Georgia Bulletin

Georgia

• Archbishop Thanks Visitation Nuns On 50th Jubilee

  By GRETCHEN KEISER, Staff Writer
  Published July 22, 2004

  Fifty years ago the heartfelt desire of a cloistered nun was realized when she founded a monastery of her order in her home state of Georgia. Mother Francis de Sales Cassidy, a Visitation nun from a Macon Catholic family, brought nine nuns from a Toledo, Ohio, monastery and the spirituality of this contemplative order to […]

• Prince Of Peace Will Grow At New Hall County Site

  By CHRISTA COOK, Special Contributor
  Published July 22, 2004

  Sunday evening June 6 the skies over Flowery Branch were filled with 1,000 multicolored balloons as the ceremonial ground-breaking for Prince of Peace Church drew to a close. Symbolizing a multicultural community united in spirit and faith, the balloons ascended, following in the path of prayers offered earlier on this 65-acre site on Spout Springs […] Full Story

• Msgr. Donovan Marks 60th Anniversary Of Ordination

  By ERIKA ANDERSON, Staff Writer
  Published July 22, 2004

  When Tony Totis and his family emigrated from Italy to Georgia in 1951, Msgr. Walter Donovan was just a young priest with a big heart. He was there to greet the family when they arrived and he brought them to Athens, where he was serving as pastor of St. Joseph’s Church. They were strangers in […] Full Story

• Sue Stubbs To Head Office Of Child & Youth Protection

  By MARY ANN CASTRANIO, Staff Writer
  Published July 22, 2004

  Mary Susan Stubbs believes that counseling is her calling, and her enthusiasm for helping people and her varied job experiences have been an invaluable preparation for her new position with the Archdiocese of Atlanta. Archbishop John F. Donoghue recently named Stubbs, a parishioner at St. Benedict Church, Duluth, as the new director of the Office […] Full Story

• Faith-Based Project Aims To Fight Inmate Recidivism

  By PRISCILLA GREEAR, Staff Writer
  Published July 22, 2004

  Ecumenism is in action at the maximum security Hays State Prison in Trion, where 68 Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and men of every other faith represented there have eagerly moved into a new “faith/character dorm,” a pilot program just launched there and in five other correctional institutions across Georgia. The Hays program is expected to start […] Full Story

• Volunteers Help Inmates Create Catholic Community

  By PRISCILLA GREEAR, Staff Writer
  Published July 22, 2004

  It was after Joseph Barnes committed his life to Jesus while living six and a half years on death row and studying his childhood Bible that doors started opening. He had his death sentence commuted and received life in prison—and hope in Christ and his Hays State Prison Roman Catholic Community. Barnes, who has five […]

• 21 Brownies Receive Family Of God Medals

  Published July 15, 2004

  Twenty-one students from Holy Spirit Preparatory School Brownie Scout Troop 21359 have been awarded Family of God Medals. Msgr. Edward J. Dillon, pastor of Holy Spirit Church, presented the medals in a ceremony at the school. The girls completed work on the Family of God Medals during four months of activities. Participating in the activities […]

• St. George Village Retirement Complex Breaks Ground

  By GRETCHEN KEISER, Staff Writer
  Published July 15, 2004

  Charter members of St. George Village were the guests of honor June 9 as the ground was broken for the retirement community where they’re eager to begin living. To be built alongside St. Peter Chanel Church, on a campus that includes Queen of Angels Elementary School and Blessed Trinity High School, it is the first […]

• Covenant House Head Sees Atlanta Branch At Work

  By PRISCILLA GREEAR, Staff Writer
  Published July 15, 2004

  As part of her inaugural tour of the 21 branches of Covenant House, its new national president Sister Patricia A. Cruise recently visited the Atlanta site, which is raising funds to build a 40-bed crisis shelter. Since opening in August 2000, Covenant House Georgia has served about 3,000 youth and is the youngest branch of […]

• GED Class Can Be Her Doorway To A Better Life

  By PRISCILLA GREEAR, Staff Writer
  Published July 15, 2004

  Three days before her high school graduation Jessica Walden learned that she had failed the graduation test for the third time and wouldn’t be getting her diploma. “I had retaken the test two times. I didn’t give up. I just didn’t want to take the test again,” said Walden. Now 20 years old, and after […] Full Story

• Teaching Nun, Sister Rita Led Many To God

  By ERIKA ANDERSON, Staff Writer
  Published July 15, 2004

  As a teacher and an administrator at St. Pius X High School, Sister Rita Marie Raffaele had a reputation for being strict. But for those who knew her, her toughness was balanced, if not overpowered, by her fairness, good humor and, most especially, her great faith in God. Though small in stature, the late Grey […]

• Military Chaplain Honored At Retirement

  Published July 15, 2004

  Father Paul J. Bolton, who will be 68 in October and has been a priest for 42 years, has been serving in the military chaplaincy for 39 years. A priest of the Diocese of Providence, R.I., he began by serving as a chaplain to the Rhode Island National Guard in July 1965. In addition to […] Full Story

• Couples Speak To Couples In NFP Classes

  By LYNN CRUTCHFIELD, Special Contributor
  Published July 15, 2004

  Natural Family Planning has been referred to as “the church’s best kept secret,” but in the Archdiocese of Atlanta the secret is out and couples are signing up for classes in record numbers. I believe the reason for the increase can be summed up in the support of Archbishop John F. Donoghue and the amazing […]

• CTK School Raises Funds For Children In Haiti

  Published July 15, 2004

  Christ the King School students who heard a Haitian priest speak about the poor conditions in his country have been empowered to try to make a difference. When Christ the King School’s second- through fifth-grade student council held their first meeting in September, the representatives wanted to make sure to do a service project to […]

• Dom Francis Michael Receives Abbatial Blessing

  By GRETCHEN KEISER, Staff Writer
  Published July 15, 2004

  Dom Francis Michael Stiteler, OCSO, received the abbatial blessing as the seventh abbot of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery on the feast of St. Benedict July 11 with 600 to 700 people witnessing the celebration. The Mass of blessing came 30 years after the abbot, a native of Philadelphia, entered the Conyers monastery […] Full Story

• Magnificat Speaker To Talk On Joy In Christian Life

  Published July 1, 2004

  Carol Razza, Ed. D., who will speak at the Magnificat breakfast in August, brings together over 20 years of experience as a psychotherapist with her work as a spiritual leader in retreats, parish missions and conferences. An adjunct professor at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach, Fla., she is a licensed psychotherapist in […]

• Moment Of Conversion Started Colombian On Path: Father Fabio Alvarez Posada

  By PRISCILLA GREEAR, Staff Writer
  Published July 1, 2004

  Father Fabio Alvarez Posada recalls going out to play his beloved sport of soccer at the age of 17 one day when he, having not yet embraced his faith, felt this strange desire to go to Mass. There he heard the priest express God’s invitation to “ven a mi” (come to me). That kicked off […]

• Filipino Family Planted God’s Service In His Heart: Father Diosmar Amalay Natad

  By ERIKA ANDERSON, Staff Writer
  Published July 1, 2004

  While growing up in the Philippines, Diosmar Natad and his cousins would often go to the family chapel and reenact the Mass. His great-grandparents built the chapel, which later became a parish church, as more and more people flocked to it. A priest would come and celebrate Mass each Sunday for the family, who were […]

• Mother’s Baptism Begins Son’s Vocational Journey

  By ERIKA ANDERSON, Staff Writer
  Published July 1, 2004

  As a young boy growing up in Seoul, South Korea, Cyril Soo-Gil Chae had a typical childhood. As one of five children, he lived in a home full of mutual love and respect. “My father was diligent, honest and a good man, and my mother was prayerful and pious,” he said. “I was inspired by […] Full Story

• Church Teams Help Some Leave Prison For Good

  By PRISCILLA GREEAR, Staff Writer
  Published July 1, 2004

  With the restlessness of repressed grief over her mother’s death, Cynthia Sturm stole $26,000 that she didn’t even need from a restaurateur for whom she handled bookkeeping. She said it was a “cry for help.” Sturm had been on the run from that grief when she moved to Atlanta from Chicago in her early 20s, […]