Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8 — The Georgia Bulletin, October 22,1987
COVENANTS pro
moting Christian uni
ty were signed with
two denominations.
In 1984, Bishop
Charles J. Child, Jr.,
of the Episcopal Dio
cese of Atlanta, and
Archbishop Donnel-
lan signed a pledge of
mutual prayer and
respect. Bishop Child
is shown in top photo
at the ecumenical
service held Satur
day, Oct. 17 for the
archbishop. In photo
below, the archbishop
is shown with Bishop
David E. Wolber, left,
of the Southeastern
District, American
Lutheran Church,
and Bishop Gerald E.
Troutman, right, of
the Southeastern Syn
od, Lutheran Church
in America, after
signing a covenant
document at the Cath
edral of Christ the
King in 1986.
MOST REVEREND THOMAS A. DONNELLAN,
ARCHBISHOP OF ATLANTA
BORN:
January 24, 1914 in New York City
PARENTS:
Andrew and Margaret (Egan) Donnellan
ORDAINED PRIEST:
June 3, 1939 at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, New York City by Most
Reverend Francis Spellman
SCHOOLS ATTENDED:
Cathedral College, New York City — 1931-1933
Saint Joseph’s Seminary. Yonkers — 1933-1939
Catholic University, Washington, D C. — 1939-1 942
ACADEMIC DEGREES:
AB. - Saint Joseph s Seminary
J.C.D. - Catholic University
POSITIONS HELD:
Assistant Pastor, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral — 1942-1944
Assistant Chancellor, Archdiocese of New York — 1944-1954
Synodal Judge, New York Metropolitan Tribunal — 1950-1958
Vice Chancellor/Secretary to Cardinal Spellman — 1954-1958
Archdiocesan Vocation Director — 1957
Chancellor, Archdiocese of New York — 1958-1962
Rector, Saint Joseph’s Seminary — 1962-1964
ELEVATED TO ECCLESIASTICAL DIGNITY:
Papal Chamberlain (Very Reverend Monsignor) — June 1954
Domestic Prelate (Right Reverend Monsignor) — April 1958
Protonotary Apostolic — December 1962
Episcopal Appointment — March 4, 1964
Consecrated — April 9, 1964
Installed as Bishop of Ogdensburg — April 13, 1964
Appointed Archbishop of Atlanta — May 24, 1968
Installed as Archbishop of Atlanta — July 16. 1968
DIED:
October 15. 1987 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Archbishop —
(Continued from page 7)
from all across the country in a massive mobilization of
people who wanted to help the children.
The collection continues to be taken up each spring in
parishes throughout the archdiocese to underwrite the ex
penses of Camp Promise held in three parishes in Atlanta
and Decatur.
The archbishop’s efforts in promoting Christian unity
bore fruit in the signing of two covenants during the 1980’s.
In January, 1984, in an historic ceremony at the Shroud of
Turin exhibit at the Omni, he and Bishop Charles J. Child,
Jr., bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, signed a
covenant committing the two dioceses to mutual prayer
and respect, study and spiritual life.
“We have come to declare a unity to which Christ calls
us,” Archbishop Donnellan said at the service. Expressing
his feelings later, he said that he felt everyone had an
obligation to extend themselves in seeking the unity Christ
prayed for.
On Nov. 2, 1986, at an All Saints Day service at the
Cathedral of Christ the King, the archbishop signed a cov
enant with two Lutheran leaders, Bishop David E. Wolber, of
the Southeastern District, American Lutheran Church, and
Bishop Gerald S. Troutman, of the Southeastern Synod,
Lutheran Church in America. The covenant document,
presented after a year of dialogue between committees
from the two faiths, called for mutual support in prayer and
action.
In October of 1970 the archbishop returned to New York
City to accept the annual Brotherhood Award of the Na
tional Conference of Christians and Jews. The late Cardinal
Terence Cooke, as principal speaker, lauded his old friend
for “his gifts of integrity and dedication, his penetrating
and balanced mind, and his social involvement and per
sonal good humor.”
In November, 1980, the archbishop joined with Rabbi
Alvin M. Sugarman of The Temple in Atlanta, in a
Thanksgiving statement in behalf of “our black brothers
and sisters, ...as an expression of the concern we feel with
them over the resurgence of such voices of bigotry as the
Ku Klux Klan.
“We remind our congregations that we cannot merely
stand idly by when the rights of others are threatened,
especially when they are threatened by a group that has
historically leveled the same attacks at us. An attack on the
rights of any one of us is a threat to the rights of all of us,”
the two religious leaders said.
It is inconsistent with the teachings of their religious
heritage that a Catholic or a Jew hold membership in the
Ku Klux Klan; to be associated with such groups is
equivalent to endorsing their positions, both past and pre
sent, the two men told their congregations.
In May, 1986, the archbishop was appointed by Gov. Joe
Frank Harris to the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust.
The commission was formed to heighten public awareness
of the lessons of the wholesale slaughter of the Jewish peo
ple by Hitler.
Dr. Lawrence W. Bottoms, a Presbyterian minister and a
former president of the Christian Council of Metropolitan
Atlanta, who had known the archbishop through communi
ty and ecumenical work for many years, said the arch
bishop was a “very cordial” person who was “concerned
about the people.”
He highly complimented him as a man of spiritual and in
tellectual depth who thought not at the secondary level of
structure and programs, but rather “at the primary level of
spiritual development. He had a depth much deeper than
structure.”
Because of this depth, the archbishop was able to extend
the relationship of the Catholic community across many
denominational lines, Dr. Bottoms said.
“I think he knew how to live at a spiritual depth,” Dr. Bot
toms said. “That is where relationships deepen, through the
ability to meet people at a spiritual level.”
Archbishop Donnellan’s was a strong voice against abor
tion both in his archdiocese and in the nation since his
responsibilities with the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops included that of consultant to the Pro-Life Ac
tivities Committee.
When the Supreme Court, on Jan. 22, 1973, ruled in favor
of abortion he issued a statement which said in part: “The
court has spoken in behalf of a woman’s right to privacy. I
pray that the American people will continue to speak in
behalf of the far more basic right to life of the unborn child
and the efforts of the individual states to protect that
right.”
In a statement to mark Pro-Life Day in October, 1977 he
stressed the need for Christians to speak out on the issue
and not to succumb to the philosophy of those pro
abortionists who argue that “one should not force one’s
moral viewpoints on another. Society forces its moral view
points upon robbers and rapist with whom it disagrees, fn
enforcing law...” he said.
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