Carolyn Denton, director of archives and records of the Atlanta Archdiocese, and Deacon Dennis Dorner, chancellor of the archdiocese, accepted the Cardinal Joseph Bernardin Award during the July meeting of the Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists.

The award was presented by the association president, Emilie Leumas, archivist of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, at the University of St. Mary on the Lake and Seminary in Mundelein, Ill.

The Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists gives the award in recognition for building an exemplary archives and records program.

Cardinal Bernardin was an auxiliary bishop in Atlanta for two years, from 1966 to 1968. The Atlanta archives holds the Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin Collection belonging to Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan, first archbishop of Atlanta. The collection was transferred to Atlanta from the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2001.

While the archives office was established in 1992, the archdiocese didn’t have an archives and records program guiding retention and evaluation of archival material as recently as five years ago. Now, it is building a program based on sound principles and practices with a professional archivist and an action plan to preserve the local church’s history.

A former trial attorney turned ethicist, Heidi Tauscher, is the new parish and social justice ministries director for Catholic Charities Atlanta and the Atlanta Archdiocese.

Tauscher started Aug. 9. She succeeds Susan Stevenot Sullivan, who joined the administrative staff at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C.

Tauscher’s responsibilities are broad. She is responsible for Parish Social Ministry, Catholic Relief Services, JustFaith, Justice for Immigrants, and Catholic Campaign for Human Development initiatives.

Joe Krygiel, CEO of Catholic Charities Atlanta, said Tauscher comes with “strong training in social justice and advocacy ministry.”

Not only does she have a master’s in divinity from the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Tauscher earned a doctorate in religion from the university with a focus on Christian ethics.

In addition, she has earned a law degree from Wake Forest University and a mediation certificate from Harvard Law School. She earned her bachelor’s from Rollins College, in Winter Park, Fla.

Tauscher most recently has been teaching ethics and social justice at the Global Village School for Teenage Refugee Girls in Decatur. She taught at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and at Emory University, Kennesaw State University and the University of Central Florida.

She worships at All Saints Catholic Church in Dunwoody.

After 14 years as a civil trial attorney in Orlando, Fla., Tauscher said she “came to understand that justice is but man’s approximation of God’s mercy.”

“In applying for the director of Parish & Social Justice Ministries, I hope to help parishioners translate Catholic social justice teaching into reality. It is this promise of making Jesus’ teaching operate in today’s world that most excites me about this position,” she said.

Just in time for the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, Emory University’s Pitts Theology Library’s special collections is hosting an exhibit on the life and writings of the English church leader.

Pope Benedict XVI in September will name Cardinal Newman as “blessed,” one of the steps toward being declared a saint. The beatification will take place during the pope’s trip to England.

The library exhibit showcases Cardinal Newman’s life and writings. He wrote novels, poems and letters in addition to sermons and theological texts. The Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory assisted in the development of this exhibit, which will be on view in the Dunham Reading Room through Sept. 30.

Phillip Thompson, the executive director of the Aquinas Center, said Cardinal Newman was influential and often controversial as both a member of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England, seeking to bring the Anglican Church back to its Catholic roots, and later as a Roman Catholic priest and cardinal.

He devoted his life to improving educational opportunities and to articulating the importance of conscience and the legitimacy of religious convictions, Thompson said.

For more information on Cardinal Newman and the Pitts collection of Newman letters go to http://bit.ly/b5EqJH.

Volunteers from the archdiocese helped transcribe these letters, according to Thompson.

Students and teachers at St. Pius X High School will be forgiven for thinking their eyes are playing tricks.

The Class of 2014 features eight sets of multiples: Seven sets of twins will be walking the halls of St. Pius X. There is also one set of triplets in the St. Pius X freshman class. The Class of 2010 included a set of triplets.

“The incoming freshman class is strong in every sense of the word: academics, athletics, arts and volunteer service,” Director of Admissions Chuck Byrd said in a written statement.

The St. Pius X admissions office received more than 500 applications to fill little more than 300 slots. To handle the bump in students, St. Pius X added a teacher to the faculty and several class sections.