The signs of growth were clear. William B. Hartsfield, longtime mayor of Atlanta and most willing believer in the boom that would take place in north Georgia, was often quoted as saying “migration to the South was inevitable. Patience, trains, planes and air conditioning made it all possible.”

As Bishop Francis E. Hyland began his new diocese in 1956, the inevitability of growth in the Catholic community was clear, even though there was little to cheer about in the statistics of his new southern diocese. The Catholic Directory for that year showed that the Diocese of Atlanta was two-thirds the size of Ireland—23,000 square miles. It showed the new Bishop would lead 23,600 Catholics (1 per square mile), have 71 counties to cover, 25 diocesan priests, 22 parishes, 85 sisters in the nursing and teaching ministries and 20 seminarians. This greathearted churchman was undaunted. Vigorously and optimistically he began his new apostolate.

Bishop Hyland

Francis E. Hyland was born in Philadelphia on Oct. 9, 1901. After ordination he was assigned to the Apostolic Delegation in Washington, D.C. In 1949 he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Savannah-Atlanta and in 1956 the first Bishop of Atlanta. One of the first acts of the new bishop was to name the patrons of the diocese. With the approval of the Holy See, Bishop Hyland named the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the primary patron and St. Pius X as the secondary patron.

The Beginnings

The beginnings were small. On May 16, 1957 the first new mission was opened. The bishop dedicated St. Anna’s in Monroe, a mission chapel of St. Joseph’s parish in Athens. There would be many more as this frail man determined that places of worship would be provided for all areas of his gigantic diocese. Everywhere churches were dedicated and blessed in those early years.

Bishop Hyland was on the go founding churches throughout north Georgia. He traveled to Dalton and Austell. At Conyers, a chapel was built that would be staffed by the monks from the Monastery. He went to Thomaston, Covington, Jackson, Dahlonega. The Roswell mission was founded and in the city of Atlanta, Immaculate Heart of Mary and Blessed Sacrament parishes came into being.

At the end of the first five years, the infant church of north Georgia had taken its first steps. Catholics now numbered 32,000; there were 32 diocesan priests and 29 parishes.

Schools

As in almost all Catholic dioceses of the 50s, the emphasis in the new Church of north Georgia was on parochial schools. In 1956, 14 parochial elementary schools were in existence, enrolling over 4,500 children. Nine of these schools were attached to parishes in the metropolitan Atlanta area. The remainder were in rural areas.

There were also three high schools: Christ the King and Sacred Heart for girls, and Marist for boys. Over 600 students attended these schools. Bishop Hyland was most anxious to add more schools and did. However, consolidation and population movement forced some to close and others to merge as the years went by.

St. Pius X

In 1958, the new diocesan high school was opened, St. Pius X. Both girls high schools closed and the transferred to the new school. In 1960 another high school, to become St. Joseph’s, was opened in downtown Atlanta. That same year saw Drexel High School open and the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart founded D’Youville Academy for girls.

The early 60s demonstrated to bishops everywhere that the Catholic parochial school was beginning to falter. Lack of personnel and finances were making it impossible to continue support, for these institutions. The Church was turning to other alternatives.

In 1966, the first Office of Religious Education was opened under the direction of Father Michael A. Morris. It heralded a new response to the needs of family education.

Archdiocese of Atlanta

On Oct. 11, 1961, Bishop Francis E. Hyland resigned. Ill health had hounded this gentle pastor for many years; however, his early retirement took the diocese by surprise. Yet another surprise awaited the young north Georgia church. On Feb. 21, 1962, not only was a successor named, but a brand new Province of the Church was announced for the Southeast. The center of that Province would be Atlanta; the new leader an archbishop. The one chosen was Paul J. Hallinan who was then Bishop of Charleston, S.C.

The Province of Atlanta would include the states of North and South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. Instead of looking for leadership to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, long the provincial center for the southeastern coast, these southern bishops now looked to Atlanta and its young dynamic leader, Paul J. Hallinan.

Archbishop Hallinan

A native of Painesville, near Cleveland, Ohio, Hallinan was born April 8, 1911. After studies in the parochial school system and Notre Dame University, he was ordained in February 1937 for the Cleveland Diocese. After serving for a number of years in Cleveland parishes, the young Father Hallinan, like many priests of his time, went off to war. He was assigned to the 542nd Amphibian Regiment (Sea Bees) and was with the troops in the Pacific. In June 1944 he received the Purple Heart in New Guinea.

The post-war Hallinan served for some years in the Newman Apostolate and in 1958 was appointed as Bishop of Charleston, S.C. Four years later, he was appointed the first Archbishop of Atlanta.

It was the time of a most beloved pope. In Rome the jovial, most pastoral John XXIII was taking the world by storm. “Aggiornamento” was his watchword. “Open the windows and let the air of the Spirit in.” To back up his spirit of renewal, the popular pontiff had called a council. In Oct. 1962, the first session of the Second Vatican Council began.

Reform And Renewal

Hallinan was a reformist, especially in matters liturgical. For the council years (1962-1965) he brought the decrees of Vatican II to his new archdiocese. As Atlanta grew in numbers, it grew also in the shadow of the reforms and renewal of the Second Vatican Council.

While the council gave renewal to the archdiocese, it also supplied some sadness. While attending the sessions in Rome, Archbishop Hallinan contracted a terminal form of hepatitis. In 1965, convinced that his time was limited, he requested an auxiliary bishop. In April 1966, Hallinan’s former chancellor in Charleston, Joseph L. Bernadin arrived in Atlanta.

In 1967, five years after the founding of the new archdiocese, the picture showed depth in church renewal, growth in the number of parishes--five more had been added--and the first archdiocesan Synod of the clergy, sisters and people in 1966.

Archbishop Donnellan

After enduring great suffering, Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan died on March 27, 1968. He was 56. One month later, Bishop Bernadin was appointed General Secretary of the United States bishops and assigned to Washington, D.C. The following July, Most Rev. Thomas Andrew Donnellan, Bishop of Ogdensburg, N.Y. was appointed the second Archbishop of Atlanta.

As the new archbishop came to his sunny, southeastern archdiocese from the chilly regions of the Canadian border, he would find 34 parishes, 25 missions, 60 diocesan priests and a total of 50,000 Catholics.

Thomas A. Donnellan, a son of immigrant Irish parents, was born in New York City. In 1939 he was ordained a priest, afterwards did post-graduate studies in canon law, was secretary to Cardinal Spellman, chancellor, then Auxiliary Bishop, of the Archdiocese of New York. In 1964 he had been appointed Bishop of Ogdensburg.

Hub of Growth

Atlanta and north Georgia was the very hub of growth as the new Archbishop of Atlanta came south. The need for new parishes and personnel to staff them was obvious to Donnellan. The archbishop set about bringing more priests and Religious to Atlanta.

Religious Orders of Men were invited to be a part of the new growing church in Atlanta. Over the next 10 years, priest and brothers from the Dominicans, the LaSalettes, the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate came to join those preaching the Word to the new, flourishing parishes of the archdiocese. They would unite their labors to those of religious communities well known to the people of North Georgia--communities like the Passionists, the Redemptorists, the Franciscans, the Glenmarys, the Jesuits and of course, the Marist fathers and brothers who had been the heart of the serving church since the very beginning.

As the silver jubilee year of 1981 approached, the archbishop could also see the most visible service of Religious women in the archdiocese. In cities and rural areas, almost 200 of them were involved in apostolates ranging from teaching, counseling and nursing to family service programs and roles as pastoral ministers in parishes.

As the 25th year dawned, the number of Catholics in north Georgia had risen to 105,000 in 54 parishes and 52 missions. Packed with growth, change and historical chapters, this first quarter of a century of new life had merged into the ongoing journey of God’s Holy People.