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M6e IT- The Georgia Btriletih, August %■ W$t)
Fairburn LaSalette Parish 'Bursting At The Seams'
FULL HOUSE - The remodeled funeral home serves as sanctuary,
rectory, office building and educational facility for the parish.
BY PAULA DAY
St. Matthew’s parish in Fairburn is one of the seven
LaSalette parishes in the archdiocese undergoing an
evaluation this summer.
Father James Caffery, MS, is pastor of the South Fulton
County parish and during his two years as pastor the
parish has grown from 260 to 345 households. Recently
when he asked parishioners to evaluate their parish, he
told them, “You will honor me most by being truthful.”
The priest noted that if a parish is a healthy parish, it is
because the parishioners dso work to make it so. “We
must be a welcoming, inviting community as individuals.”
he said.
Through its Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults
(RCIC) process the parish received 14 into full commun
ion with the Church this past Easter. Seven are now
participating in the pre-catechumenate and nine have
indicated interest in the sessions to begin in the fall.
“The spirit of this parish community is shown in its
liturgies,” Father Caffery explained. “They are uplifting,
welcoming, joyful. The people are extending themselves,
not allowing themselves to be strangers.”
St. Matthew’s has many young families the priest
pointed out. The number of children in the parish religious
education program has increased from 55 to 160 since he
became pastor. They are involved in the weekend liturgies,
singing songs, offering prayers of the faithful, at times
performing appropriate skits.
Recently a parishioner approached Father Caffery
asking to initiate a senior citizens group. According to
Rose Noehl, the group has grown from 12 to 16 to 21.
They have attended a local
theater production and
have plans to go to a
Braves game.
“If you take care of the
young and take care of the
old,” Father Caffery said,
“then you get those in
between. If you care for
those they love, then
they’ll be interested in the
Church.”
Father Caffery points
with pride to the parish
outreach to the community
at large through its
S.M.A.R.T. Team. The St.
Matthew’s Addiction Re
ferral Team meets twice a
month and offers educa
tional and supportive assis
tance to those affected by
alcohol and drug abuse in
the area.
St. Matthew’s parishio
ners extend their welcom
ing and joyful spirit to the
sick and shut-in, making
regular visits to Christian City. The extensive complex in
South Fulton County includes a convalescent center,
retirement home for die elderly and home for children.
St. Matthew parishioners recendy trained to assist with
the obtaining of annulments at a workshop conducted by
the archdiocese’s Tribunal. Two plan to attend an August
training session for parish AIDS ministry coordinators
offered by the Archdiocesan AIDS Task Force.
“The parish sends people to these (events) so that when
hurting people come to me, I can send them to those who
have been trained. The parish helps finance their involve
ment. No matter what the future, they’ll be of service to
the Church,” Father Caffery said.
The “little church that could” is bursting at its seams.
A converted funeral home, the structure houses the priest’s
living quarters, offices, meeting rooms, classrooms and a
tiny sanctuary, once the funeral home chapel. To accom
modate overflow at weekend Masses, one room is convert
ed into a closed circuit television room. Another, at a right
angle to the sanctuary, opens directly onto the altar area.
Groundbreaking for a new all-purpose structure with
4,000 square feet of socializing space is planned for the
fall. In addition to this gathering area, it will be used for
the more heavily attended weekend Masses, seating 450.
It will add needed classroom space and the plans allow for
the parish’s projected growth. The parish has $100,000 of
the needed $300,000 for construction.
The hoped-for completion, “at least by spring,” cannot
come soon enough for Father Caffery who is a* “man
without a room” from eight to 11 on Sundays. Even the
rectory living room is expropriated; RCIA sessions are
held there. Because of the concentration of so many on
Sunday mornings in such a small area, the pastor says he
“does more work on Sunday and then uses Monday to
figure out what I promised people” the day before.
“We’re working in a hurting situation, but there’s
tremendous good spirit,” the priest says. “We’ll look
back and say ‘those were the days.’”
The LaSalette priest came from a Cajun parish in
Louisiana of 1,500 families and church that could seat
800-900 people. He finds that the intimacy of St.
Matthew’s small sanctuary with “no big pulpit to hide
behind” creates a far less formal atmosphere and in his
homilies he shares himself, talking “as if with family
members.”
St. Matthew’s will have its on-site evaluation in mid-
September. Father Caffery will be the LaSalette member
on an evaluation team visiting Good Shepherd parish in
Orlando, Fla., in October.
Parish Evaluations
YOUTHFUL PARISHIONERS - Laura
Warhola and seven first grade students in her
religious education class are part of the fast grow
ing and youthful parish population.
PROUD PASTOR - Father James Caffery, MS,
credits St. Matthew’s parishioners for helping to
make the parish a welcoming community.
(Continued from page 1)
the province serve in 21 parishes from Massachusetts to
Florida.
The Second Vatican Council directed Religious orders
and congregations in the Church to pinpoint their original
purpose, their guiding spirit, by going back to their
“roots.” They were then to rewrite their rule of life in the
light of that founding spirit. The revised rule of the
Missionaries of Our Lady of LaSalette received papal
approval in 1985.
The special spirit or “charism” of the LaSalette
congregation, refocused by this examination of its begin
nings, is one of reconciliation with God and one another,
explained Father James Caffery, MS, pastor of St.
Matthew’s parish in Fairburn. The parish evaluations seek
to discover if the needs of the people are being met and if
this spirit of reconciliation imbues parish life, the priest
said.
Begun in late spring, the evaluations are scheduled for
completion in November. A final, written report, culled
from preliminary reports from the evaluating teams and a
province commission, will go to the provincial superior,
Father Thomas Reilly.
The evaluation process has three main phases. Basic
information about the parish is gathered first. This in
cludes a history of LaSalette involvement in the parish, its
demographics, its financial status. More intensely, the
survey investigates the presence of social and moral
problem areas such as drug and alcohol abuse,
homelessness, abortion and AIDS. It asks about efforts to
reach out to the needy and about ecumenical involvement.
In a second phase, the pastor and parochial vicars are
interviewed. Their efforts to continue their own education,
their involvement with other community members in the
area, and their ways of relaxing are discussed.
A team will make an on-site weekend visitation to the
parish in the final evaluation phase. A LaSalette priest, a
professional person from the archdiocese and a lay person
from outside the parish will make up the team. It will
examine the parish plant, its condition and equipment. The
LaSalette on the team will interview the pastor.
In a working session with the parish council, council
members will be asked to evaluate such areas as the parish
liturgies, sacramental experiences, participation of parish
ioners in parish life, their financial support, attendance at
Mass, prayer life, outreach to the poor, as well as the
quality of service given by the pastor and staff. The
council members will be asked to list what they consider
the parish’s strengths and weaknesses.
In addition to the three evaluative phases, surveys are
conducted among the parishioners, in the neighborhood or
town, in neighboring parishes and among LaSalette priests
in the province to discover what the parish image is with
these groups.
The pastoral planning evaluation by the LaS alettes of
Our Lady of Seven Dolors province began in 1985 under
the direction of the province’s five-member pastoral
Planning Commission with Father Cassian Yuhaus, CP, as
consultant. The province has 109 priests and brothers
assigned to ministry in the United States and 24 men from
the province work, in Argentina, S.A. The Missionaries of
Our Lady of LaSalette have four provinces in this country.