By Thea Jarvis

Anticipating increased archdiocesan growth in the next decade, Bishop James P. Lyke, OFM, has reached agreement with two religious orders of men to assist in ministry to the Church in north Georgia.

Over the next several months, the Missionaries of Our Lady of LaSalette (MS) and the Order of Friars Minor, Conventual (OFM, Conv.) will expand their local presence by assuming pastoral care of two parishes and two missions here.

The LaSalettes, who currently serve in seven archdiocesan parishes, have agreed to assume responsibility for St. Oliver Plunkett Church in Snellville, Gwinnett County, and St. Matthew's mission in Winder, Barrow County.

Father Joseph Beltran, pastor of the 536-family Snellville parish, has asked Bishop Lyke to accept his resignation from parish leadership for reasons of health.

Father John Henley, pastor of St. Anna's Church in Monroe, Walton County, will continue Hispanic ministry at St. Matthew's, which has a growing membership of 104 families.

Conventual Franciscans, now serving at St. John Vianney Church in Lithia Springs, Douglas County, and its St. Vincent de Paul Mission in Dallas, Paulding County, have consented to staff St. Philip Benizi Church in Jonesboro, Clayton County, and the 210-family mission of St. Gabriel in Fayetteville, Fayette County. St. Philip's parish community numbers 1400 families.

Father Beltran and Father Frank Giusta, pastor of St. Philip, will be reassigned in early summer, the traditional time frame for clergy appointments.

Bishop Lyke said that he had a concern shortly after he came to the archdiocese that diocesan priests greatly needed opportunities to have a sabbatical year or, in some cases, to be sent for further study in theology so they could return to Atlanta as theological specialists for the archdiocese.

That concern and the projected growth of the Catholic population in the 1990s prompted him to contact several religious orders about assuming administration of parishes.

"More than any other diocese, Atlanta has experienced rapid growth and continues to prosper with unprecedented numbers of Catholic faithful arriving daily," Bishop Lyke said in a letter to priests and parishioners affected by the changes. He added his hope that the new priests would be welcomed with "open hearts and minds" and "gracious hospitality."

Both the LaSalettes and Franciscans have worked successfully in the archdiocese of Atlanta in recent years.

The Missionaries of Our Lady of LaSalette began a ministry in the Southeast when they undertook pastoral care at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Cartersville in 1969. Since then, they have added the parishes of Our Lady of the Mountains in Jasper, Our Lady of LaSalette in Canton, St. Clement's in Calhoun, St. Ann's in Marietta, St. Thomas the Apostle in Smyrna and St. Matthew's in Fairburn.

Father James Kuczynski, vicar provincial of the LaSalette province in Hartford, CT, feels his order is a partner with the archdiocese of Atlanta in the work of the Church.

"There is fine ministry in Atlanta," he said. "We've found a warm welcome there."

He explained that, although LaSalettes face a shortage of vocations like other religious, their withdrawal from a diocese in England freed up some of their priests for the Atlanta archdiocese.

"We're in the same situation as anyone else," he said, but the order's 1988 chapter mandated a commitment to the archdiocese of Atlanta and the personnel change made the commitment possible.

Like the LaSalettes, Conventual Franciscans held a chapter in the mid-1980s that directed their attention southward. The province, headquartered in Baltimore, "wanted to start expanding into the South," said Father Albert Scherer, OFM, parochial vicar of St. John Vianney Church in Lithia Springs, where Franciscans have ministered since 1987.

"When another parish was offered, we decided to take it" in order to fulfill the chapter directive, he said, admitting that it may mean "some sacrifice up North for some parishes we have."

Father Scherer agreed that "there is not a super abundance of vocations," to work with, but creative use of personnel has enabled his order to expand geographically.

Bishop Lyke acknowledged that, in recent months, it has become increasingly difficult for him and the Clergy Personnel Board to fill archdiocesan pastorates with a limited number of diocesan priests.

When he contacted religious orders already serving the archdiocese of Atlanta, he found them interested in placing members of their community in a region where other priests of their order were already stationed in order to "strengthen their fraternal life."

"Everyone I wrote was very gracious," the bishop said, and expressed a genuine desire to assist the archdiocese, although not every order could spare priests at this time.