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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1963 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 3 CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY St Joseph's Athens-A Parish Of Liturgical Progress AIRY PRODUCTS VIILK t ITS MANY FINE PRODUCTS P»ne 546-7383 1^8 T. Hancock Ave. ATHUS, GEORGIA Mass was said once a monu In a wooden building which stooc In the rear of the present Ch urch. The building had formerly housed the first Law School of the University of Georgia. Pr iests came from Atlanta, Macon and Augusta to care for the small flock of Catholics. In July of 1910 the first re sident priest came to Athens, Fr* Harry Clark. He became the first pastor of the newly crea ted parish of St. Joseph. The territory of the parish consis ted of 23 counties or 11,500 square miles. Construction of the present Church began on November 17, 1912 and the first Mass was said on March 30, 1913. BESIDES caring for the Cat holics in Athens, Father Clark provided well for its mission territory. Fr. Clarke was res ponsible for the construction of a Mission Chapel in Grif fin which has since become a thriving parish. He also purch ased property in Gainsville where the Church of St. Mic hael now stands. Following years pastors from Athens gui ded construction of St, Peter’s in LaGrange as well as in El- berton, Hartwell and Monroe. The struggles of those days were always filled with a vision of the future. When Msgr. James King was appointed Pastor of St. Joseph's the parish treas ury rested on the mantle piece. It consisted of 13 cents. In 1949 under the direction of Father Donovan, St, Joseph's began a grade school in the first floor of the rectory. It has 280 pupils. The faculty consists of 7 Missionary Sisters of the Sa cred Heart and 2 lay teachers. In 1950 Fr. Donovan negotiat ed for the purchase of a build- >.u £* • • THERE MAY BE GHOSTS, BUT PARISHIONERS MADE IT A PROJECT . . .St. Joseph's renovated rectory ing on Lumpkin Street, in the heart of tie University Campus. This bulling has become the Catholic Student Center which now cares or over 700 Catho lic Students mder the direction of Father Christian Malone. PERHAPS tin greatest adva nce of the Clurch came in 1938 when the Nissionary Sis ters of the Sacrtd Heart came to Athens to operae St. Mary's Hospital. No one cm ever Judge the walls of misuiderstanding that have toppled because of their kindness and thtir love for the sick and poor. One non- Catholic patient was so grate ful to the sister that lad car ed for her through a serious illness that she invited *ister to visit her home after sheleftthe hospital and in all nievisty ad ded: "And bring your husband too". No one likes to be different but I am afraid that for a few ye ars to come some will consider St. Joseph's Church in Athens to be "way out". Why? Radical as it may seem, we say Mass MRS. LILLY Freeman (left) oldest parishioner and sacristan shown with Mrs. Mary Harris (right) housekeeper, who was born in Athens, and is a convert of thirty years. Father John Mulroy, pastor, discusses the lack of problems. NEW PARISHIONERS say hello to Father John Mulroy, Pastor. Dad on right is Billy McKinney, former football captain of the University of Georgia. BEST WISHES McLEROY PRODUCE INC. WHOLESALE FRUITS & PRODUCE 543-4365 45G GEORGIA DRIVE ATHENS, GA. BY REV. JOHN J. rfULROY /j The site of the preient St. Joseph's Church wa s -purch ased in 1873. Until that tine pr iests held services in the tomes of the few Catholics livzvg in Athens. Bishop Gross of Sava nnah purchased the present site. Dr. Bloomfield, an Episcopa lian donated the first $10000 toward the purchase. ■ i' l«to is» wtifcKE YOUR NEW SCHOOL GOES . . .Rebecca Masters and Friend facing the people. We removed the Communion rail. Our people sing during all Masses and they receive Holy Communion st anding. We have hymn book racks in front of all the pews and on the side walls there are wooden placks indicating Hymn numbers. All these changes came step by step over the last year. Looking back I can honestly say that none of it was planned. It Just happened. The main cause of all this change Is the very nature of our parish. We are located in a University town with a trans ient population. In recent years the number of Catholic students has so increased that our stu dent center is buldging at the seams. The parish Church takes care of the overflow. Tourists also numerous, a Navy Sc hool in the parish has a yearly turn-over of two hundred per cent while industrial and manu facturing executives are con stantly promoted to other parts of the country as new ones take their place. The resident pari- shoners have out-done themsel ves in warmth and kindness but each new face soon vanishes to be replaced by innumerably more. After Mass many dash to their cars with the speed of a bullet saying hello, to noone and giving noone a chance to say hello to them. In one year we have incre ased from 3 to 6 Sunday Mas ses. The dream of a united par ish is constantly shattered. To NEW PARISHIONERS say hello to each other. Baby is named James after the late Father James Boyce, former pastor and chan cellor. like trying to hold quicksand in your hand. A DEFINATE change came over us last year when our Ar chbishop asked that our people take their rightful role in the worship of God. Responding In Latin was difficult for. some. It is true that the Church uses ATHENS LU COMPAQ Successor to R. L. Moss Company MBER IY Manufacturing Manufacturers of Sash, Doors and Architectural Millwork PHONE LI. 6-0161 ATHENS, GEORGIA a foreign tongue, but despite that distinction, it is still native to none of us.Qur people did not always understand what they were saying but at least the silence was broken. The invisi ble unit)' of faith was becoming visible and audible. Individual ism gives way slowly to cor porate unit)' but that exaggerat ed isolationism was beginning to melt. The next step began at a farm house six miles outside of Bet ween, Georgia. You may have difficulty- finding it on a map After dinner the wife of the house mentioned that the dialo gue Mass was going so well at St. Anna's Chapel, she thought it would be wonderful if Mass could be said facing the people. To be truthful, I was shocked. How could a good Catholic have such a radical thought? As I drove home to Athens those twenty nine miles I kept think ing of reasons for saying no. I was a bit tired, but I could not think of any. Then I thou ght of die answer. Father Har- rision comes to say Mass at St. Anna's every Sunday. He is much more sensible than L I was sure he would know the re asons for saying no. To my surprised he was delighted with the idea. He had said Mass that way in the Catecombs. All my defenses were gone. When that happens to a pastor the only solution is to present the problem to the chief shep herd, the Archbishop. How cle arly I could see the wisdom of Christ in appointing Bishops. The Archbishop sat back in his chair. He held his pipe in his hand and his office was filled with a few seconds of what is labeled silent meditation. Finally he smiled and said: 1 don't see why not, If It helps to bring the people closer to God. In those few words he see- JACKSON READY MIXED CONCRETE CONCRETE BLOCK-CONCRETE PIPE “Sudd, lodatf *7Ae yZituOf Tftcxtd TVay LI 6-1211 TRACY STREET ATHENS, GEORGIA med to summerized all liturgi cal change. BACK AT St. Anna's Chapel we moved the altar away from the back wall, the unvarnished wood behind the altar was soon glistening as if it had never been hidden, and we began to say Mass facing the congregat ion. The Blessed Sacrament is not reserved so we had no pro blem concerning the tabernacle. It was the beginning of January. At the end of the month the parishoners asked that Mass facing the people be continued. To my surprise this was asked by all but one parishoner. It gradually became clear to me that the people were not so much concerned with the change as they were with deepening their appreciation of the Mass. Meanwhile back at the mother parish people kept coming and going. Outside of Church I not iced that the number I was welcoming was slightly more than I was saying good-bye to. Over many a cup of coffee the more permanent parishoners revealed that with so many Mas ses and people, they hardly ever saw familiar faces. Some had even suggested we give up try ing to reach all these new peo ple. They were not here too long. And many of them didn't seem too interested in whatwas going on the parish. One Sunday I checked our Mass attendance and was surprised to find that over fifty percent of our congre gation could be labeled transi ent. How could we consider our selves worthy of the title Catholic unless we tried to re ach them. For months I dodged the issue of saying Mass facing the con gregation at the mother Church. To be perfectly truthful I drea ded the thought of upsetting peo ple and a few did not like the idea at all. I armed myself with the assurance that the purpose of the Church was to bring the people closer to God. If this would do it why could I be op posed. The Archbishop ghve his permission and we began the construction of a new altar. We decided to keep the altar on which the tabernacle rested dis tinct from die altar on which Mass would be said. We began the first Sunday of June. I told my people that I would ask for their honest opinion at the end of the month. On the last Sun day we asked what our people thought. Did they personally perfer Mass facing the congre gation? Seventy six percent said yes, twenty four percent said no. Since then we say all Mas ses facing the congregation. The response to the dialogue Mass has greatly increased. THE TEMPORARY altar we had set up was a bit awkward. The priest had to stand on the step in front of the altar of the Blessed Sacrement. The al tar was high, but the sanctu ary was small. The solution came from a priest who is a pastor in Baton Rouge, La. He stopped by to say Mass one morning on his way to the Lit urgical Conference in Phila- delph. His solution couldn’t have startled me more. "Remove the Communion Rail?" I almost chocked on the coffee I was trying to drink. "But how can the people go to Communion?" "That’s easy. They stand". Be fore I could protest he pointed his fingure and said: "Don’t you realize that you never kneel when you recieve Holy Com munion during Mass. If it isn’t disrespectable for you why should it be for your 'people? "Besides, think of the tremen dous effect this will have on the people who attend Mass, It will visibly portray the commu- nial nature of Mass in a way they can’t ignore." When the Archbishop visited Athens at the end of August he gave his permission. That very simply is the story' of why we are different. It was a gradual process that just happened. For the people of St Joseph's Mass is no longer a arama or a pagent they are watching. It is something in which they have a vital part. With the realiza tion of their role in the wor ship of God there comes the re alization of their part in the mission of the Church which we commonly refe^ to as Catholic Action. The barrier? of exagge rated individualism are begin ning to crumple and a parish which is so overwhelmingly tr ansient is becoming more cons cious that it is a family. Noone likes to be different, noone li kes to be the first to change. We invoked the aid of our pat ron St. Joseph who when he was awoke in the middle of the night had the courage to go immedi ately to Egypt. It is much eas ier to put it off until the morn ing. It was not easy to take these steps, but our people are closer to God because of it. Ask them the next time you meet them. RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST STANDING . . .No more communion rail -4then s d)(desl ^jhea/er dx tends Cordial Jn vita (ion Oo ^4/lt en S Pari A oners Do Sdee dJlie djreqt dar ^3or 64 llord CJt. DrusJl *W}otor Companu Ail, eni, (jeoryia ( Pulashi At Proad r£i 6-142/ CitaUiikod 1918