Two priests from Ireland will be coming this summer to serve in the Archdiocese of Atlanta. They are the Rev. Patrick J. Padden of Belmullet, County Mayo, and the Rev. Michael Woods of Carlingford, County Loth.

Father Padden was educated in Mount St. Joseph’s Abbey, County Tipperary and studied philosophy and theology at St. Patrick’s College, Thurles. He will be ordained on June 12 by The Most Rev. Morris, Archbishop of Caskel. His first Mass will be said in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Belmullet, County Mayo.

Michael Woods, son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Woods, was educated at St. Patrick’s College, Armagh. He will be ordained by Most Rev. Dunne, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, on June 19. He will celebrate his first Mass in St. Michael’s Church in Carlingford.

Monsignor Patrick J. O’Connor, pastor of St. Thomas More and archdiocesan director of vocations, goes to Ireland each year to seek seminarians and boys in high school who are willing to be ordained for service in the archdiocese as priests. The archdiocese then finances their schooling in Ireland. After ordination they come to Atlanta.

Last year Ireland trained approximately four hundred priests, three hundred of which were sent to all parts of the world. Many of these priests come to the southern dioceses of the United States where the need is great.