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OCTOBER 1, 1955. THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA SEVENTEEN APOSTOLIC DELEGATE AND STAFF. Savings and Loan Association OF AUGUSTA Current Dividend Rate 3% EACH ACCOUNT INSURED UP TO $10,000 BY FEDERAL SAVINGS & LOAN INSURANCE CORPORATION 127 SEVENTH STREET PHONE 2-3571 All Your Clothes Should Go To . . . and Dry Cleaning AUGUSTA, GEORGIA Here’s a SNOW Office near you Devoted clergy, religious and laity of the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta: Dearly beloved in Christ: On the 23rd of this month, His Excellency, Most Reverend A. G. Cicognani, Apostolic Delegate in the United States, will celebrate the Golden Jubilee of his priestly ordination. It is most fitting that all of us in the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta should participate in this important and rather rare jubilee. Archbishop Cicognani has been the representative of the Holy Father in our country for twenty-two years, a longer time than any of his predecessors. He has not only witnessed but he has had a very important part in the immense progress that the church in our country has made during the past quarter century. Statistics can be very cold things and yet they have a way of bringing out, in brief, important facts. In the present case these statistics tell a most eloquent story of how the Church has advanced ever since Archbishop Cicognani was named our Apostolic Delegate. Not all the figures will be narrated but the following will give some idea of what has taken place in this country in recent decades: When Archbishop Cicognani first came to Washington there were in the United States and her territories 15 archdioceses and 90 dioceses. At the present time there are 25 archdioceses and 105 dioceses. There were 29,782 diocesan and religious priests in America in 1933; that number has now risen to 46,970. The Catholic population in 1933 was 20,268,403; it has increased to 32,575,702. Since Archbishop Cicognani became our Apostolic Delegate the number of religious, both men and women, has steadily increased until now we have Brothers: 8,752; Sisters: 158,069. In the year 1933 conversions to the Catholic Church in America were 40,226. This number has grown to the im pressive figure of 116,696. Archbishop Cicognani’s early years as a priest were spent in Rome, where he held important positions in several of the Roman Congregations. For a time he was Under-Secretary of the S. Concistorial Congregation; later on he was given the highest ranking office in the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church after that of the Cardinal Secretary. For years he labored as Secretary of the Commission for the Codification of Canon Law of the Eastern Catholic Churches. In spite of all his many other labors, for years Archbishop Cicognani taught Canon Law in the Pontifical University of the Roman Seminary. The Apostolic Delegate has been tireless in his work for the Church in the United States. He knows the country at first hand better than any of his predecessors in office because he has travelled over its length and breadth; no distance was too great for him whenever he was called to officiate at some important ceremony in any part of the country. We in Georgia recall with deep gratitude his coming to Savannah in 1940 to celebrate the Pontifical Mass and to make an Address on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the Catholic Laymen’s Associ ation of Georgia. It was through His Excellency’s good offices that the name of the diocese was changed from Savannah to Savannah-Atlanta. We all rejoice with Archbishop Cicognani for having reach ed the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination as a priest, and we pray God to spare him to the Church for many years to come. As a token of our great respect and gratitude towards the Apostolic Delegate and also as a sign of our loyalty and de votion to the Holy Father, Whom he represents with so much distinction in our country, I trust that all the priests of the diocese will offer up their Mass on September 23rd for the in tention of Archbishop Cicognani. I further request that on that same day all in the diocese offer up special prayers for his intentions, particularly by assisting at Mass and receiving Holy Communion. This will be our tribute to one who has done so much for the Catholic Church in our beloved country. With affectionate best wishes, I remain, Yours very sincerely in Our Lord, Archbishop-Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta, Apostolic Delegate in Great Britain.