By Thea Jarvis

Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan this week announced the initiation of a three-year, $7.2 million campaign aimed at continuing and expanding the church’s mission of service to the community.

The campaign, chaired by Rawson Haverty, president of Haverty Furniture Companies, targets four specific areas for growth and development over the next three years.

Both the young people and the elderly of our community have surfaced as those to whom the archdiocese must direct its immediate attention and available resources.

To ensure alternatives for long-term care, the archdiocese proposed the renovation of three under-used convents for use as personal care group homes for the elderly.

To better serve the present and future Catholic student community at Georgia Tech, a new and enlarged campus Catholic Center is planned as a replacement for the present facility.

To update the physical plant and expand educational opportunities in its only secondary institution, the archdiocese will embark on a building program and establish an endowment fund for scholarship assistance at St. Pius X High School in Atlanta.

To assist families in pursuing their goal of a quality Catholic education in the inner city area, the archdiocese calls for the establishment of a scholarship fund for needy students at St. Anthony’s and our Lady of Lourdes Schools.

“These are all human needs, not merely Catholic needs,” Archbishop Donnellan has said of the campaign goals. “Solutions to these problems will have broad application and will directly promote the entire community’s well-being.”

The surge in growth of the Catholic population of north Georgia over the past quarter-century has been dynamic. In 1962, 29 parishes served a little over 33,000 Catholics. Today, 110,000 Catholics claim membership in 57 parishes.

Such growth means additional responsibility and expanded demands on Church resources. The people of the archdiocese are, therefore, asked to participate in the campaign by supporting their individual parish churches in their efforts to meet the financial goals of the campaign.

“It has been close to 20 years since a drive of this kind was conducted in the Archdiocese of Atlanta,” said Father Peter Ludden, Archdiocesan Chancellor. “Since the initial consultation and planning, there has been great enthusiasm for its success and for what it will allow us to accomplish.”

“The people of this archdiocese have always responded generously to the needs of the Church,” he continued. “I’m fully confident that they recognize and will support what the archdiocese is trying to do for our elderly, our college students and our young people.”