Historic Number Of 2,062 Prepare To Enter Church

The Archdiocese of Atlanta on Sunday, Feb. 21, formally welcomed the women, men and children taking part in parish-level study of the faith. Some 2,062 people plan to join the church in April.

Archdiocesan leaders have said it is the largest number to ever join the North Georgia church at one time.

Photo: A religious education director, one of the more than 70 on hand, presents the Book of the Elect to Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory. Over 2,000 people gathered at the Atlanta Civic Center for one ceremony marking the 2010 Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion Feb. 21. (Photo by Michael Alexander)

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Vatican Names Atlanta’s Sacred Heart As Basilica

Sacred Heart Church in downtown Atlanta has been given the honor by the Vatican of being designated as a minor basilica.

The honor was bestowed Feb. 22 by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The over 100-year-old Sacred Heart Church was named a basilica Feb. 22. The Atlanta church is the first basilica in Georgia. (Photo by Michael Alexander)

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At Summit, Leaders Urged To Fight Poverty Harder

Advocates for the poor exchanged “big ideas” on how to cut poverty in half in the United States at a leadership summit.

Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA and a member of the White House Council of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said the economic downturn has produced a “new poor,” families in the middle class who now turn to public assistance and charities they may have donated to in the past, while job prospects are bleak.

Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, gives the keynote address during the Feb. 24 Centennial Leadership Summit at the Loudermilk Center, Atlanta.

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Vatican Astronomer Discusses Elusive Truth Of Science

Many people might be surprised to learn that the Catholic Church has experts in astronomy, cosmology and planetary science as well as one of the world’s oldest astronomical research facilities. For Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, curator of meteorites for the Vatican, it is a typical day at the office.

Brother Consolmagno, a Detroit native and Ph.D. in planetary science, recently visited Atlanta to give two lectures at local colleges. On Monday, Feb. 15, he presented a talk entitled, “Truth in Science: Galileo to Today, Reflections of a Vatican Astronomer,” at Emory University, and the following night he spoke on “Planetary Ethics” to a group at Agnes Scott College.

Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, an American astronomer and planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory, speaks to an audience at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology on Galileo’s birthday, Feb. 15. (Photo by Michael Alexander)

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