About 125 parishioners of parishes in the Northeast Deanery were on hand for the first session of Operation Eye Opener conducted by the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. The meeting was held at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish.

Those attending heard Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan speak forcefully about the whole pastoral Council project. "This is a priority undertaking of the whole church in this Archdiocese, an effort by all the People of God in North Georgia," the archbishop said. He expressed his gratitude for the work done by the Pastoral Council, but added, "There must be a great concern by all of us to do what we can to take this Pastoral Council program right to the grassroots of our parishes. That is the only way we can accomplish anything significant in the cause of poverty."

The format of the evening consisted of group sessions with the resource personnel on hand: Mr. Lyndon Wade, director, Atlanta Urban League; Mr. Jim Parham, director, Georgia State Family and Children's Services; Miss Emma Darnell, Intergovernmental Programs Coordinator, Office of the Mayor; Mr. Bob Weimar, director, Atlanta Narcotics Treatment Program. These sessions were followed by the concrete programs prepared by the Council as responses to the needs underlined by the resource people. The programs include practical parish level implementations for helping in areas of domestic workers, day care, rural food shortage, low-income housing and open housing.

The first meeting will be followed by Session Two at which the programs will be gone into more detail by the committees who prepared them.

Each parish has been asked by Father Jerry E. Hardy, priest-secretary of the Council, to schedule a meeting of the parish council during the week of October 4 in order that the parish might select the programs it wants to implement.

Delegates from 30 parishes met Saturday at the Cathedral school cafeteria to launch the Priority Program on Poverty designed by the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council.

It was a hard working session as delegates heard programs presented in six areas of concern.

The programs themselves, designed by council delegates with professional input from government and academic resource personnel, were well received. They are suited for participation at every age level.

The areas of concern dealt with by the programming are: Domestic Workers, Day Care Assistance, Rural Food Programs, Open Housing, and Low-Income Housing.

Gene Stelten, president of the Council and a member of Holy Spirit, said he felt the kick-off was a success.

"I think we may have surprised some people with the quality of programming we were able to develop," he added. "Now we have to get cranked up on the parish level and that's what Operation Eye Opener will do."

In his remarks to the delegates, Stelten urged them to even greater efforts at supporting and implementing the programs in their parishes.

The "Operation Eye Opener" sessions are to provide a more in-depth look at the needs of the poor and the presentation of the APC programs as responses to these needs.

The programs, as described by Sister Janet Valente, a chief coordinator of the entire project, "are both practical and flexible to allow parishes to adopt them and adapt them where necessary. We're concerned that everyone be able to be involved if they want to be. That’s why there's something here for young people and older people, the whole Church, in other words."