By Paula Day

In his brief time as leader of the Atlanta archdiocese, Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, by virtue of his spirit and vision, impacted many people, both on the personal level and in their work for the church.

Father David Dye, campus minister at Georgia State University, remembers his first impression of the newly-appointed administrator of the archdiocese, a local church in the middle of turmoil over the recent resignation of Archbishop Eugene Marino, SSJ.

“He was standing at the altar in the midst of the concelebrating priests, not by himself, but with the whole church gathered around. The moment symbolized for me the strength of the church, not the power, not the unity, but the strength. It was the calm sense of a shared strength. It dawned on me that day that all is well. When one falls, another part of the church picks up.”

It was that sense of strength in diversity that is one of Archbishop Lyke’s legacies to Atlanta, and harkens back to Atlanta’s first archbishop and delegate to the Second Vatican Council. Father Henry Gracz, vicar for clergy of the archdiocese, found his “creative and visionary spirit much like that of Archbishop (Paul) Hallinan. He has a strong drive in him for the Church to be the best that Christ would want it to be, a church of justice, of good liturgical prayer and a church of involvement.”

For many who minister to the marginalized this concern for justice and involvement was an inspiration to continue in what is at times a difficult ministry.

“The thing that sticks in my mind,” Father John Adamski said, “was that in the midst of controversies about these ministries, when sometimes people didn’t understand, the archbishop was archbishop to all the people of Atlanta.” Father Adamski, whose parish, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, hosts regular dinners for HIV-infected guests and opens its doors nightly to shelter homeless men, was impressed by the archbishop’s commitment to reaching out to all kinds of people.

“He was inclusive. It was really a lived experience in his life. He was always able and wanted to be accepting.” Not that he agreed with everyone or everyone agreed with him, but Father Adamski noted, “He was able to disagree with people and express his personal viewpoint and at the same time to include everybody in the Church.”

He appreciated the role women Religious played in the ministry of the church and was “willing to go as far as he could” in giving women authority and responsibility, Sister Valentine Sheridan, RSM, pointed out. Archbishop Lyke appointed Sister Sheridan parish administrator of Sacred Heart in Atlanta, a first for a woman in this archdiocese. The appointment was necessitated by a shortage of pastors and the calling up of priests to duty as military chaplains in the Persian Gulf War. In his letter of appointment and in conversation he communicated “His respect for women, his openness to women in the Church.”

Sister Margaret McAnoy, IHM, president of the Atlanta Conference of Sisters, said Archbishop Lyke “continued a respect and valuing of the presence of religious women in the diocese” begun by Archbishop Marino. He met with the ACS every other month and shared with them many planned activities. Sister McAnoy welcomed his support of the collection for retired Religious, noting the “probably understood better than a diocesan bishop what the collection meant to the sisters because he belonged to an order.”

A member of the Order of Friars Minor Archbishop Lyke’s vision of Church was influenced by the Franciscan charisma. The Franciscan habit was his garb of choice, worn as a matter of course when he went to parish events. “His prayerfulness, his spirituality…his simplicity of life,” made a deep impression on his administrative assistant, Gerald O’Connor. “He was a Franciscan first and a bishop second,” O’Connor noted.

Fellow Franciscan Father David Stachurski, OFM, Conv., recalled “his sense of fraternity was extraordinary. His greatest wish here was that the Franciscans in the archdiocese get together for the feast of St. Francis.” That sense of fraternity and solidarity was “his greatest gift to the archdiocese,” Father Stachurski believes. Because of his active pursuit, the archdiocese now has priests from the three Franciscan branches working in ministry: the Order of Friars Minor, the Conventual Franciscans and the Capuchins.

Archbishop Lyke called upon Father Gerald Dolan, OFM, of St. John the Evangelist parish in Hapeville, to help leaders of the permanent diaconate of the archdiocese prepare candidates and he gave them a “vision of what thought the diaconate should be,” said Deacon Alfred Mitchell, archdiocesan director of the permanent diaconate. “He realized we have a bit of handicap,” because there is no Catholic college in the archdiocese. The archbishop wanted the diaconal program to be strong academically and impressed on the board of directors that special care should be exercised in screening and admitting candidates.

Father Gracz remembers the archbishop as one who “spoke his mind and expected others to do the same. He wasn’t afraid to take risks and if he made a mistake, he would be willing to change.”

It was this humble attitude of being ready to learn from others that impressed Carol Hamill, consultant for adult catechesis for the archdiocese. Early in his tenure he told her all his knowledge of the RCIA was theoretical. “I am relying on you and the Forum for its implementation,” he said. Mrs. Hamill believes that without his active support most of the parishes and missions would not be implementing the Rite through a team approach.

When it came to welcoming into the Church those being initiated through the Rite he recognized the power of shared ritual to highlight special moments for the individual and the community. After Archbishop Lyke’s arrival the Rite of Election for those entering the church took place the first year in Atlanta’s Civic Center and then in the World Congress Center.

“He delighted in the big event,” recalls Father Austin Fogarty, pastor of Christ Our Hope in Lithonia. “I believe he thought if you think big, big things happen. He was asking us to trust him. ‘If you follow me – trust me – I will take you, not so much to a better place, but to a larger vision.’”

Many recall Archbishop Lyke’s firm but sensitive handling of the aftermath of Archbishop Marino’s resignation.

“He did it with dignity and compassion,” remarked Sister Sheridan. Carol Hamill noted his deliberateness in not placing blame on the involved parties. Sister McAnoy cannot recall ever attending a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Lyke when he did not pray for “our brother Eugene” during the Eucharistic prayer. “He truly loved Marino,” she observed. “It must have been terrible for him to have to follow in the steps of one he dearly loved and whose actions he could not understand.”

But Archbishop Lyke was not so much one to follow as he was to lead. Edward de St. Aubin, immediate past chairman of Archdiocesan Planning and Development Council, characterized him as “a gentle, strong guy” who “knew the real world.” He was “very strong in his position,” and able to gain people’s confidence and friendship through “intellectual patience.”

“He didn’t dominate” in a pushy, authoritative way, de St. Aubin said. “He listened…(but) he knew where he wanted things to go.”

This leadership was evident in his plans for the Hispanic population in archdiocese. He “was concerned about the growth in the Hispanic population and how the Church in Atlanta was going to respond to it,” remarked Gonzalo Saldaña, secretary for Hispanic ministry for the archdiocese.

He responded to this growth in Chamblee and Doraville neighborhood of Atlanta by acquiring a new center for the Hispanic mission there. Seeing the Hispanic community in the Grant Park area expand, he consolidated services and ministry there under one roof. Awareness of the needs of Spanish-speaking Catholics prompted him to require all seminarians to have a speaking knowledge of Spanish as well as English, Saldaña said.

Archbishop Lyke not only influenced the ministries of the Church in Atlanta, he also impacted individual Catholics.

“The archbishop was a sacrament for us,” observed Mrs. Hamill. “We encountered God in his humility, suffering, his faithfilled presence.”

“He was dignified, bright, and had a wonderful balance of the traditional and contemporary in his theology,” observed Father Dan Stack, pastor of St. Bernadette’s parish in Cedartown. “Seeing his personal commitment to being a pastor inspired and encouraged me,” commented Father Adamski.

Father Stachurski found him “a real joy to be with. He was…always interested in what I was doing. He could revel in it, whether it was liturgy, music, art, architecture.”

Perhaps no one witnessed Archbishop’s Lyke love of life more than Gerard O’Connor, his administrative assistant. As his companion he saw many sides others did not see. The archbishop enjoyed things like finding a bargain at the mall and picking up kitchen gadgets for Christine Hornsby, the housekeeper at the residence.

“He remembered things about people,” O’Connor said, their birthdays, family news, and loss. “He had time for his family, no matter what.”

That family included the extended black community. “His sense of being an African-American role model was profound,” O’Connor observed. “He never took that responsibility lightly. Even bellhops in hotels, he’d remember their names. He would converse with people pushing him on a stretcher in the hospital.”

And he enjoyed “the comedy of life.” O’Connor recounts the time he arrived at the residence wearing casual clothes and unprepared to take the archbishop to a formal dinner at an Atlanta hotel.

The archbishop went into his own closet and found one suit, one shirt with a collar on it, one tie and gave them to O’Connor along with a pair of his shoes.

“We went like that,” the young man recalls. “Of course, when we got there he tells everybody I’m wearing his clothes.”

Eighteen months is a short time in the life of the Church and a premature death always poses the question, “Why?” Trying to make sense of this mystery, Father Fogarty observed, “We got the essence of his life, the distillation. He was given to us for a time to put us back on track. We thought he would be the one to lead and guide (but) we should praise God for this interim bishop.”