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TEN THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA OCTOBER 1, 1955. (Satholic5 eorc^i By RICHARD REID, K. S. G. 340 IN SACRED HEART PARISH The parish at that time had 340 souls; the church and the rectory were inadequate. The Marist Fathers considered a new church necessary and a new site advis able. Father Vincent P. Brennan, S.M., in his history of the parish says that they first considered the corner of Luckie and Forsyth Streets where the Forsyth Build ing now stands; it was then a residential section but Father Gibbons considered it too close to the business area. The place final ly selected was the Hill property at Peachtree and Ivy Streets, ac quired July 14, 1897 for $12,000. Father Gibbons and Father Guinan, who were soon joined by Father Augustus, S.M.. lived in a wooden frame building next to the site of the new church, going back and forth to the old Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. They soon had $10,000 raised for the new edifice; work on it pro gressed so satisfactorily that it was dedicated as the Church of the Sacred Heart May 1, 1898, less than a year after the Marists had come to the city. Bishop Becker officiated at the dedicatory cere mony and Father Keiley deliver ed the sermon. The issue of The Atlanta Constitution which re ported the dedication also record ed the news of Dewey’s naval vic tory at Manila. Assisting Bishop Becker at the ceremony in addi tion to the local clergy were Fath er Onesime Renaudier, S.M., of Boston, Provincial of the Marists, and the Rev. Dr. John E. S.M., of the Catholic University of Amer ica. The Marist had arrived in Atlanta on the First Friday of June, 1897, a circumstance that played a part in the changing of the name of the parish. Dalton, Rome and the North Georgia Missions now being as signed to the Marist Fathers, Father Clifford, who had been pastor there, with residence at Rome, was transferred to St. Pat rick’s, Augusta. The Marist Mis sions there touched Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina. At the other end of the state, their newly acquired Brunswick Missions extended from the Flo rida border along the coast and for many miles inland, including Waycross, St. Mary’s Jesup, Lu- dowici, Hinesville, Darien and St. Simon’s with Mass also at Jekyl Island for winter visitors. the Marists took charge of Bruns wick and its missions, they were requested to minister temporarily to Willacoochee, Alapaha, Doug las, McGoven and adjacent ter ritory, formerly served from Al bany, which at that time did not have a resident pastor. THE AUGUSTA PARISH Father McNally was pastor at St. Patrick’s in Augusta when Bishop Becker came, remaining until the appointment of Father James O’Brien in 1889; Father McMahon succeeded Father O’Brien in 1895. Father Richard O’Brien was assistant to his namesake, succeeded in that ca pacity by Father Hennessy and then Father Clifford. At Sacred Heart Church of the Jesuit Fath ers, Father Lonergan was pastor in 1887, Father David McKiniry from 1888 to 1891, relieved for a time by Father J. F. O’Connor. Father Thomas O’Callaghan came in 1891 to remain until the re turn of Father Lonergan in 1896. Assistants during these years in cluded Fathers Thomas McElli- gott, Fabian Garbely, Joachim Pont and J. Moore. Bishop Beck er laid the cornerstone of the new Sacred Heart Church in 1898. In Augusta’s Catholic schools at this period, there were 165 boys attending St. Patrick’s un der the direction of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, 175 girls in St. Mary’s Academy and 170 pupils in Sacred Heart School, the latter two tought by the Sis ters of Mercy. Five Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Concep tion cared for 20 colored orphans and conducted the school for Negro children. TIDAL WAVE IN BRUNSWICK Father Guinan was installed as pastor of Brunswick and the Southeast Georgia Missions May 9, 1897, but went to Atlanta a few weeks later to assist. Father Gibbons. Father P. J. Luckie, S.M., succeeded him, with Father James Byrne, S.M., and Father Reis from Atlanta assisting him at different times. In 1898 a com bined tidal wave and cyclone caused great damage in the busi ness section of Brunswick,, flood ed the church and ruined most of the windows. The church at Waycross which had been ded icated by Bishop Becker in 1889 was so badly damaged in the storm that it had to be rebuilt; it was opened in 1899 on its pres ent site. As an aftermath of the tidal wave, Father Reis contracted yel low fever. When he and Father Byrne were transferred, Father James Carroll, S.M., was assign ed to Brunswick. Shortly after SENATOR PATRICK WALSH One of Georgia’s most distin guished citizens in this period was Patrick Walsh of Augusta. Born in Ballingary, Limerick, Ireland, January 1, 1840, he was brought to Charleston by his parents when he was eight years old. An ap prentice on the Charleston Couri er at 13, he was a journeyman printer at 18. Realizing his need for more education, he entered Charleston High School, setting type afternoons and evenings for the Southern Christian Advocate. He then entered Georgetown Uni versity, where he studied until his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the war. Enter ing the Confederate Army, he enlisted in the Meagher Guard, later known as the Emerald Light Infantry, winning a commission as a first lieutenant. He served until the regiment was disbanded; with his brothers in the army and the family depending on him for support, he was returned to civilian life. Going to Augusta, he was ap pointed local editor of The Con stitutionalist in 1863; the year following he became associated with L. T. Blome in the publica tion of The Pacificator. Later he was connected with Father Ab ram Ryan in the publication of The Banner of the South, In which many of the poet-priest’s works were first published. ASSOCIATED PRESS PIONEER In 1886, at the age of 26. Mr. Walsh was named Southern rep resentative of the New York As sociated Press; he later served as treasurer and then general man ager of the Southern Associated Press. After being business man ager of The Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, he eventually be came owner and editor of The Augusta Chronicle. His champion ing of the cause of the Negro and his unrelenting warfare against the evil of lynching were characteristic of his devotion to principle and his scorn of more expediency. Elected to City Council in Au gusta in 1870, at the age of 30, he was in the Georgia House of Representatives for the 1872, 1874 and 1876 terms; he was a leader in the Constitutional Con vention of 1877. In 1880 he was one of the most influential sup porters of Governor Alfred H. Colquitt in his bid for renomina tion; the convention was dead locked for days. The opposition attempted to break the deadlock by offering to support Mr. Walsh for the nomination, equivalent to election, suggesting that he was the most acceptable compromise candidate. Having entered the convention for the purpose of supporting Governor Colquitt, Mr. Walsh indignantly rejected the offer. The opposition to the Governor then weakened, and he was renominated and re-elected. Mr. Walsh was a delegate from Georgia to several national De mocratic conventions, a Georgia member of the Democratic Na tional Committee and, by appoint ment of President Harrison, a member at large of the Chicago Columbian Fair Commission in 1892. NAMED TO THE SENATE Governor Colquitt went from the State House to the National Capitol as U.S. Senator; when he died. Governor Northern on April 2, 1894, named Mr. Walsh to succeed him. The General As sembly at its next session con firmed this appointment by elect ing him for the unexpired term; he received 132 votes, against 37 for Judge James K. Hines and three for Col. A. E. Buck. When Senator Walsh retired from the Senate, he was elected Mayor of Augusta, a post in which he was serving when he died March 19, 1899, at the age of 59. After a first Requiem at Sacred Heart Church, his remains were taken to St. Patrick’s, of which he had been a member before Sacred Heart Parish was established. The St. Patrick’s and Sacred Heart Temperance Societies’ Cad ets, movements he did much to foster, acted as a guard of honor. Since his coming to the state as a young man, Senator Walsh had been one of the most active Cath olic laymen in Georgia. It was his pen that described the impres sive consecration of the Church of the Holy Trinity, now St. Pat rick’s, in 1863, in the presence of a guard of honor from the Con federate Army. He was lay chair man of the committee that first discussed plans for Sacred Heart Parish. The Knights of Columbus Council in Augusta bears his name. When he was named to the United States Senate, an hon or that came to him unsought, the Madison Advertiser reflected the general opinion of the Geor gia press when it said editorially that “his appointment was one of the most fitting of all Governor Northern’s official acts because of Mr. Walsh’s competency, in every respect, for the senator - ship.” TRIBUTES TO SENATOR Governor Candler, who head ed the many national and state officials at his funeral, said: “Ex cept at the funeral of General Grant, I have seen no such de monstration,” The Baptist minis ters adopted resolutions of regret on his death; ministers served as honorary pall-bearers. The rabbi in Augusta the following Sabbath preached on “Patrick Walsh and Some Lessons from His Life.” The Georgia Baptist, commenting on the outpouring of Negroes joining the other thousands in paying him tribute, said that it was “not strange that he should be the idol of the colored popula tion. He never turned from them in their distress.” But the greatest tribute was from his Spiritual Shepherd, Bishop Becker, who in his ser mon at the funeral Mass said that Senator Walsh was “one who as a man came as near the ideal as it is usually possible for human nature. I challenge any in this vast audience to say anything against his integrity ... In the United States Senate he did more for the state and for the South than anyone else in the same length of time . . . My heart is in the coffin there with him.” JAMES RYDER RANDALL A distinguished contemporary and co-worker of Senator Walsh in Augusta was James Ryder Randall, author of “Maryland,” one of the early members of the Knights of Columbus Council named for Mr. Walsh. Born in Maryland January 1, 1839, a year to the day before the birth of Senator Walsh in Ireland, he al so attended Georgetown, and won distinction as a poet and writer at an early age. He wrote “Maryland, My Maryland” on an impulse after hearing of the skirmish between the First Mas sachusetts Regiment and the people of Baltimore in which his Georgetown college-mate Frank X. Ward was wounded; Mr. Randall was then professor at Poydras College at Point Cou pee, Louisiana. Published in the New Orleans Sunday Delta April 26, 1861, the poem immediately struck a res ponsive chord in the hearts of the Southern people. At a Glee Club gathering in Baltimore in June, 1862, it was sung for the first time to the tune of t hje German college song “Lauriger Horatius.” That was the birth of the combination of words and music. Frail throughout life, James Ryder Randall could not serve in the army, but through his song he did more for the Confederacy than if he had been a general of its armies. To Be Continued ] (Copyright 1955) Archbishop Raffaele Forni, In ternuncio to Iran, has been nam ed Papal Nuncio to Venezuela. 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