Summertime has become a time of service for seminarians and deacons in the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

It is the time when they leave the academic world of their seminaries and meet the people they will serve in future years. They say the experience is rewarding and sometimes humorous.

“The first baby I baptized screamed and screamed,’ said Bob Kinast, a deacon stationed at the Cathedral of Christ the King.

Asked what he has learned in his summer work of baptizing, preaching and distributing Communion, Kinast replied: “I’ve discovered my inadequacies. I’ve been preaching at daily Mass at the cathedral and it’s tough. It’s hard to find something worthwhile to say every day.”

Raymond Ryan, a Passionist deacon who has been serving at St. Paul of the Cross, said, “We do a parish census in the evenings and learn the problems of the people, and how little some of them have materially.’

Ryan said the summer’s work allows he and his six companions to meet people. “You lose touch with people in the seminary.”

Father Paul Kelly, director of Summer With A Purpose (SWAP), said the program is designed “so seminarians and deacons can come to know the people of the parish and the problems of parish life. It helps them to apply their seminary training to a real situation.”

Ryan seconded this by discussing the Passionists’ work with retarded children in Bowen Homes. “The color line falls when you work with Negroes. It’s a real lesson in race relations.”

The other Passionists who have worked in Atlanta (they left this week) include Daniel Sullivan, Roy McAndrew, Thomas Brislia, deacons and Brice Edwards, Mike Huesman, and Mike Salvagna, seminarians.”

Edwards who has gray hair, said he may be the oldest Passionist seminarian in the world. “I’ll be 41 when I’m ordained,’ he said.

The archdiocesan seminarians and deacons have been stationed as follows: Ray Horan, deacon, St. Peter and Paul; Jacob Bollmer, deacon, Immaculate Heart of Mary; Peter Dora, seminarian, Cathedral; Pat Bishop, seminarian, Village of St. Joseph; Dave Patterson, deacon, Holy Cross; John Admaski, seminarian, Sacred Heart; Jim Sextone, seminarian, Immaculate Heart of Mary; Joe Cavollo, seminarian, Our Lady of Lourdes; John Lawrance, seminarian, Church of Our Lady, Carrollton.