The Conventual Franciscan Friars of the St. Anthony of Padua Province based in Baltimore, began staffing their first parish in the Atlanta archdiocese June 11.

Reverend Eugene Kwapisz, OFM Conv., is the new pastor at St. John Vianney, Lithia Springs. Reverend David Stachurski, OFM Conv., is the parochial vicar.

Father Kwapisz has served as parochial vicar at All Saints, Dunwoody, since August, 1985.

A native of Buffalo, NY, he attended St. Boniface University and St. Hyacinth's College and Seminary in Granby, Mass. He studied in Rome from 1960 to 1964 at the Franciscan Pontifical Institute where he received his Baccalaureate and Licentiate in Sacred Theology. He was ordained in 1964.

Eleven of Father Kwapisz's 23 years as a priest have been spent in education. He taught Latin, French and religion at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore where he also was director of the religion department and later head of the guidance department.

In 1975 he was assigned to parish work at St. Joseph's Church in Mt. Carmel, PA. Subsequent assignments were at St. Stanislaus in Sharon, PA, and St. Casimir, Riverside, NJ.

It was at St. Casimir that Father Kwapisz first served with Father Stachurski, the new parochial vicar at St. John Vianney.

Father Stachurski is a native of Baltimore. He also studied at St. Hyacinth College where he received a master's degree in philosophy in 1975. He received further masters' degrees in theology from St. Anthony-on-the-Hudson in New York and in liturgy from the University of Notre Dame. His previous parish assignments were at St. Casimir and St. Stanislaus Kostaka in Shamokin, PA.

Father Kwapisz is looking forward to the opportunity to serve as pastor. He sees his role as one who "really cares for the welfare of the parishioners." He hopes to carry out the teachings of Vatican II and be a "witness of the Franciscan spirit of caring for the needy and poor and living a simple lifestyle with detachment and joy."

Father Kwapisz considers pastoring a new challenge for him. "I've always gotten along with people. I find if you like people, they usually like you in return. With God's grace, hopefully, I won't make too many mistakes."

The St. Anthony of Padua Province, which consists of 300 members, also staffs St. Francis parish near Birmingham, AL, and a high school in Fort Pierce, FL. The group, according to Father Kwapisz, is responding to the need to serve Catholics who have come to the South in recent years from large urban areas in the north.