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PAGE 6 — The Georgia Bulletin, October 22, 1987
Archbishop Guided Extraordinary Church Growth
BY RITA McINERNEY
Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan, the second archbishop
of Atlanta, came to the diocese in 1968, following the death
of Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan.
Coming to the South from the upstate New York diocese
of Ogdensburg, a native of New York City and protege of
Cardinal Francis Spellmen, he served as archbishop for 19
years in a period of remarkable growth for the Catholic
Church in north Georgia.
Personally committed to Catholic social teaching in the
area of workers’ rights and labor unions, he became one of
five bishops drafting a landmark pastoral letter, Economic
Justice For All: Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S.
Economy, that was adopted by the U.S. bishops in 1986.
When Archbishop Donnellan was installed at the
Cathedral of Christ the King on July 16,1968, Atlanta was in
the early stage of its extraordinary growth. His see con
sisted of 34 parishes, 25 missions, 60 diocesan priests and
50,000 Catholics.
By 1987 the Catholic population had almost tripled and the
number of parishes had doubled. The Catholic population is
now about 133,000 in 65 parishes and 18 missions, served by
178 priests.
As a bishop and pastor, he was of one mind with Pope
John Paul II in upholding the teachings of the Church in the
face of changing times. And it was of vital importance to
him that the people have priests and pastors to guide them
in the spiritual journey.
Always a priest concerned with increasing vocations, the
archbishop in 1973 asked the legendary vocations director,
Monsignor P.J. O’Connor, to resume visits to Irish «
seminaries in the hope of recruiting seminarians to study a
for the archdiocese, a task that was handed over to Father
Edward Dillon in 1974.
Although the archbishop had personal connections with
Ireland through his family, it was not for sentimental
reasons that he approached the Irish seminaries, but
because of the practical need for priests to serve the grow
ing Atlanta church, Father Dillon said. The future growth
of the archdiocese and the need to plan for it and prepare
for it was very much on the archbishop’s mind and in his
conversation, Father Dillon said.
Looking back upon 40 years as a priest in a 1979 interview
he said, “the appointment that probably meant the most to
me and pleased me most was to be appointed rector of the
seminary (St. Joseph’s Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y.), which
came in 1962. I remember saying to Archbishop (John)
Maguire that the only ambition I ever had was to teach in
the seminary and I felt that I was too old for that. About six
months later I found myself assigned as rector. Being in
charge of the preparation of young men to the priesthood
was to me possibly the best of assignments. I couldn’t think
of anything more important I could be doing.”
While serving as vocations director, the future arch
bishop was responsible for a successful recruiting booklet.
Paulist Father Thomas E. Comber, who worked on the pro
ject with him, recalled that Father Donnellan had learned
through a study he made that television changed images
GROUNDBREAKING in October 1971 for the
new Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cancer Home,
Atlanta, a center dear to the archbishop and the
HOLY WEEK 1987, Archbishop Donnellan
and Monsignor John McDonough under
and goals, the attitudes of the family, and what people
wanted to be. He decided that a family education project
was needed. Together with Father Alvin Illig of the Paulist
Press, he produced a series of 10, four-color booklets which
opened to 16 pages. The booklets discussed such topics as
the future of the child, what life in the rectory or convent is
like, and what it is like to be a Religious brother.
The booklets were printed by Paulist Press and passed
out in all the parishes of the archdiocese with an accompa
nying letter suggesting sermon material. Later, Father
Comber said, these adult education booklets were mass
produced and sold to over 50 dioceses between 1960 and
1965. A total of 27 million copies were sold. Father Don
nellan was named a monsignor after the booklets proved so
successful, according to Father Comber.
The priest said he felt that shortage of priestly vocations
would be even greater had it not been for the little booklets
which resulted from Father Donnellan’s idea.
There was never any doubt as to his own sadness when
men left the priesthood, as happened during his years in
charity named by his family to receive any gifts
given in his memory.
dogwood trees after the Chrism Mass at the
Cathedral.
Atlanta. During a September 1986 interview with Atlanta
Magazine he said, “The thing that has caused me the
greatest heartache is when a man decides that he’ll no
longer actively serve. That, for me, would be the hardest
blow in my time as a bishop.”
But it did not dim his Christian hope for the future of
priestly life. “The Church has gone through peaks and
valleys as far as vocations are concerned. I’m confident
that when the Lord said ‘I’ll be with you always even till the
consummation of the world’ he meant he was going to be
there and that we will have the priests we need to do the
job,” he said in a Southline interview on April 9, 1986.
Catholic Values
The “sign of contradiction” that Pope John Paul called
Catholics to be in the world was echoed by the archbishop in
the same interview, as he spoke of the hunger “within our
materialistic culture for spiritual values.”
“You would be different than the culture in which you live
if you lived according to Catholic values,” he said. “You
would recognize that through life there will be hardships,
but that God will always give you the assurance of His
help...You would not see death as a total evil, but as a door
leading to the reunion with Jesus Christ. All of this makes a
difference.”
This is the assurance of faith he had from his earliest
years. His was a close-knit Irish Catholic family. His
parents, Andrew and Margaret Egan Donnellan, were both
born in Ireland. Home was in the Unionport section of the
Bronx. He and his sister, Nancy, grew up in an atmosphere
of love and faith, their parents dedicated to giving them the
best Catholic education possible. The Donnellans’ family
life was closely linked to that of their parish, Holy Family.
Young Tom Donnellan began thinking about the priesthood
at the same age he became an altar boy, seven.
In March, 1987, the archbishop returned to Holy Family
for the 75th anniversary celebration of the parish, staying
at the rectory, celebrating the anniversary Mass and
enjoying the return to the old neighborhood and parish.
On his return to Atlanta he reflected in a homily upon the
emotional bond that connects parishioners to their native
parish. The house where one was reared may become the
home of strangers, he said, but the parish church where one
ro served and celebrated the sacraments is always home.
* While the archbishop could smilingly refer to be la-
i beled the “token conservative” in a news magazine article
h on the bishops’ committee drafting the letter on the
§ economy, he brought to the task a lifelong commitment to
§ the poor and jobless.
g He had known first hand what hardships are inflicted
upon families in an unequal economy. As a boy growing up
in a blue collar neighborhood in the Bronx, his family knew
hard times. His father, a union bricklayer, worked hard
when jobs were available during the Depression years, the
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