Newspaper Page Text
Official Newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Savannah
http://www.diosav.org
Vol. 82, No. 3 Thursday, January 17, 2002
$.75 per issue
Monsignor Felix G. Donnelly dies
Monsignor Felix Gerard Donnelly
1916-2002
By Barbara D. King
M onsignor Felix Gerard Donnelly died on
January 12 at Azalealand Nursing Home,
Savannah. A native of Erie, Pennsylvania,
Monsignor Donnelly served as a priest for the
Catholic Diocese of Savannah for 56 years.
A tall, gentle man of elegant bearing and a dry
wit, he endeared himself to many with his
humility and his following the Gospel mandate
to live a simple life. Bom on November 15,
1916, one of nine children of Felix J. and
Theresa White Donnelly, he received his second
ary school education at Belmont Abbey, North
Carolina, and at Saint Peter’s High School in
McKeesport, Pennsylvania. In his 20s, he said
he felt he had a vocation to the priesthood, but
he did not have the resources to enroll in a semi
nary. While working for a railroad in Atlanta, he
had a chance encounter with Bishop Gerald P.
O’Hara, then the newly appointed Bishop of the
Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta, who was instru
mental in his enrollment in Saint Charles
Seminary in Catonsville, Maryland. He also
studied at Saint Bernard Seminary in Rochester
New York and at Saint Mary’s Seminary at
Roland Park in Baltimore, Maryland. Bishop
O’Hara ordained Donnelly to the priesthood at
the Co-Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta
on March 17, 1945. After ordination, Father
Donnelly served briefly as an assistant pastor at
Christ the King Cathedral in Atlanta and at Saint
Anthony Parish in Atlanta. He then became pas
tor of Sacred Heart Church in Warner Robins,
serving there from 1952 to 1957. He served as
pastor of Nativity of Our Lord Parish in Savan
nah from 1958 to 1963 and as pastor of Sacred
Heart Parish in Augusta from 1963 to 1966. In
1966 he was named a Prelate of Honor with the
title “monsignor.”
He remembered as a highlight of his early
ministry his service at Saint Joseph’s Boys’
Home in Washington, Georgia in the 1950s.
“The priest before me had a farm there,” Mon
signor Donnelly recalled. “I knew nothing about
farming, but the county agent came out and
showed me. I eventually taught the boys as well
as I could.”
He served as pastor of Saint Teresa Parish in
Albany from 1966 to 1969 and as pastor of
Sacred Heart Church in Savannah from 1969 to
1972. He served as administrator of Most Pure
Heart of Mary Church in Savannah from 1969 to
1970, as pastor of Saint Teresa Church in Augusta
(Continued on page 11)
Catholic Chapel at Fort Benning burns
By Muriel Tan
E verything that was destroyed—the wooden
structure with the steeple, the clerical vest
ments, the diplomas, the pews, the Mary and
Joseph statues behind the altar, the stained glass
windows—was only “stuff,” but it was still
sacred, said Fort Benning’s Chaplain Col.
Joseph O’Keeffe.
Early Saturday, Father O’Keeffe’s church—
Fort Benning’s Main Post Catholic Chapel—was
destroyed by a fire. The 55 year-old white struc
ture housed three masses during the weekend,
attended by about 600 congregants in the Fort
Benning community of retirees, enlisted sol
diers, their families and military staff.
No one was injured in the 1:00 a.m. fire,
believed to have been caused by an electrical
A lesson from the
Archives
—page 3
failure, said Public Affairs Officer Monica Man-
ganaro. The incident remains under investigation
by the post’s internal Criminal Investigation
Division. Manganaro, who was married in the
church, remembered the natural beauty of what
was initially built as a standard “battalion
chapel.”
“It was very simple, with wood beams and
stained glass windows,” she said. “The natural
light came through so often that you almost did
n’t need lighting for the place. They don’t make
churches like that anymore.
“The chapel had undergone renovations over
the years, with the addition of two wings to seat
an extra 100 people, Father O’Keeffe said. The
chapel seated 350.’Tm sad for a lot of people
who were baptized here, married here, and who
Considerate priest
remembered
-page 6
renewed their vows here,” Father O’Keeffe said.
“Now they have lost this sacred space - a space
with great memories and with great signifi-
cance.”Wives who had buried their husbands
here would continue to come to Mass here, he
said, because they could revisit the times both
attended Mass.
Father O’Keeffe recalled the ritual of airborne
soldiers coming to Sunday Mass before their
jump. “They wanted to be right with the Lord
before they made their first walk into space,” he
said.
Reprinted with permission from the Columbus
Ledger-Enquirer.
Saint Peter Claver School
growing
-page 7