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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 19 No. 25
Thursday, July 2,1981
$8.00 per year
FATHER John O’Brien, left, and Father Patrick Duffy, right
following ordination ceremonies at the monastery on May 23.
An Unlikely Pair
In The Monastery
Family Volunteers At Camp:
“Hard Work, But Good Work”
BY THEA JARVIS
Every morning for two weeks this
past June, a small band of cars pulled
up quietly to Fran Waller’s Dunwoody
curb at 7:30 a.m.
It was the All Saints squadron of
Camp Promise volunteers, on their
way to Saint Anthony’s Church in
southwest Atlanta where hundreds of
energetic, summer-loving, anticipating
children awaited them.
Volunteers are still needed to
work at any one of the three
Camp Promise sites, since the
response of children has more
than fulfilled the hopes of those
planning the summer program.
Volunteers can give one day a
week for a period of time, or
work a full week or more. If
interested, contact Sister
Margaret McAnoy at 881-1419.
“I’m so glad I went,” said Fran j.
enthusiastically. “It was a very |
enriching experience. The children are *
really appreciative of everything - they
respond to love.”
Fran, the mother of six children,
the youngest of whom is 17, got her
whole family into gear for the
two-week production.
“They all helped with meals and
laundry, pitching in and helping -
making it easier for me to give of
myself,” she said. “Different ones
gathered things to send down to use -
tennis balls, scotch tape, yarn. When I
got home, they wanted to know the
happenings of the day.”
Two of Fran’s children Angela, 22
and Kathy, 19, traveled to Saint
Anthony’s on those early mornings to
assist in the classroom. Their
volunteer days were scheduled to fit
the demands of school and jobs.
Together with Sister Marguerite, a
religious from Pennsylvania who will
remain at the camp until the end of
July, they supervised arts and crafts,
reading and community-building for
33 lively nine-year-olds, staying until
two o’clock when the children went
outside for games, sports and
recreation.
“The girls were skeptical at first,”
said Fran of her daughters’ reaction.
“But immediately the children make
(Continued on page 6)
NEWLY ORDAINED priests, Father Bruce M.
Wilkinson, Father David R. Kukielski and Father
Brent A. Bohan leave the altar at Christ the King
Cathedral in Atlanta following the rite of
ordination June 27. At the rear are, left to right,
Father Felipe J. Estevez, rector of the St. Vincent
de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach, Fla.,
Archbishop Thomas Donnellan and Monsignor
John McDonough. The clergy and people of the
archdiocese joined many friends and the families of
the three new priests for the ordination and a
reception afterward at the Hyland Center.
LAMAR COUNTY
After 23 Years, A Church Dedication
BY GRETCHEN REISER
One came to Atlanta on business trips and, while he was here, started making
regular visits to the Monastery of the Holy Ghost in Conyers.
The other was a cop in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a Brooklyn ghetto neighborhood
that gradually wrested from the South Bronx the reputation of being the most
volatile in New York.
John O’Brien and Patrick Duffy didn’t know each other then, but each was
considering leaving his career and entering the Trappist Monastery. Within a week
of each other, at the age of 37, they arrived in Conyers in 1973. This May, after
eight years in which they studied and made their simple vows and solemn
profession of vows as brothers, both were also ordained priests.
For Father Patrick Duffy, there was a 20-year wait between the first time he
considered entering a monastery and the day he came to Conyers. At 17 he wrote
to a monastery in Massachusetts and was told to wait a year until he was a bit
older. Entering a monastic community “has been on my mind all my life,” he
said.
Over the years, he visited monasteries in the United States and Europe, making
retreats and observing the differences among the communities. But if that was the
preoccupation in the back of his mind, his occupation day to day became that of a
New York patrolman who found that he wanted to work where the demands were
highest.
Originally assigned to Bedford Stuyvesant, he was offered a chance to move
after several years, but declined. In the department, he said, policemen who
choose to stay are tagged “ghetto cops,” wedded to the pace of the action and the
neighborhood.
“It’s like a combat zone,” he said. “I delivered 13 babies, saved a lot of lives,
(Continued on page 6)
On Sunday, March 15, a dream became a reality! The Lamar County Catholic
Community had Mass for the first time in their own newly renovated church. For
years, Catholics of Lamar County had dreamed of having their own church. But
because of the small number of Catholics, this had been impossible until now.
Snellville Dedication, See Page 2
Actually, the first Mass offered in Lamar County was held in the home of Mr.
and Mrs. Joseph Deraney about 23 years ago. A Redemptorist priest came from
Griffin and only a handful of people were present. This continued for a couple of
years, but as their numbers grew, Mr. Deraney’s home became too small. So they
moved their services to the Women’s Club and stayed there for twenty years. The
priest still came from Griffin; and the people still dreamed of having their own
Church.
Slowly their members grew, and in May of 1979 they purchased the Old
Barnesville Academy. At last they had their own building! There was a lot of work
to be done - planning, ripping out of classroom walls, insulating, rewiring, erecting
new walls and ceilings, paneling, putting up sheetrock, etc. Sacrifice and prayer
were mixed in with the cinderblocks and cement that went into St. Ann’s as the
parishioners did all the construction themselves.
During this time, they were still having Mass at the Women’s Club. It wasn’t
until they finished the hall section of their building that they could have Mass in
their “own” building (even if it was the parish hall and not the church). It was on
the first Sunday of Advent 1979 that the congregation was able to offer Mass for
the first time in their own,building, and part of the dream was realized. But the
atmosphere of the place, though extremely nice, was temporary.
So with the hall finished and being used for services, the congregation now
turned its attention to the church section of the building. Beams went up for the
ceiling and the process of insulating, rewiring, and putting up drywall to cover the
cinderblocks was repeated. Finally, with the laying of the carpet and the moving
in of the pews, the dream became a reality! And on March 15, Father Joseph
Majewski, a Redemptorist priest who still comes from Griffin, offered the first
Mass in the new church.
The congregation has already turned its attention to remodeling the last
(Continued on page 2)
Christian Council President Seeks Catholic Members
BY GRETCHEN REISER
More involvement by Catholics and
parishes in the work of the Christian
Council of Metropolitan Atlanta is
one of the hopes of the Council’s
newly installed president.
Frank Broniec, a member of St.
Thomas More parish in Decatur,
assumed the presidency of the
102-year-old organization June 16,
the first Catholic to hold that
position.
The installation at St. Thomas
More included a worship service
representing many denominations.
Among those taking part were Bishop
John of the Greek Orthodox Diocese
of Atlanta, Archbishop Thomas
Donnellan, Ed Abrams, president of
the National Conference of Christians
and Jews, Mrs. Theodora James of
Friendship Baptist Church and the
Reverend Harry Tisdale of St.
Bartholomew Episcopal Church.
Even the music brought together
the talents of many churches, from
soloists, to choirs, to the native hymn
sung by members of the Korean
community centered at St. Thomas
More.
Coming together for such a service
is one of the specific ways to foster
community among people of faith,
Broniec said in a recent interview.
Then, such a community can reach
out in a stronger way to the city and
region as a whole. “There’s so much
fractionalism in Atlanta - city versus
county, black versus white, even
though overall we have fairly good
black-white relationships,” he said.
“The Council is trying to work with
groups to see that this (division) really
isn’t necessary.”
“And I think that religion is a good
base to work together on - to look at
it from our relationship with Christ.”
The work of the Council, believed
to be the oldest and largest ecumenical
organization in the South, includes
emergency assistance to the poor and
work with refugees and, from its
inception, reflected a deep interest
among founding members in those in
prison, particularly the young. A
concern 40 and 50 years ago about the
effect of movies on morality has a
contemporary counterpart: work by
the Christian Council toward
regulating material permitted on cable
television.
The Council officers and its
executive director Dr. Donald Newby
serve as liaison to municipal agencies
and groups.
Currently the Council, working
with the Archdiocese and Atlanta’s
Jewish community, is seeking support
for an interfaith chapel at Hartsfield
Airport. Seeing the project through to
completion was one of the aims cited
by the incoming president, who
succeeded Dr. Lawrence Bottoms, a
Presbyterian minister.
Other goals for the year include
placing the Council, which has a
deficit, or. a sound financial footing
and planning joint worship services,
particularly at Thanksgiving and
during the Week of Christian Unity.
Among the long range questions
facing the Council is “looking at how
we relate to other faiths and where we
should be” in relationships with
non-Christians, Broniec said.
On a personal note, Broniec said,
he would like to see every Catholic
church become a member of the
Christian Council, sharing in its
activities and sharing information
about ecumenical projects which may
be occurring at the parish level.
Active in the Council since 1967,
Broniec traced his own growing
THE CHRISTIAN COUNCIL’S new president,
Frank Broniec, has been active in the council since
1967 and his interest in ecumenism was sparked
during an Army tour of duty in Germany and
through the Christian Family Movement in Chicago
and Atlan ta.
interest in ecumenical work to many
factors, including his experience as an
Army officer in Germany where he
worked with a Protestant chaplain and
shared the experiences of men in his
unit who came from a variety of
denominations. He and his wife,
Shirley, a convert to Catholicism, met
and married in Germany.
Their experiences as members of
the Christian Family Movement, first
in Chicago and later in Atlanta, also
brought them together with Christian
denominations working on
community projects. The Movement,
which began in Chicago in the
mid-1940s, was based on small groups
of couples who met regularly to read
Scripture, pray and consider possible
action within the larger community
based on their study.
From 1968-69, the Broniecs were
co-presidents of CFM at St. Thomas
More. The organization initiated the
first Thanksgiving ecumenical service
in the parish. The Broniecs, who have
four children, are. also former
co-presidents of the Fernbank P.T.A.
and, as a family, sponsors of a North
Vietnamese refugee family through
Catholic Social Services. Since 1979,
Frank Broniec has represented St.
Thomas More on the Archdiocesan
Religious Unity Commission.
“I think ecumenism has to be
constantly brought out to people, in
sermons, in newspapers, in services,”
he said. “I’m a man of action and I
believe in participating and getting
others to participate too.”