By Gretchen Keiser

John Aisthorpe, the archdiocese's first director of development, is concerned that the growth of the Catholic population be paralleled by the necessary financial support and planning to undergird and channel that growth.

Aisthorpe, who began the new position in July, had a 24-year career in the U.S. Navy from 1960 to 1984, when he retired from the military. A graduate of Notre Dame University in business administration, his service in the Navy included intelligence work, active duty in Vietnam where he served as an advisor to the South Vietnamese Army and assignments in Washington, DC, and Atlanta as Reserve Intelligence Program Officer.

A native of Memphis, TN, and an Atlanta resident since 1978, he and his wife, Mary Kay, have been presidents of the Home and School Association at St. Joseph's parish in Marietta and he is a former president of the Atlanta Notre Dame Club.

Aisthorpe said his naval career emphasized planning and communications, skills he hopes to use to assist parishes and the archdiocese in his new post.

While economic conditions indicate that the archdiocese will continue to experience unprecedented growth in the Catholic population, communication both between parishes and the archdiocese, and outside the church to draw support for the church's ministries, will be more and more critical, he said.

Among his concerns will be encouraging financial support by Catholics for the church and church services, providing a part of the needed information as long-range plans are considered and weighed, and serving as a resource and line of communication on development to parishes and schools. Eventually he foresees working to encourage planned giving to the Church in such forms as wills and bequests, a form of giving not often considered.

An obvious supporter of Catholic education, whose four children went to Catholic elementary and high schools, and a booster of the Village of St. Joseph who rallied the Notre Dame Club to build a ballfield for the facility, Aisthorpe said he has spent much of his time in the first months studying the task of diocesan development and planning and learning from his colleagues in other dioceses.

A development official has been needed for some time, said Joseph Estafen, director of finance for the archdiocese, but the need became most apparent after the recent Capital Funds Drive that sought money for four major archdiocesan projects. Aisthorpe will have broad responsibility for development efforts in the archdiocese, Estafen said, and direct responsibility for fund-raising such as the annual Charities Drive. He will also serve as liaison between archdiocesan offices and parishes regarding central fund-raising efforts and aims to help parishes in their own efforts to raise funds.

With the "tremendous growth potential and de facto growth" in the archdiocese, those managing the finances of the archdiocese have become increasingly aware of the need "to be maximizing the resources we have -- also, wherever possible creating new sources" of income, said Father Peter Ludden, chancellor.

The creation of the new post was in itself a sign of the growth, Father Ludden said, since it expressed the recognition that financial needs of the future needed the full-time attention of one individual who could help the archdiocese and parishes in this area of financial development.