By Peter K. Ilchuk

A middle class college student found himself walking the streets of a much poorer section in Atlanta than he ordinarily walked during his high school days in Rochester, N.Y. He had his haircut in a Negro barbershop in the area causing at least some wonderment about his presence there.

He is one of 17 seminarians working in the archdiocese as part of the Summer With a Purpose Program (SWAP). The group, divided into the three areas of pastoral concern, the rural, the suburban and the urban apostolates, is attempting to identify the Church with the needs of the people and assist the pastor in the functioning of the parish.

Although the archdiocese has had a summer program for deacons for a number of years, Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan sought to extend the program to include the younger seminarians. It not only aids the people of the archdiocese, but provides the seminarians with a pre-ordination training in the practical application of his studies. The archbishop appointed Father Paul Kelley as director. A reporter spent the day with the urban group working with Sacred Heart parish. Seminarian Marty Morgan answered the door as part of his one day of taking care of the clerical duties of running the parish including answering the phone and assisting the many people who visit the rectory each day.

In one of the group’s periodic evaluations, all seemed to agree the basic problem they experience at the beginning is finding their direction. The vast amounts of apostolic work that should and must be done is creating a challenge far beyond the scope of the short six weeks that they will spend here. But each seminarian realizes that one of his chief aims must be the providing of a continuing program that will stay alive after they have gone and will be ready for further development when a new group returns next year.

The afternoon schedule of Peter Dora from Sandy Springs took him to St. Joseph’s Infirmary to visit Catholics who are hospitalized. “A few minutes spent with someone who has to spend days in a hospital bed gives him a little more strength to continue,” he said. In addition to the hospital the seminarians will also visit the federal penitentiary and the local jails in the application of the corporal works of mercy.

One of the more time consuming but necessary duties of all three groups is that of registering parishioners and taking a parish census. The Atlanta group has been working in the Morningside section trying to contact the Catholics there and bring them into closer association with their parishioners.

In the groups of two the seminarians seek out each parishioner and record the necessary information. But this rather mental chore has deeper aims. It aims to bring the Church activity out of the vestibule and into the home. In this way the parishioners have time to chat with these future priests and have a far better lay-clergy dialogue.

The present primary concern is the Catechetical School being run in the morning dealing with an intensive study of the Liturgy. Each day is concluded with the celebration of the Mass adapted for the students’ understanding. The seminarians run the bus to and from the school and conduct the classes.

Approaches attuned to the level of students are designed to maintain maximum interest with the least association with the classroom. Informal discussion groups are held around the dining room table, in a den or visual representations in the sacristy of the church.

Robert Kinast of Pittsburgh, Pa. spent the afternoon in the Bedford Pines area, a predominantly Negro section, “basically just letting them see me walking around.” “So many of the Catholics in this area (about 30 families) have lost touch with their Church. We want to bring them first into a feeling of community involvement with the Catholics in their immediate area. Then, the Church can come to them in the form of a community spirit,” Kinast said. A considerable number of families lack adequate housing and support. But many see the value of education and it is through this medium that the seminarians hope to bring the people together. By discussing with the parents what they would like to see done in a summer school program, the seminarians begin to work directly with the people in solving their difficulties.

In the words of Archbishop Hallinan, “They are ready to swap leisure for labor, swap freedom for responsibilities, swap a summer of loafing for one of work mixed with fellowship and fun. They will be better priests for it all.” The archdiocese, too, will benefit vastly as these young seminarians inject their spirit of youth into the aggiornamento movement that the Church is presently experiencing.

Though, their time spent will be brief, the work they will do will lay the foundation for many more seminarians that will follow and may spark similar programs in other areas.

In addition to those already mentioned, working in the Atlanta area are Bruce Venekise, Decatur, Gerald McBrearity, Chamblee, and John Lawrence, Rochester, N.Y.

Jacob Bollmer, Decatur; Thomas Rogan, Pittsburgh, Pa.; John Thomas, Atlanta; and Dennis LaBonte, Lombard, Ill., are working in St. Joseph’s Parish, Athens.

Assisting Father Richard Morrow in his newly established parish in the Smyrna area are Raymond Horan of Lincoln Park, N.J.; Joseph Cavallo of Marietta; Larry Ruggiero of LaGrange; and Frank Corbett of Atlanta.

Steve Webster of Atlanta, Thomas Keating of Bradford, Pa., and Joseph Sullivan of Atlanta will be here later in the summer and work with the Glenmary Fathers in St. Luke’s Parish of Dahlonega.