Father Alban Harmon, C.P., the Newman Federation chaplain for five Negro colleges in the Atlanta area began his part in the operation working out of a tiny foreign car about two years ago.

The red-haired priest pointed to the street from his current headquarters to the original headquarters, and said, “There’s where my work here was first headquartered.” The little car was parked in front of the building.

“It was tough going at first, but I could drive my headquarters anywhere I wanted it,” he said with a laugh. The Passionist priest cares for approximately 180 Catholic students at Clark College, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College, Spelman College and Atlanta University, the graduate school. In addition there are about eight Catholic faculty members.

The present headquarters for the apostolate is located at 87 Chestnut St., SW, just off the Atlanta University campus.

Two students live at the center, one an American and the other a Nigerian business administration student.

Father Alban sees as his prime aim at the center making those in his care better Catholics.

He said, “One prime aim of this work is to strengthen the faith of the students and try to make them more mature Catholics --”

“To help them reach a certain understanding of their faith and instill a confidence in their faith that will bring about a certain fulfillment in their lives as American Catholics.”

Students become interested to the Newman work at the various schools for many reasons, but generally that reason is first intellectual curiosity, the priest said.

“At first the student shows an intellectual curiosity in the church and the Newman work,” he said, “From this curiosity grows a faith in the church.”

He explained that students are required to take a year’s study in the major religions of the world. He said that the first half of the study is devoted to the non-Christian religions and the latter half concerns the Christian religions and the place of Christianity in western civilization.

On Wednesday evenings at the center discussion group meetings are held and they are fairly well attended.

These groups discuss many topics including the liturgy, music in the Mass, birth control, marriage and sex morality.

It is during these exchanges of thoughts and ideas that the priest often gets an insight into what motivates his charges.

He said, “Once I had a student tell me, ‘Being a Negro is bad enough, but being a Negro and Catholic puts me even one lower on the totem pole of society.’”

The priest was quick to add that Catholic students do not generally experience rejection from their Protestant associates at the school.

Father Alban said he and the Newman members are constantly striving to make their center a clean and attractive place to meet. So far they have painted the insides of the building and hope soon to make other improvements, and get a few pieces of nice furniture.

The center includes a chapel, library, an office, two meeting rooms, and a kitchen.

The priest said he has been working steadily on building up the center’s library. “It’s the most important project of the apostolate,” he said.

Father Alban, in addition to his duties with Newman also serves as religion teacher to the eighth grade at St. Paul of the Cross Grammar School and helps out with chaplain duties at Holy Family Hospital.

He said, “There have been many to help us with the work and I am very grateful, especially for the house for the center and for help by members of St. Paul of the Cross. Father Alban serves as an assistant pastor at that church.

The priest also said he was grateful for the use of Danforth Chapel at Morehouse College campus where each Sunday at 10:30 a.m. he says Mass. He said the chapel was made available through the generosity of Dr. Benjamin Mays, president of the Morehouse College.