By Paula Day

He takes good-natured ribbing for being long-winded. However, Catholics from parishes where he has served tend more to recall his kindness and fabled knack for remembering them.

Father Terry Kane celebrated his twenty-fifth anniversary as a priest with a Mass of Thanksgiving June 12. Friends from Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Atlanta and St. Oliver Plunkett in Snellville were among those who St. Catherine of Siena parishioners in Kennesaw for the Mass and reception following in Herbert Hall.

In his homily for the feast of Corpus Christi, Father Kane recalled the variety of places he had celebrated Mass, the "wooded places, in the air at 33,000 feet ... I must have celebrated the Eucharist and brought Christ's presence over 10,000 times ... I have married some of you, baptized your children, given them their First Communion, buried members of the community."

He recalled that coming to Atlanta meant taking a risk, but "as a priest of God, there was no turning back."

"In every parish you find people who inspire you and I'm grateful for these people," the Kennesaw pastor concluded. The congregation gave him a standing ovation when he finished.

Rosemarie Declan Browne, a niece from Bergenfield, NJ, and her husband, and Sister Joachim McGuiness, a Medical Missionary of Mary based in Boston and cousin of the jubilarian, came for the celebration.

Irish compatriots Father Louis Naughton, Father Jim Fennessy, Father Pat Mulhern, Father Paul Fogarty and Father Willie Hickey, as well as Father Terry Young, Father Carlos Bedoya from Orlando, Fla., and newly-ordained Father Patrick Kingery concelebrated the Mass. Father Paul Flood, parochial vicar at St. Catherine's was master of ceremonies. Permanent deacons David Rauth and Homer Woods assisted.

The native of Drogheda, Ireland, is not one to mask his heritage. He recalls that studying for the Church of Atlanta appealed to his sense of mission. Ireland had a surplus of vocations to the priesthood; the diocese in North Georgia had a need for priests. Later when it came to proposing a name for the new parish Archbishop Thomas Donnellan asked him to form in Gwinnett County, he thought of the Irish saint Oliver Plunkett. The saint's shrine is located in his home parish in Drogheda.

Father Kane was one of many "Irish lads" who came to Atlanta in the 1960s. In addition to his classmates, Father Fennessy and the later Father Vincent Mulvin, he was preceded by Father Fogarty, Monsignor Edward Dillon, Father Michael Woods, Father Leo Herbert and the late Monsignor Peter Ludden, all alumni of St. Patrick's College in Carlow.

When he arrived in Atlanta he was assigned to Immaculate Heart of Mary, a parish he would return to as pastor 17 years later.

"He was the happiest young priest I ever remember," recalls Jane Nied, IHM parishioner. "He was always so concerned for others, even then. He accepts you as you are."

The variety in the parochial vicar's ministry ranged from weekly visits to nursing homes to judging a cheerleading competition. He didn't appreciate the impact of this duty until he faced the tears of the losers.

Assignments to the Cathedral of Christ the King, Blessed Sacrament and St. Thomas More in Decatur followed. In 1975 Archbishop Donnellan appointed him pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Atlanta. There he helped the parish community celebrate its 65th anniversary in a gala that ended with an ecumenical service. Bishop Joseph Howze if Biloxi, MS, was the invited speaker. Guests included Bishop H.I. Bearden of the Sixth District of the AME church, Dom Augustine Moore, OCSO, abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, as well as Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. Father Kane says it was a "glorious celebration and really brought the parish family closer together with a great sense of pride in their past and future."

In 1978 he faced the challenge of starting a new parish in southern Gwinnett County. Catholics in the area were eager for a church of their own after having to drive to St. Lawrence Church in Lawrenceville or St. Thomas More for Sunday Mass.

Kathleen Carter was one of those original parishioners. "I met him at St. Lawrence when he came to tell people about the new parish. We were ready for him. We were tired of going so far to different parishes."

"There was a contest to select the name," John Conroy says. But in actuality, it was "take it or leave it," only one ballot, the charter member of St. Oliver laughingly recalls. Naming the parish for the Irish saint was a first in the U.S.

In 1981, two weeks after dedicating the new church, Archbishop Donnellan and Father Kane were in Drogheda celebrating the tercentenary of the death of Oliver Plunkett. The jubilarian remembers the "joy and pride" of concelebrating in his home parish with the archbishop who had "honored his native saint by naming a parish in his honor in far away Snellville, Georgia."

Snellville had very few Catholics, but through his efforts Father Kane "made it popular to be a Catholic" in the area, Conroy says, recalling, "He was an ecumenical minister."

Returning as pastor to Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1985, Father Kane renewed acquaintances and amazed parishioners by recalling their names after 17 years.

"As a young priest I would sit in (pastor Monsignor Michael Regan's) office," Father Kane says. "He'd phone them and ask them how they were doing and end by praying with them on the phone. He did all this while he opened his mail or cleared a desk and I used to think it was a waste of time. Looking back I realize I was learning how to get to know my people and really love them as a father should."

The IHM community that greeted Father Kane in 1985 was culturally diversified boasting 250 Hispanic families and each Sunday a well-attended Spanish-language Mass.

"The Hispanic young adults were an inspiration with their faith and love for the Church," Father Kane recalls. "I felt very strongly that as their pastor they needed my love and support and even though at times I lost my patience, they just smothered me in love."

The Eritrean community began to celebrate liturgies with Father Tesfariam Baraki presiding during Father Kane's pastorate, and a strong Korean Catholic community lived within the parish boundaries. "It was a great sight to behold. (This diversity) has made IHM a unique community in the archdiocese," Father Kane observed.

The jubilarian confesses it was difficult to leave the Atlanta parish with so much of what he had planned for it unfinished. However, St. Catherine of Siena in Kennesaw offered a new challenge. Its burgeoning community has grown from 1,750 in 1990 to 2,200 families in 1993. Its new church boasts the largest seating capacity in the archdiocese, but along with the church came a large debt. Reducing it became Father Kane's priority, and now the debt is a mere 1.8 million.

Not one to let such details disturb him, Father Kane celebrated his jubilee with gusto, even dancing a few steps of an Irish jig with a young parishioner at the reception. The parish, for its part, presented him with a monetary gift to show appreciation for 25 years of ministry in the Church.