By Gretchen Keiser

As befits its role as the largest parish in the archdiocese, St. Ann's in Marietta hosted a large-scale, three-day tribute to its founding pastor, Father Tom Carroll, MS, who will be leaving in July to pastor St. Oliver Plunkett's in Snellville.

The 13 years Father Carroll has spent nurturing the rapidly growing Cobb County parish have sped for longtime parishioners like John and Carol Braun, who attended the Mass at Holy Family in Marietta in 1978, when the formation of the "Bishop Lake" Catholic community was announced. They were original parishioners.

From 240 families then, St. Ann's has mushroomed into a parish of over 3,600 families in 1991. Mrs. Braun, one of the coordinators of the parish-wide tribute to Father Carroll, said she credits him with bringing a strong sense of family and community to St. Ann's. "He's the one that brought that thought to us -- that we could be family," she said. The bond of closeness among the LaSalette priests in Georgia was a unique priestly example for her, a transplant from Buffalo. Their warmth and concern for one another set a tone for the parish, she believes.

A friendly roast, coordinated by parishioner Rusty Mawn, gave parish groups an opportunity to spoof, recall and celebrate some of Father Carroll's pastoral high and low moments at St. Ann's. Limited to a few minutes each, the skits and songs kept coming for two and a half hours the evening of May 31, entertaining about 800 people. The evening ended with a wine and cheese reception.

The following evening about 200 parishioners attended a dinner dance at the Waverly Hotel.

On Sunday, June 2, Father Carroll was the principal celebrant of the 12:15 p.m. concelebrated Mass and in his homily to the overflowing church retraced the 13-year history of the parish, asked the forgiveness of anyone there he might have hurt over the years and told them the parish was his family. The church was decorated with farewell banners made for Father Carroll by parish organizations and as Mass ended a banner was unfolded from the balcony filled with handwritten messages from people in the parish.

With the sadness of leaving, Father Carroll also had the joy of a reunion with his family. All three of his brothers and two of his sisters-in-law were able to come to the farewell festivities from Connecticut. It was the first time in 50 years, since he entered the LaSalette seminary in 1941 that all four of the Carroll brothers slept under the same roof.

Among the gifts given to Father Carroll were a fund to provide him with a trip when he can take the time to travel in the future, and a bronze plaque, purchased by the altar servers, that will be placed on the church exterior honoring the founding pastor.

The number of active ministries and organizations in the parish is extensive, including outreach to the unemployed, the poor and the homeless, covenant relationships with Episcopal and Lutheran sister parishes, and a school of religion that serves approximately 2,000 children from three years old through young adults, with a network of 250 volunteer teachers, coordinated by staff.

Father Robert Susann, MS, will become the second pastor of St. Ann's on July 10. The LaSalettes will be assuming pastoral care of St. Oliver Plunkett parish in Snellville from the archdiocese.