Georgia Bulletin

The Newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta

Monks of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, accept a charitable donation mandated as part of a class action case from a 2004 chemical plant fire in Rockdale County. The monastery was not part of the case but one of four local charities named by the court in the settlement. Shown, l-r, are Brother Mark Dohle, Abbot Francis Michael Stiteler, attorney Roger Orlando and Brother Callistus Crichlow.

Conyers

Monastery chosen to receive charity fund from court case

Published January 21, 2016

CONYERS—The Monastery of the Holy Spirit was one of the four beneficiaries in Rockdale County from a court settlement thanks to the efforts of a lawyer who thinks highly of the religious community.

In 2004, a fire at the Bio-Lab chemical plant in Conyers forced the evacuation of homes within two miles of the plant. It took years in many different courtrooms, but lawyers recently concluded the case with a settlement in the class action lawsuit.

Roger Orlando and his family attend St. Stephen the Martyr Church, in Lilburn. He was one of the lawyers on the case.

Four charitable awards were part of the settlement. Some $10,000 from the court settlement was put aside in trust for the monastery, in addition to the Rockdale County Firefighters Charity Fund, and the Rockdale County branches of the Hometown Animal Rescue and Boys & Girls Club of Metro Atlanta.