Three priests of the archdiocese have received their first assignments as pastors. They are Father John P. Farrelly and Father Austin Fogarty, both natives of Ireland, and Father Albert Jowdy, a native of North Carolina.

Father John P. Farrelly

Father Farrelly, new pastor at Sacred Heart, Milledgeville, was ordained in 1984 at All Hallows College in his native Dublin where he prepared for the priesthood. Father John Kieran, pastor at Christ Our Hope in Lithonia, represented the archdiocese of Atlanta at the ceremony and helped the new priest to vest.

Father Farrelly, 35, was assigned to St. Thomas More parish in Decatur for five months after his ordination. Next, he spent two years and five months as parochial vicar at Holy Family, Marietta, with Father Paul Fogarty as his pastor; seven months at St. Jude in Sandy Springs with Father Bill Hoffman, pastor. He has been at Immaculate Heart of Mary, Atlanta, since May, 1988, serving with two pastors, Father Terry Kane and Father Richard Kieran

While studying for the priesthood he spent one summer in Atlanta where he was assigned to Sts. Peter and Paul, Decatur.

Father Farrelly spent five years in Australia, where he attended the Guild Teachers College in Sydney, and taught in a Catholic grade school in the country about 100 miles south of Sydney.

His father, William, lives in Dublin. His mother, Joan, is deceased. He has a brother, Liam, in Marietta and a sister, Myrtle, in Ireland.

Father Austin Fogarty

Father Austin Fogarty, who assumes his first pastorate at Christ Our Hope parish, Lithonia, has previously served as a parochial vicar in Sandy Springs, Alpharetta and Hapeville. He also served in Gainesville, at St. Michael's parish, when he was a deacon.

A native of Dublin, 39 years old, he studied at All Hallows College in Dublin and St. Peter's in Wexford and completed his study at the Assumption-St. John's Seminary in San Antonia, TX. He had been studying for the diocese of Brownsville, TX, but altered those plans to become a priest for the archdiocese of Atlanta.

Once ordained a deacon he spent several years working with profoundly mentally handicapped people in a Dublin facility, Stewarts Hospital. His first parish assignment in this archdiocese was St. Thomas Aquinas, Alpharetta, in 1981. He then was assigned to St. John the Evangelist in Hapeville in 1985 and to St. Jude's parish, Sandy Springs, in 1989. While Father Dan O'Connor was called to active military duty, he served as priest-in-charge of St. Jude's. His parents are deceased, but he has a large family of five sisters and a brother, including a twin sister.

Father Albert W. Jowdy

Father Jowdy was ordained by Archbishop Thomas Donnellan on June 2, 1984 at the Cathedral of Christ the King. The first five years of his priesthood were spent as parochial vicar at All Saints in Dunwoody. Since 1988 he has been parochial vicar at the Alpharetta parish he will now serve as pastor.

He is an elected member of the Priest Personnel Board and the archdiocesan Council of Priests which he has chaired since 1990. Archbishop Lyke recently named him to the archdiocesan Planning and Development council.

Father Jowdy has been active in the Cursillo and Marriage Encounter renewal movements and presents Marriage Encounter weekends in the Atlanta area once or twice a year.

A native of New Bern, NC, he grew up in Chapel Hill, NC, and Athens where he was active as a youth at St. Joseph's parish. His parents, Albert and Millicent Jowdy are retired in Atlanta. His brother, Jeffrey, serves as development director for Mount de Sales Academy in Macon.

Father Jowdy studied philosophy at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and theology at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL, from which he earned the Masters of Divinity degree.