By Thea Jarvis

Cathedral parishioner Peggy Kopp, a 1981 graduate of Georgia Tech, remembers Easter week services at the Tech Catholic Center when “kids were sitting on the porch trying to go to Mass.”

The overcrowding wasn’t unique to a bygone Lenten observance.

Tech’s Catholic students, who now number about 2,200 and represent the largest denomination on campus are still squeezing into the little bungalow on Fifth Street that was acquired in 1964 and accommodated a maximum of 75 people.

“As far as space goes, they’re desperate,” confirms Mrs. Kopp, who points out that students at Tech are “a pretty religious group.” Daily Masses and holyday liturgies at the Catholic Center are unusually well-attended, she says.

As for Sunday Masses, Catholics are dependent upon the goodwill of others for liturgical space. The 11 a.m. Sunday Mass is celebrated at the Georgia Tech Student Center and early evening weekend Masses host “standing room only” crowds at the campus Presbyterian Center.

Over the years, enthusiastic students have altered and renovated their limited space, transforming the bungalow’s screened porch into a chapel, remodeling the basement, tearing down walls, and paving the backyard for parking space.

Engineering genius has its limits, however, when working with what Peggy Kopp calls “a teensy little place – just some rooms with not enough flow” for the crowds of Catholic Yellow Jackets that continue to seek it out.

Father Mario DiLella, the friendly Franciscan who has ministered to Catholics at Tech for 13 yeas, faces the daily challenge of scheduling not only Mass, but theology classes, meetings and social events into his well-loved but spatially inadequate little bungalow.

For Father Mario and the young students at Tech who have given visible testimony to their respect for and need of a tangible expression of their Catholic faith, the Archdiocese of Atlanta plans construction of a suitable gathering place for worship and community-building.

The new Tech Catholic Center will be located at Fourth Street and Brittain Drive in Atlanta, a property acquired through a trade of the present Catholic Center with Georgia Tech.

With 13,500 square feet of space, the expanded center will house a multi-purpose room for Mass and socials, a recreation area with study lounge, library, offices and game room, and living quarters for Tech’s Catholic chaplain. A parking area will provide space for 15 vehicles and the location of the center will make it highly visible and accessible to all students.

The archdiocesan commitment is made in hopes of strengthening and supporting the Catholic community at Georgia Tech, an institution that will itself be strengthened by such an effort.