ATLANTA—Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory encouraged hundreds of priests at the annual Chrism Mass to be “ministers of compassion and mercy.”

The Chrism Mass for the Archdiocese of Atlanta was a key event in Holy Week as clergymen gathered for a day of prayer and reflection leading up to Easter.

Archbishop Gregory spoke on Tuesday evening, March 22, to the priests at the Cathedral of Christ the King. The large number of priests filled the front half of the Peachtree Road cathedral. At the Chrism Mass, priests recommitted themselves to their ministry and to the archbishop. He started Mass by praying for the people of Belgium in the aftermath of terrorist attacks.

The archbishop said priests are to be Jesus’ “emissaries, his stand-ins, and his icons” sent to the world.

“The Anointed One commissions us this evening to continue his redemptive work in our world,” said Archbishop Gregory.

“To be a priest is always to be one like Christ who empties himself out of love for others,” he said.

Priests have an obligation of service “especially for those who even today remain captive to poverty, who are all too often simply forgotten, neglected and overlooked, and who are the very images of loneliness and victims of ignorance and fear,” Archbishop Gregory said.

Cathedral of Christ the King parishioner Heidi Bergmann pours the oil of the catechumens into rose-colored, four-ounce, plastic bottles for the various archdiocesan parishes. Photo By Michael Alexander

Priests are anointed to ministry not because they are better than others but because Christ has chosen them, he said.

“We are to follow him in his humble service to our brothers and sisters,” Archbishop Gregory said. Jesus showed them how to act when he washed the feet of his followers.

The archbishop said the ministry extends Jesus’ “mission of mercy, reconciliation, and compassion freely extended to all who live within these 69 counties in north and central Georgia and indeed through the entire world that is our common home and field of mission.”

Oils blessed for all parishes

Archbishop Gregory also during this Holy Week Mass consecrated chrism, a mixture of olive oil and balsam, which will be used for the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and holy orders in the archdiocese. The oil of catechumens for baptism and the oil of the sick for that sacrament are also blessed at this liturgy. Each parish receives a portion of the blessed oils to use for the coming year.

When the oils are “applied to our people they will be transformed into Christ’s own people—anointed, as was he, to follow the Father’s commands,” the archbishop said.

The blessed oils receive their power from the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit God spread over the world during creation, the Spirit that began God’s plan of salvation with a youthful Mary, and the “same Spirit that resides within the church and continually makes her fruitful and holy and the very wellspring of truth,” he said.

Before the evening Mass, priests participated in a day of reflection. Priests heard from Father Lou Vallone, a pastor of St. John of God and St. Catherine of Siena in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Father Vallone is an adjunct professor of canon law at Duquesne University in the School of Law and chaplain to the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. The priests ended the day with the sacrament of reconciliation.

Two priests join diocesan clergy

Also at this day focused on the priesthood, two priests from religious congregations formally joined the archdiocesan clergy through the process of incardination after serving in Georgia parishes for a number of years.

Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, center, leads the incardination ceremony for Father Paul Moreau, left, parochial vicar at St. Joseph Church, Athens, and Father Patrick Scully, pastor of St. Peter’s Church, LaGrange, and St. Elizabeth Seton Mission, Warm Springs. Father Moreau transferred his allegiance from the Legionaries of Christ and Father Scully transferred his from the Marist congregation. Photo By Michael Alexander

Father Paul Moreau, who is 48, served as a member of the Legion of Christ since 1993 and was ordained a priest in 2002. In 2011, after a period of discernment, he left the religious community. He served at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Woodstock from 2011-2014 and at St. Joseph Church in Dalton from 2014-2016. He is now a parochial vicar at St. Joseph Church in Athens.

“What I have grown to love in the diocesan priesthood is the greater frequency of administering the sacraments. As a diocesan priest I am doing many more baptisms, confessions, weddings and anointing of the sick. The life as a diocesan priest brings me a tremendous amount of inner peace and sense of fulfillment in my vocation,” he said in an email.

Father Patrick Scully, who is 45, was ordained a priest in the Society of Mary (Marists) in 2003. That came after a stint as a funeral director in Florida. He was a missionary for several months in Chiapas, Mexico, as a deacon. He was ordained in Boston before his first assignment to a parish in California. In 2006, he arrived at Sacred Heart Church in Atlanta. In 2008 he requested a leave of absence from the Marists to discern a new direction in his priestly ministry. His last three assignments have been as administrator in 2009 of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Cartersville, parochial vicar in 2010 at Prince of Peace Church in Flowery Branch and pastor of St. Peter Church in LaGrange and St. Elizabeth Seton Mission since 2012.