By Chris Valley

Input … Output … Printout … Software … Microchip … Merge/Purge … A foreign language? Nearly so. These words are from the language of computers. They are increasingly heard in the rectories and parish office of Catholic churches around the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

As Catholic parishes grow and as priests encourage parishioners to participate more actively in ministry, the demand increases for easily retrievable information in readily usable forms. Computers can store a large quantity of information , and can print it out in a variety of forms.

For example, suppose a parish needs to know how many registered parents to contact about preparation for their child’s Confirmation. If the computer contains the relevant information, it can search its memory for the names and addresses of all parents of children in the age-group for Confirmation, eliminate all whose children have been confirmed already, and print mailing labels of those remaining. For large parishes the computer is, pardon the expression, a God-send.

Father Richard Morrow, pastor of St. Jude’s parish in Sandy Springs, uses the parish computer for checkwriting, bookkeeping and parish mailing lists. “We got into it five years ago,” comments Father Morrow. “I firmly believe in it.”

“We’re on our second computer now. We’ve just replaced an earlier model,” says Father Morrow. “We got into it early. A committee of parishioners who knew computers studied our needs and made recommendations. Now, the software packages available in BASIC language actually make it easy to learn to use a computer.”

St. Jude’s parochial school makes use of the parish computer as well. In addition, the school has seven micro-computers (also known as personal computers.).

“We have one teacher who could see the future of computers educationally,” says Miss Judy Jenks, principal. “That started it. But when our first graders won a Texas Instruments computer, they got the rest of the school excited about computers.”

“We made a room available to the Texas Instruments company for classes they were teaching after school hours. The company gave us credits toward purchase of materials in exchange for use of our facilities. With this, we obtained three computers and quite a bit of software.”

“Having parents really want to see computers in use in school makes it possible,” Miss Jenks continues. “Parents give financial backing and act as volunteer aides to make computer use by children feasible.”

St. Jude’s Home-School Association bought an Apple computer, and the school purchased two additional Apple units. “We have enrichment and remedial programs in math, language arts, grammar, reading, as well as computer logic games,” notes Miss Jenks.

Other parishes across the archdiocese have obtained computers also. A year ago, the Cathedral of Christ the King acquired a TRS-80 personal computer. Thanks to the Parish Management System program written by Father Peter Dora, the Cathedral parish census, records of contributors, school records, and various mailing lists are now computerized according to Father Dan Stack, assistant pastor.

“We have a word processing package,” says Father Stack. “Virtually the entire parish staff makes use of the computer, though our primary user is our secretary.”

Across town in booming Cobb County, Mrs. Jeri Johnson, editor of the newsletter of Holy Family parish, calls the computer a “lifesaver.”

Nicknamed “Phoebe” after a deaconness of the early Church, Holy Family’s computer was brought to the parish by Father Richard Kieran a year ago. Father Kieran is now pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Athens, where “Priscilla,” another early deaconness, is memorialized as St. Joseph’s computer.

“We use the computer to do our parish newsletter,” says Mrs. Johnson. “Every week we mail 2,246 newsletters. We also use it to record contributions so that information can be supplied to donors for tax purposes. The computer has helped our work tremendously. It’s the only way to go if the parish has over 1,000 families.

The new arrival at Holy Spirit parish in northwest Atlanta isn’t a fresh-faced newly ordained priest. It’s an IBM Personal XT.

“The whole staff is becoming computer literate,” says Father Alan Dillmann, pastor of Holy Spirit. “That’s important because in the future everybody will have a computer. They’ll be as common as television sets.”

“Father Peter Dora has written a program specifically for church use. And I’ll be assigning some good German passwords,” notes Father Dillmann.

While seminary training of the past had young men conjugating Latin verbs and memorizing Latin prayers, the seminary of tomorrow may well ask the student how many bits in a byte, or even in a gigabyte. “Lord knows” will NOT be an acceptable answer.

A note of concern: no one wants to be thought of as Parishioner 0206. Some may see in the advance of computers into the Church a threat of dehumanizing technology invading the realm of the Spirit. Yet there is no reason why the computer should be thought of as inherently dehumanizing. Like the vacuum cleaner, the microwave, and the automobile, the computer can free priests and other staff to use their time more directly in ministering to the needs of the parish.

So if you thought that microchips are a new kind of junk food, or that a batch is something to do with baking, or that software is a sweater and jeans, think again. You may be hearing words from the language of computers.