By Rita McInerney

Another significant chapter in the Catholic history of Georgia will be written on Monday, May 4, when the Cathedral of Christ the King commemorates its 50th anniversary with a Mass to be concelebrated by its pastor, Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan, and priests of the archdiocese.

Homilies for the Mass will be Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of the archdiocese of Chicago. Cardinal Bernardin served as auxiliary bishop and fourth pastor of Christ the King from 1966 to 1968.

Bishop Gerald P. O'Hara, bishop of the diocese of Savannah which covered the entire state of Georgia, established the parish of Christ the King on June 15, 1936. The new parish brought the number in Atlanta to five. The others were Immaculate Conception, the pre-Civil War mother church of the city established in 1848; Sacred Heart, dedicated May 1, 1898; St. Anthony's, started in the fashionable West End in 1903, and Our Lady of Lourdes, which was established for black Catholics in 1912.

There were several parishes outside Atlanta; St. Joseph's in Athens, with missions in Gainesville and Griffin, and 16 stations in north and central Georgia. The parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Milledgeville, had missions in Dublin, Sandersville, Ivey, James, Sparta and Eatonton. St. Mary's parish in Rome has missions in Adairsville, Budapest, Calhoun, Cedartown, Dalton, Kingston and Menlo. Purification Church in Sharon had a boys' school staffed by eight Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Enrollment that year was 16 boys.

According to the Catholic Directory, the Catholic population of the state was estimated at 19,200. While Bishop O'Hara guided his "northern" Georgia flock from the chancery in Savannah, he was a frequent passenger on the train running between the two cities. From the time the new parish of Christ the King in residential Buckhead just north of Atlanta was established, he was outspoken about his desire to build a sanctuary worthy of the Church and the capital city of Georgia.

A year after he established Christ the King his petition to the Vatican to change the name of the diocese to Savannah-Atlanta and to establish a co-cathedral in the capital city was granted. He made the historic announcement of this change at a Mass celebrated May 9, 1937 in Immaculate Conception Church. The yet-to-be-built Christ the King Church would be the co-cathedral, of equal rank with the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah.

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The planned Gothic cathedral, in the years to come, was to have four bishops as pastors. In 1956 the diocese of Atlanta was created; the co-cathedral became the cathedral and Bishop Francis E. Hyland was installed as first bishop. Moving south from Philadelphia with him was now-Monsignor Michael Regan, currently pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Carrollton, who served as his secretary.

Bishop Hyland served until failing health forced his resignation in 1961. He died in 1968.

On Feb. 21, 1962, a new province was created for Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas, with Atlanta as the province seat. Bishop Paul J. Hallinan, of Charleston, was named first archbishop.

Archbishop Hallinan spoke on the special challenge the Church faces in the South in his installation sermon. There is "the daily task of putting into practical effect her clear-cut teaching on racial justice," he is quoted as saying in an Atlanta Journal and Constitution article. Catholics must "move toward the reality of full racial justice -- with prudence, with courage and with determination," he said.

Within two years he was to play a major role at the Second Vatican Council, where he gained recognition for his work on revising the liturgy.

Hepatitis, which he contracted in Rome during his labors at the council, took the life of Archbishop Hallinan in March, 1968. Earlier, his illness prompted the appointment of Monsignor Joseph L. Bernardin as auxiliary bishop and pastor in 1966.

Bishop Bernardin was of great assistance to Archbishop Hallinan in preparing for the first synod of the archdiocese in May, 1966. One month after Archbishop Hallinan's death in 1968, Bishop Bernardin was appointed general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. He later served as archbishop of Cincinnati and is now cardinal of the Chicago archdiocese.

In July, 1968, Bishop Thomas A. Donnellan of the diocese of Ogdensburg, NY, was appointed the second archbishop of Atlanta and has presided as pastor and archbishop since.

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In the mid-30s, Buckhead was neighborhood of gracious homes set among broad lawns shaded by venerable trees, a good area in which to raise children. Residents included old families and new arrivals from other parts of the country. While the Atlanta population explosion was still decades away, men of vision were looking to the northern sections outside Atlanta as desirable places to live.

In 1936, while Bishop O'Hara, Father Joseph E. Moylan, pastor, and the parishioners of the new parish of Christ the King were eager to build a church, the first need was a school. As the bishop told members of the new parish, every parish is obliged to erect, as soon as possible, a parochial school. This was according to the Plenary Councils of Baltimore, the church law for the United States.

The property purchased for the new parish was a tract of about four acres on Peachtree Road between Wesley Road and Peachtree Way. On this land was a fine white columned mansion, built in 1916 as the home of the Durant family. Before its purchase by the diocese of Savannah, the home had been used by the Ku Klux Klan as a national headquarters. At the time the Catholics acquired the property it was being used as an apartment building.

The first Mass for the new parish was celebrated by Father Moylan on the porch of the mansion on Aug. 15, 1936, the feast of the Assumption. For the next three Sundays, the small congregation worshipped here while a section of the first floor was being converted into a temporary chapel. When completed the chapel accommodated 220 people. The parish registry listed 400 adults and 109 children, 75 of school age.

According to a history of the cathedral in The Bulletin of the Georgia Laymen's Association published Dec. 8, 1956, Mass was said in the chapel until Sept. 12, 1937 when Father Moylan began saying Sunday Mass in the basement of the newly-built school. Weekday Masses continued in the temporary chapel in the mansion. The mansion also served as a rectory.

Among founding parishioners of Christ the King, Bishop O'Hara had the good fortune to have the whole-hearted cooperation of a small band of prominent Catholic Atlantans. The Spalding, Haverty, Smith and Kane families were well represented.

On Dec. 23, 1936, Bishop O'Hara appointed Clarence Haverty, Father Moylan, Father Finn, parish assistant, Hughes Spalding and B. J. Kane as a committee of five to undertake the management of the construction of the school and church for the new parish.

Letters in the possession of Haverty family members attest to the prudence and business acumen of these men. Bishop O'Hara, in a letter to Father Moylan dated Nov. 20, 1936, wrote:

"It would be desirable, of course, to erect simultaneously both school and church; and, as you know, I was quite prepared to secure a long term loan at a low interest rate for this purpose. Your parishioners, however, were unwilling, as I understand it, to burden you with the cares and worries of so large a debt, even though it would be extended over a long period of time. In this they have shown a very praiseworthy consideration of you.

"Accordingly, in view of the necessity of making a choice between the church and the school, I have decided to proceed at once with the erection of the school, since it is the more urgent. I say this particularly in view of the fact that you have already provided a very beautiful temporary chapel for the other spiritual needs of your parishioners, a chapel that can serve your purpose for an indefinite period.

"I am confident that all your parishioners will be satisfied with this arrangement and I feel sure that it will not be long before you will be in a position to erect your church. You have good people and I know they will cooperate with you."

According to a "tentative program" of building for the new parish, a plan "that can be carried out by the present congregation without putting the burden of a heavy debt upon the people and the priests in charge," the cost of the school was put at $50,000, and the church at $75,000. At that time it was also projected that a priest's rectory would cost $15,000 and the cost of remodeling the Durant mansion suitable as a residence for the sisters would be $10,000.

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When, in the fall of 1937, the new school building with eight elementary grades and a large auditorium which would also serve the congregation for Sunday Mass, was ready for its first students, a capable group of sisters, the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, were on hand to teach. Bishop O'Hara, who had come south from Philadelphia, was familiar with the congregation whose motherhouse was in the Philadelphia suburb of Melrose Park.

These five sisters led by Sister Mary Clement joined sisters of three other orders teaching children in the Catholic schools of Atlanta. The Sisters of Mercy were teaching boys and girls at the Academy of the Immaculate Conception; the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet were staffing St. Anthony's and Sacred Heart schools, while three Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament taught 114 boys and 132 girls at Our Lady of Lourdes.

In addition, the Marist Fathers were in charge of the Marist College, a military classical school, according to Catholic Directory where 160 boys were enrolled.

The Sisters of Mercy also staffed the St. Joseph's Infirmary and Training School for Nurses on Courtland St. There were 17 nuns here, and 48 nursing students. A total of 2,222 patients were treated in 1935 according to the directory.

To the prudent men guiding the finances of the new Christ the King parish, the "Lynch bequest" was the key to success in funding the buildings of the parish. Mrs. Hannah M. Lynch had left $25,000 in trust to the diocese of Savannah for the building of a new church. Bishop O'Hara had intended to use this fund to establish a new parish somewhere in the Druid Hills section near Decatur. The Catholics there, he said, "are not strong either numerically or financially. I felt that they would need no little help in getting the parish started ... However, with trust in God for the means necessary to put the future Druid Hills-Decatur parish on its feet, I am quite willing in view of the position taken by the committee, to yield regarding the Mrs. Lynch bequest and make it available for the Christ the King parish..."

He went on to explain, in the letter sent to Hughes Spalding in December, 1936, that "I want the church there to be truly worthy of the Catholic Church and of the capital city of the state..."

(The bishop established the parish of St. Thomas More in Decatur at Easter 1941.)

Because he had to leave the diocese for a few months he appointed the earlier mentioned committee of five to "assume full charge of the building project with full powers of agency until my return to accept plans, award contracts, make payments, etc. ... Now let us see what kind of school and church builders you are!"

Not only did Bishop O'Hara and the other parishioners see what a fine job they could do, the entire city was made aware of their achievement in early 1939 when news stories anticipated and reported the dedication of the co-cathedral of Christ the King. The ceremony introduced the population to the splendor and pomp of the hierarchy and was described in one Journal report as "the greatest assemblage of Catholic leaders in Georgia."

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As the cathedral was dedicated on Jan. 18, 1939, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in his second term; a civil war raged in Spain, and the free world had not yet fully awakened to the slaughter of the Jewish people by Adolph Hitler. The true life love story of the king and the commoner, England's King Edward and Baltimore's Mrs. Simpson, still fascinated Americans as did a fictional tale written by Atlanta's own Margaret Mitchell, "Gone With The Wind" sold over a million copies in 1938.

While Catholics in Atlanta made preparations for the dedication of the cathedral, the leader of the world's Roman Catholics, Pope Pius XI, was in the last weeks of his life. He died at the Vatican on Feb. 10. The pontiff, aged 79, had been consecrated pope in 1922.

In Atlanta newspapers, segregation extended to the obituary page, with death notices separated by race.

In its issue reporting the dedication, The Bulletin of the Catholic Laymen's Association of Georgia, termed the occasion "one of the most impressive and historically significant ceremonies in the history of the Church in the entire south Atlantic states."

The solemn High Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Michael J. Curley of Baltimore, metropolitan of the Province of Baltimore which included Georgia. While the sermon was delivered by Monsignor Joseph M. Corrigan, rector of Catholic University, Cardinal Dennis Dougherty presided at the solemn ceremony.

In closing remarks, Bishop O'Hara paid tribute to the priests and laity: "... to them I express heartfelt gratitude for the truly marvelous spirit that they have shown for all that pertains to the welfare of the Church in this state. My priests and people, laboring together for the common cause to the honor and glory of God and the salvation of souls, have achieved great things."

"The dedication of this co-cathedral is a kind of climax to their many accomplishments ... made possible by the sacrifices ... The work has not been easy. Catholics of this state have suffered for their faith and it is precisely because of these sacrifices and sufferings that God blesses them now."

The Atlanta Journal gave front-page photo coverage to the presence of Dr. Hiram Wesley Evans, imperial wizard of the KKK, and Mrs. Evans, among the invited guests. Evans, an Atlanta dentist, was quoted as saying he was "just a spectator."

Dinner at the Piedmont Driving Club followed the cathedral dedication. Among the honored guests were Mayor and Mrs. William Hartsfield and Gov. and Mrs. E. R. Rivers.

The day before the dedication, Journal headlines announced "Catholic Great Arrives," and "New $400,000 Church Replaces Modest Chapel." Cardinal Dougherty, the press reported, had been greeted by a large crowd at Terminal Station including hundreds of Catholic school children and Marist College cadets. Among the priests in the welcoming throng were Father Moylan and Father Harold J. Barr, pastor of St. Joseph's in Athens.

Prelates were booked into the Atlanta Biltmore while priests stayed at the Ansley Hotel. At each hotel altars had been set up in one room so that daily Mass could be celebrated.

The Journal described the new cathedral as "likely to rival Notre Dame in Paris for lasting qualities." In the lengthy article in the Jan. 28 issue of The Bulletin, the structure designated by Philadelphia architects Henry D. Dagin and Sons, is said to recall the cathedrals of the 13^th century in its form; "yet its detail creates an interest which satisfies and is adapted to the surroundings and the people who will attend it."

In the half-century since the dedication, this impressive limestone cathedral has been the scene of momentous events in the life of the archdiocese. So it will be again next month with the culmination of the anniversary celebrations.

On Sunday, May 3 at 9 a.m., the school children's liturgical celebration of 50 years of Christ the King School will be held. Open house and reunion of former students will follow from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Hyland Center and the school. Another event planned for Sunday is a talk on the handsome stained glass windows in the cathedral to be given by Patricia Garner and Irma Matson.

The anniversary Mass on Monday, May 4 at 6 p.m. will include special music by the Cathedral Choir. It will be shown over closed circuit television to the overflow crowd in the gymnasium at the Hyland Center. An outdoor reception, memorabilia display and slide show will follow at 7:30 p.m. Admission to the Mass will be by ticket only.