”
“We believe,’' continued Mon
signor Grady, that all of the citi
zens of this city will welcome a
Catholic hospital here as a com
munity asset, and will generously
respond to our appeal.”
Chairman Sancken and his vice-
chairmen, are now busy in the
selection of the various sub-com
mittee chairmen and members who
will devote their energy on behalf
of the Augusta Catholic Hospital
Building Fund Campaign.
IIIS HOLINESS Pope Plus XII,
in a farewell audience to British
Field Marshal Sir Harold R. Alex
ander, newly appointed Governor
General of Canada, who is leaving
Italy for the Dominion, presented
the British commander with this
year's Pontifical medaL
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
Accept Invitation of Bishop O’Hara to
Staff and Operate ISO Bed Institution
AUGUSTA, Ga.—The Most Rev.
Gerald P. O’Hara, D. D., J. U. D.,
Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta, has
announced that definite plans
have been completed for the erec
tion in Augusta of a Catholic hos
pital which will be conducted by
the Sisters of St. Joseph of Car-
odelet.
The project is the culmination
of an idea presented to Bishop
O'Hara a number of years ago by
a group of physicians from this
city who made several trips to
Savannah.in the endeavor to in
duce Bisjiop O’Hara to place a
Sisters’ hospital here.
For some years Bishop O’Hara
has had the matter under consider
ation, and for the past year has
been enlensifying his efforts to
further the plan, during which
time a number of attractive sites
for the hospital have been in
spected.
The Very Rev. Msgr. James J.
Grady, pastor of St. Mary’s-on-
The-Hill Church, and Vicar Forane
of the Augusta Deanery of the
Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta. who
is co-operating with Bishop O’Hara
in the development of plans for
the hospital here, and who will
be directly in charge of the proj
ect locally, has made known that
a 150-bed hospital is proposed for
the original building, with the
possibility of expansion as the
need for greater accommodations
for patients might arise in the fu
ture.
Monsignor Grady stated that in
acquiring a site for the hospital,
sufficient ground would be secur
ed to provide room for additional
buildings as they would be re
quired.
Every effort will be made,
Monsignor Grady said, to build a
hospital that would be ultra-mod
ern in every respect as to equip
ment, furnishings and design.
Bishop O’Hara and the architects
who will execute the plans for
the building expect to make a
careful inspection of the leading
hospitals of the country in order
that the very latest features of
' hospital architecture may be in
corporated in the building here.
Plans for the new hospital are
being executed by Henry S. Dagit
& Sons, architects, of Philadelphia,
who will have as their consultant
in Augusta William N. Parsons.
The Congregation of the Sisters
of St. Joseph, now widely spread
throughout the world, came into
being at Le Puy, in France, in
1650. The first establishment in
this country was at Carodelet, just
outside of St. Louis, in 1836.
In 1867, when the Right Rev.
Augustin Verot was Bishop of Sa
vannah, and also Vicar Apostolic
of Florida, nine Sisters of St. Jo
seph came from France to St. Au
gustine at his invitation. Three
members of this community came
to Savannah soon after, to conduct
a home for orphan boys. In 1870.
the orphanage was moved to Wash
ington to become the present St.
Joseph’s Home. In 1876, the Sis
ters opened St. Joseph’s Academy
for girls, in Washington, and ‘wo
years later opened Sacred Heart
Academy for boys at Sharon.
In 1912-, the Motherhouse of the
Order in Washington, and the
girl’s school there, were destroyed
by fire, and the Sisters of St. Jo
seph came to Augusta where they
established a temporary boarding
school in several residences on
Monte Sano Avenue.
What is now the Administration
Building of the U. S. Veterans
Hospital here was built by the Sis
ters of St. Joseph to replace the
boarding school for girls, in Wash
ington, that had been destroyed by
fire.
Not long afterwards, when this
building was converted into the
Lenwood Hotel, the Sisters bought
the property known as “Chateau
LeVert,” once the home of Ma
dame Ottavia LeVert, the daugh
ter of George Walton, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Inde
pendence from Georgia.
The house in which George
Washington and the Marquis de
LaFayette are said to have been
entertained, is now the convent cf
the Sisters of St. Joseph of Car
ondelet and the Mothcrhouse of
the Augusta Province of the Order,
der.
The convent and school build
ings now occupy almost the en
tire block bounded by Monte Sano
Avenue, Arsenal Avenue, Belle-
view Avenue and Helen Street.
There are five provinces of the
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
in the United States, including the
General Motherhouse of the Pro
vinces in St. Louis and the Pro
vincial Motherhouses in St. Paul,
Los Angeles, Augusta and Troy.
N. Y.
The Order has 3,010 professed
Sisters, 154 novices and 94 postu
lants, according to the latest issue
of The Official Catholic Directory.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Caron
delet operate S,t. Joseph’s Hospi
tal, St. Paul; St. Joseph’s Hospi
tal, Kansas City; St. Joseph’s Hos
pital. Lewiston, Idaho; Our Lady
of Lourdes Hospital, Pasco, Wash
ington: St. Mary’s Hospital, Tuc
son, Arizona; Ponca City Hospital,
Ponca City, Oklahoma; St. lohn’s
Hospital, Fargo, North Dakota; St.
Michael’s Hospital. Grand Fork,
North Dakota; Trinity Hospital,
Jamestown, North Dakota; St.
Mary’s Hospital, Amsterdam, New
York; St. Joseph’s Maternity Hos
pital, Troy, New York, and St.
Mary’s Sanitarium, Tucson. Ari
zona.
Training schools for nurses are
attached to nine of the . Sisters’
hospitals.
With the exception of those Sis
ters who may have special train
ing to fill administrative positions
in a hospital, all of the Sisters
who are attached to hospitals are
registered nurses.
In addition to operating these
hospitals, the Sisters of St. Joseph
of Carondelet also conduct five
colleges, fifteen academies, forty-
five Diocesan or parochial high
schools, two hundred and eight
grammar schools, eight orphan
ages, two industrial schools for
Indians, one Negro high school,
one normal school, one day nurs
ery, one school for the deaf, one
home for the aged, and one Boys’
boarding school.
Besides Mount St. Joseph Aca
demy in Augusta, the Sisters of
St. Joseph in Georgia conduct the
Sacred Heart School and St. An
thony's School in Atlanta; St.
Francis Xavier School, Brunswick,
the Sacred Heart School in Savan
nah; St. John the Evangelist
School, Valdosta; Sacred Heart
Academy, Sharon, and St. Joseph’s
Home, Washington.
A number of Augustans have
entered the Sisters of St. Joseph
of Carondelet and are now serving
as graduate nurses in their hospi
tals or as teachers in their schools
in various parts of the country.
Among than are: Sister Mary Lou
ise, R.N.. formerly Miss Mary Her
man; Sister Mary Bernard, former
ly Miss Eugenia Schweers; Sister
Margaret Rose, formerly Miss Mar
garet Schweers’ Sister Mary
Thomas, formerly Miss Helen
Cashin; Sister Patricia Elizabeth,
R. N.. formerly Miss Sarah Don
nelly; Sister Kathleen Marie, for
merly Miss Louise O’Leary; Sister
Marie Theresa, formerly Miss Lou
ise Bart; Sister Anne, formerly
Miss Katherine Murray; Sister
Marguerite Marie, formerly Miss
Sarah McMahon, and Sister Mary
Charlotte, formerly Miss Dorothy
Smith.
The establishment of a Catho
lic hospital in Augusta is another
advance in the building program
which was inaugurated by Bishop
O'Hara when he came to the Dio
cese of Savannah nine years ago.
Since that time, new churches have
been erected in Savannah, Port
Wentworth, Cedartown, Alapaha,
Lakeland, Warner Robins and the
Cathedral of Christ the King was
built in Atlanta when the Diocese
of Savannah was made the Diocese
of Savannah-A 11 a n t a. Other
churches are now in the process
cf construction.
Since the coming of Bishop
O’Hara to Georgia, the number of
Catholic schools in the State has
been increased, the latest addi
tions to the Diocesan department
of education being parochial
schools in Albany and Rome, which
opened this month.
New Religious Orders of men
and women have come to the
Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta :'
Bishop O’Hara’s invitation, among
them being the Marist Brothers,
who conduct the Boys’ Caiholic
High School in Augusta; the Order
of Friars Minor, the Redemptorist
Fathers, the Home Missioners of
America and the Order of Cister-
sians of the Strict Observance, who
have established a Trappist mon
astery near Conyers, and the
Clerics of St. Viator who opened
an industrial school for boys in
Savannah. Orders of women
which have been introduced to
Georgia by Bishop O’Hara are
the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart,
the Missionary Sisters of the
Sacred Heart, Sisters of St.
Dominic, Sisters Adorers of the
Most Precious Blood, Medical Mis
sion Sisters and the Servants of
Relief for Incurable Cancer.
That the Catholic Church in
the United States has kept pace
with war time demands is shown
not only in the larger number of
hospitals but especially in the
greatly increased additional bed
capacity and other hospital facili
ties. Twenty new Catholic hos
pitals have been opened since the
war began, and the former bed ca
pacity of 69,537 was brought to
a total of 87,171 during last year.
Many nurses trained in the
schools for nurses conducted by
the Sisters of St. Joseph are
serving with the Armed Forces,
just as some of the Sisters served
as nurses during the Spanish-
American War at camps in this
country and in Cuba. Graduates
from the Schools of Nursing of the
Sisters of St. Joseph also served in
good numbers during the first
World War.
Nursing Sisters are not really
anything new in Augusta, Sisters
of Mercy nursed wounded sol
diers of the Confederate Army
during the stirring years from 1861
to 1865, when St. Patrick's Church
here was converted into an emer
gency hospital.
Members of the faculty of the
Medical College asked the Sisters
of -Mercy to staff the old City
Hospital when it was opened on
Walker and Sixth streets about
1870.
Sisters served at the City Hos
pital for twenty years, but in 1891
it was necessary for them to with
draw, much, it is said ,to the re
gret of City Council and tho
citizens generally.
“IT’S A SMALL WORLD”
SAIPAN. — The Most Rev.
Francis J. Spellman, Archbishop
of New York, who has traveled
over most of the globe, discovered
just how small the world is on his
visit to this island.
After offering Mass for mem
bers of the Marine Second Divi
sion, the Archbishop asked the
men to come up and say hello to
him. Several hundred Marines
had passed through the line when
one of them put out his hand and
said: “Hello, Uncle.”
Then Archbishop Spellman rec
ognized his nephew, Marine Lieu
tenant Leo T. White, of Whitman,
Mass, ,