By Thea Jarvis

Alicia Nicole Hatter is a bit of a flirt.

At three-and-a-half, with soft blonde curls and big brown eyes, she can charm the socks off the hardest heart.

Sunday mornings find her front row center with her mom and dad at Holy Cross Church in Chamblee. Tiny gold earrings grace her elfin ears and frilly ruffled dresses play peek-a-boo with her knees. When no one is looking, she delights in blowing kisses and sending waves across the aisle to her grandfather, who sings in the choir.

It is little Alicia who was in large part responsible for David Hatter’s entry into the Catholic Church last Easter. The little coquette can’t know that now, but her father makes it plain.

“What really made the difference was Alicia and the thought of giving her a unified approach to the Christian religion,” he said recently at his home in Tucker, where he and his family were readying for the Easter holidays. “That was the catalyst that launched me on my own journey.”

David and his wife Denise met in high school and were married after finishing college at Georgia State in 1976. Both were raised in strongly religious households, Denise a Catholic and David a Presbyterian. His father was a deacon in the church in Boxford, Massachusetts where the family worshipped before moving south in 1966.

In the first years of their marriage, no deep thought was given to church affiliation. The couple bought an 80-year-old house on St. Charles Avenue in downtown Atlanta and devoted much of their energy to the rigors of renovation. Not infrequently, they returned to the suburbs to celebrate Mass with Denise’s family.

“I felt I was more Catholic than a lot of Catholics,” Hatter admitted, reflecting on the hit or miss habits that cradle Catholics sometimes fall into. But he was still wary of the Catholic mystique, the pomp and circumstances, the rubric and ritual. “There is a great deal of lingering prejudice about Catholics,” he said.

When Alicia came along, he and Denise had established a regular pattern of Sunday Mass at Holy Cross. Alicia’s presence, he feels, “triggered my action to join” the Catholic Church as a full, participating member. He entered the fall classes for Christian initiation at Holy Cross and began to take an intensive look at the Catholic faith.

“The class just reinforced my own beliefs,” David emphasized. It also “taught me about the history of the Church.” His personal impression was that Catholicism “was a little bit special -- it was the original church. That was part of what attracted me.”

The sacramental dimension of the Catholic faith was another attraction. Belief in the Eucharistic presence of Christ was a step beyond his former experience and his acceptance of it was straightforward, with few strings attached.

“I didn’t knock myself out rationalizing about that,” he remembered. “You can rationalize religion until it’s no more than an equation.”

In the past year, David Hatter has found his Christian faith deepening. After five years of in town living, the Hatters made the move out of the city, a decision influenced by their desire to be close family and church community. Both are active at Holy Cross, where they are in charge of a large and much-used nursery program. They are currently participating in the parish RENEW program, a long-range renewal involving small group discussion and scriptural study. David feels he is being challenged to grow.

“All this growth really started since I joined the church. Before that, I was comfortable with the church but didn’t think much into it,” he said. “I was always a Christian in terms of my ethics, my morality, but now I have gone a little more beyond that.”

Hatter is quick to point out that his life is not aglow with spiritual insights or startling revelations. “I’m not one of those born-again Christians. I’m still struggling with living the Christian life.”

But his theology is sound and offers encouragement to those still awaiting the quintessential conversion experience.

“I’m content to go at my own pace or however the Lord wants to lead me around,” he offered with a smile. “This is nothing powerful, just a slow realization that Jesus is working in my life. It involves an acceptance on my part to let him work through me.”

For now, David Hatter is pleased with his involvement in the Catholic Church. “We’re doing it as a family unit, so that helps” him in his own personal journey.

He still struggles with the idea of an “activist role in spreading the gospel,” adding “that has never been my approach to religion.” But he is confident that if that’s where he is supposed to be philosophically, he’s ready to be led.

“Maybe that will be the next step for me. Time will tell. If you’re not part of the solution, I guess you’re part of the problem.”

As for the step he took just a year ago this Easter, David Hatter is confident his decision was the right one.

“There are so many potential conflicts in our society. Why look for one more?” The faith he shares with Denise and little Alicia, he believes, is “a common ground to battle these conflicts.”