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SERVING 88 SOUTH - GEORGIA COUNTIES
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 53 No. 19
Thursday, May 11,1972
Single Copy Price — 12 Cents
NEW PASTORS FOR NINE PARISHES
Changes Announced For
22 Priests Of Diocese
Bishop Gerard L. Frey has announced clergy appointments and transfers affecting twenty-two priests of the
Savannah diocese.
Nine parishes will be greeting new pastors, one a new priest in charge and five will be receiving new associate
pastors.
In addition, two priests have been granted a one-year Sabbatical leave and one other a longer leave to pursue
studies at Georgia Mental Health Institution at Atlanta.
Four priests have been named to
diocesan posts.
Pastors
In transfers of pastors, MONSIGNOR
FELIX DONNELLY, pastor of
Savannah’s Sacred Heart parish, will take
up new duties as pastor of St. Teresa’s
parish, Augusta on July 8.
Ordained in 1945, Msgr. Donnelly has
served in parishes in many areas of the
state and has been pastor at Sacred Heart,
Warner Robins; Nativity of Our Lord,
Thunderbolt; Sacred Heart, Augusta, St.
Teresa’s, Albany, and Sacred Heart,
Savannah.
FATHER FRED NIJEM,
Administrator of St. Anne’s, Richmond
Hill, will assume the pastorate of St.
Benedict’s parish, Savannah, on June 1st.
He will continue to serve as
Director of St. Pius X Community
Center, Savannah. Father Nijem was
ordained in 1968.
FATHER JAMES COSTIGAN,
associate pastor of Holy Trinity parish,
Augusta will travel to Savannah on July 8
to take over duties as pastor at Sacred
Heart parish. Ordained in 1968, Father
Costigan has served as assistant rector of
the Cathedral and assistant pastor at
Sacred Heart Augusta.
FATHER ROY COX, Diocesan
Coordinator of Aquinas High School,
Augusta, will become pastor of St. Anne’s
parish, Columbus on September 1st.
Ordained in 1965, Father Cox has held
several posts in Augusta parishes. He has
been an assistant pastor of St.
M ary’s-on-the-Hill parish and
Administrator of Sacred Heart parish,
there. He has been Coordinator of
Aquinas high school since 1970.
On June 1st, FATHER EAMONN
O’RIORDAN will become pastor of St.
Frances Cabrini parish, Savannah.
Ordained in 1967, he has served as
assistant pastor at Savannah’s St. James
parish and since 1969 has been
Administrator of the Catholic community
at Hinesville. He is also chaplain at
Reidsville State Penitentiary.
FATHER MICHAEL O’KEEFE,
assistant pastor of St. Anne’s parish,
Columbus will assume new duties as
pastor of St. Joseph’s parish, Waycross on
June 30th. Father O’Keefe was ordained
in 1968 and since then has served as
assistant pastor at St. James, Savannah;
St. John the Evangelist, Valdosta; and St.
Anne’s, Columbus.
FATHER JOHN HURLEY, who has
been assistant pastor of Blessed
Sacrament, Savannah, since his ordination
in 1968, will take over as pastor of Holy
Spirit parish, Macon, on June 1st.
FATHER BRENDAN TIMMINS,
administrator of Holy Spirit parish,
Macon, will move to Valdosta on June
1st, where he will begin a new assignment
as pastor of St. John the Evangelist parish
and Dean of the Valdosta-Brunswick
deanery. After his ordination in 1968,
Father Timmins served assistant
pastorates at the Cathedral and Sacred
Heart parishes in Savannah. He also
served on the faculty of St. Pius X High
School, there.
FATHER MARK STERBENZ, S.D.S.,
of St. Catherine’s Church, McMinnville,
Tennessee, has been appointed pastor of
Saint Benedict’s Church, Columbus. He
will replace Father Thomas Leannah,
S.D.S. The appointment is effective June
17th.
FATHER FRANCIS J. DONOHUE has
been named priest in charge of St.
Anne’s, Richmond Hill. Father Donohue
will continue to retain his duties as Editor
of The Southern Cross and Director of
Communications. The appointment is
effective June 1st.
Three pastors have been granted
Sabbatical leaves. They are Father
Thomas Payne, pastor of St. Teresa’s,
Augusta; Father George James, pastor of
St. John the Evangelist, Valdosta; and
Father Joseph Stranc, pastor of St.
Anne’s, Columbus. Father James will
pursue studies at the Georgia Mental
Health Institution in Atlanta, and Father
Stranc will undertake further studies in
Communications.
Father Ralph E. Seikel, Superintendent
of Diocesan Schools and pastor of
Savannah’s St. Benedict’s parish since last
year, has relinquished his duties at St.
Benedict’s in order to permit more time
for his principal assignment as schools
superintendent.
Other appointments are as follows:
Associate Pastors
Rev. John Kenneally, from Cathedral
to St. James, effective June 1.
Father Patrick McCarthy, from
instructor at Benedictine Military School,
Savannah to Holy Family parish,
Columbus, effective September 1.
Father John O’Brien, from Columbus
Deanery Coordinator for the Department
of Christian Formation to Blessed
Sacrament parish, Savannah, effective
September 1.
Father Timothy O’Mahony from
assistant pastor of Sacred Heart,
Savannah to associate pastor, St. Anne’s,
Columbus, effective August 1.
Father Michael Burke, who has been
on loan to St. Joseph’s parish, Gretna, La.
to associate pastor at Most Holy Trinity,
Augusta, effective July 8.
Special Assignments
Father Gerard Murphy, assistant
chancellor, has been given the additional
post of Diocesan Director of the Family
Life Apostolate, effective immediately.
Father Michael Collins, returning from
two years graduate work in Sociology,
has been named Associate Diocesan
Director of the Social Apostolate. He will
reside at Sacred Heart, Warner Robins,
effective June 1st.
Father Fred Nijem, just named pastor
of St. Benedict’s, Savannah, has also been
appointed Chairman of the Diocesan
Committee for Pastoral Liturgy and
Worship, effective immediately.
Father Francis Nelson, completing two
years of studies in Canon Law at the
Catholic University in Washington, D. C.
will become Assistant Chancellor and
Coordinator of the Marriage Tribunal for
the Savannah Diocese on July 10. He will
live at Sacred Heart rectory, Savannah.
In September, Father Finbarr Stanton,
who has been temporary administrator of
St. Joseph’s, Waycross, will undertake a
new assignment at Aquinas High School,
Augusta.
INSIDE STORY
DCF Report
Pg. 2
'Know Your Faith’
Pg. 5
Savannah Youth
Pg. 7
DCCW President
Pg. 8
Msgr. Donnelly
Fr. Seikel
Sister Lourdes Sheehan, R.S.M., of
Savannah, has been named Superintendent
of Schools for the Diocese of Richmond,
Va.
The Richmond Diocese’s Office of
Religious Education and the Diocesan
Department of Schools, presently
separate offices are to function within a
new Office of Christian Education and
Formation.
Sister Lourdes Sheehan is the daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph D. Sheehan.
Fr. Nijem
The reorganization will mark the first
time that a Sister and two laymen will
head two of the major departments of the
diocese, positions that have always been
filled by priests. The Diocese of
Richmond will become one of about a
half dozen dioceses in the United States
with a Sister as school superintendent.
Sister Lourdes Sheehan, a Sister of
Mercy of the Province of Baltimore, is 37,
and a native of Savannah, Ga. She has
extensive experience in secondary
education, both as a teacher and as an
administrator. She holds a bachelor’s
Fr. Costigan
Fr. Timmins
Fr. O’Riordan
degree from Mount St. Agnes College,
Baltimore, and a master’s in colonial
history from the University of
Pennsylvania.
Sister Lourdes has done post-graduate
work in educational administration and
supervision at the University of Georgia
and at Loyola University, Baltimore, and
is certified in administration and
supervision in Alabama and Georgia.
During the current school year, she has
visited every Catholic high school in the
(Continued on page 7)
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HEADLINE
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HOPSCOTCH
'Superstar’ To Be Filmed
LOS ANGELES (NC) -- Universal Studios plans to start production Aug. 10 on a
movie version of the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” on location in the Holy
Land. Norman Jewison, who directed the screen version of the popular musical
“Fiddler on the Roof,” will direct Superstar. Universal said it would do the filming
around Jerusalem for the sake of authenticity of locale.
Lauds Nixon’s Stand
BOSTON (NC) — Edward B. Hanify, Boston lawyer and board chairman of the
Human Life Foundation, has praised President Nixon’s strong opposition to the
abortion recommendations of the national population growth commission. Hanify said
in a telegram to the White House: “Congratulations and sincere commendation for
your forthright stand in defense of human life and your repudiation of the destruction
of the unborn as a means of dealing with problems of population. This leadership is in
the best tradition of western civilization.”
Guild Founder Dies
NEW YORK (NC) — Father Thomas F. Carey, director of the Blackfriars Guild here
since 1941, died at 68 in St. Vincent’s Hospital. He had also been assistant national
director of the Holy Name Society. The Dominican priest was concerned with the
theater apostolate for the last 40 years and was the first executive director of the
National Catholic Theater Conference (now the National Theater Arts Conference). He
was co-founder of the Blackfriars Guild in Washington in 1931, and organized the
Blackfriar Institute of Dramatic Arts in 1937, now the Department of Speech and
Drama at Catholic University.
Sr. Lourdes Sheehan Appointed
Richmond School Superintendent
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