By Rita McInerney

A season of working, learning and socializing has ended for three seminarians studying for the Archdiocese of Atlanta who are returning to Ireland after assisting in Atlanta-area parishes over the summer months.

Their time here was spent giving needed help to the pastors and assistant pastors, making friends with the young and elderly, with families and singles, young athletes and housebound invalids.

They met the young men studying at seminaries in the United States for this archdiocese and some of the younger priests at a cookout held at All Saints in Dunwoody. They were able to chat with Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan that evening in an informal, relaxed atmosphere.

Gerry O’Connor, who was assigned to All Saints, is returning to All Hollows Seminary in Dublin for his fourth year of study. Philip Ryan, who assisted in the one-year-old parish of Christ Our Hope, Lithonia, has entered his second year of theology at St. John’s Seminary in Waterford. Also back to studies at the Waterford Seminary is Brendan Doyle in his first year of theology. Deacon Willie Hickey is remaining at St. Jude’s in Sandy Springs until Oct. 28 when he is returning for his sixth year of study at St. John’s.

O’Connor, an engaging young man, who turned 23 on Aug. 17, had a variety of assignments which gave him contact with an assortment of parishioners. He rafted on the ’Hootch with the junior CYO members, played softball with the singles, visited with the sick, sampled potluck offerings with the Ultreya, helped in the church office every morning and served as Eucharistic minister for Masses.

“It’s been great. The people here are very kind. The same as last year.” He spent the summer of ’84 assigned to St. Pius X parish in Conyers. He found All Saints “well organized. The two parish priests here are fabulous. I learned a lot just watching them work.”

O’Connor’s home is in the Whitehall area of Dublin near the airport. He comes from the same parish as Father Peter Ludden, chancellor of the archdiocese.

Ryan, at 35, has an expertise acquired from years in hotel management that made his work for Father John Kieran in Lithonia a gratifying assignment. He helped set up for Mass each Sunday in the hall at Lithonia High School and performed other duties he might not have encountered in a more mature parish.

He enjoyed being in a parish just starting up. “Watching the growth of a new parish” was the best part of the summer for him.

His home is in County Kilkenny. He worked for hotels and England and on the west coast of Ireland before entering the seminary at Waterford.

“It’s the first time out” for Doyle, 21, whose home is in Tramore, a seaside resort in County Waterford. “I had the Atlantic Ocean right where I wanted it” he said of his cliffside home overlooking the sea.

This summer in Alpharetta has been busy. He’s socialized with the teenagers and shared with the housebound. He’s enjoyed the outdoors, both rafting on the Accoa River in Tennessee and mowing and weeding the church grounds.

He was pleased that the disco night the parish held for its young people recently drew a large attendance and “ran very, very smoothly.” He has a concern; “One thing that distracts me is the amount of joyriding the young people do” and feeling that there is not enough organized activity for young people here. In Ireland, he said, parents and teachers organize youth clubs as do the football and hurling teams and the first aid clubs. Game nights and dances are frequent and there is no problem getting instructors and chaperones.

“I’ll be crying my eyes out on the plane going back,” Doyle said with a grin in his happy voice. He wants the next three years to pass quickly. “I can’t wait until I come back.” Ryan and O’Connor felt the same way.

As a deacon, Hickey has a broader range of duties than the seminarians. Preaching at Mass, baptisms, weddings and funerals, “everything a deacon does” along with counseling, working with altar boys and the parish singles. He spent a recent weekend at Panama City Beach with a group of about 45 singles between 20 and 30 and called it a “tremendous, wonderful experience.”

Hickey will be on hand Oct. 27 for the 25th anniversary Mass at St. Jude’s and leave for Ireland the next day. He will take with him memories of “a fantastic parish and friendly people” to add to his recollections of three summers spent at St. Thomas Aquinas. His family home is in Edenderry, County Offaly, where his home parish was also that of the late Father Vince Mulvin, pastor of St. Bernadette’s in Cedartown before his death in 1983.

Each of the young men found people here open and friendly; their duties learning and sharing opportunities. Their enthusiasm for the archdiocese they have chosen to serve is high; their commitment to their studies and future service are stronger than ever.