By Gretchen Keiser

A fraternity of brother priests and a family of parishioners from many North Georgia parishes gathered recently to celebrate 25 years of work in this archdiocese by LaSalette clergy.

Acknowledged by Archbishop John F. Donoghue as “true friends of the Catholic Church in North Georgia,” LaSalette priests pastor churches in Cartersville, Canton and Calhoun, Jasper and Fairburn, Marietta, Snellville and Smyrna.

Their presence began in 1969 when the Archdiocese of Atlanta “responded most readily” to a desire by the LaSalette order to realign its ministries and “reach out” to priestless areas of the U.S., according to Father Tom Reilly, MS, provincial superior. Archbishop Thomas Donnellan welcomed them.

Father Joe Loftus, MS, and Father Pete McKeown, MS, arrived in July 1969, beginning at St. Francis of Assisi in Cartersville. Missions in Canton and Calhoun later became the parishes of Our Lady of LaSalette and St. Clement.

Most Blessed Sacrament Parish in Atlanta, now staffed by the archdiocese, was a LaSalette parish for many years and St. Matthew’s in Fairburn, now a parish, began as Blessed Sacrament’s mission.

The small North Georgia parish of Our Lady of the Mountains in Jasper began as a LaSalette mission in Pickens County.

The task of beginning a parish in Marietta in 1978, taken on by the LaSalettes, proved to be the institution of one of the largest parishes in the archdiocese, St. Ann’s, now with well over 3,500 families. Neighboring St. Thomas the Apostle in Smyrna is also staffed by the LaSalettes, as is St. Oliver Plunkett in Snellville.

Pastors from each of the parishes concelebrated a silver jubilee Mass Sept. 28 with the archbishop, held at St. Ann’s and attended by about 60 other priests from the archdiocese and hundreds of people from LaSalette parishes. Each had a special reason for being there.

Adele Syracuse, a St. Ann’s parishioner for the past eight years, called the LaSalettes “a very special order. We have had so many wonderful priests who have blessed us over the years.”

She said Father Gene Barrette, MS, who had been assigned to St. Ann’s for several years, had impacted her significantly through his homilies.

In the row behind her, Bill and Ann Marie Kinzer of Sandy Springs, said they are founding members of Our Lady of the Mountains in Jasper. “There were about 24 (families) when we started. We only had about 45 when we built the church,” Kinzer recalled.

Founding pastor Father Joe Nolan, MS, now serving in North Carolina, “was the perfect person to bring” the Catholic Church into a rural, non-Catholic area, the couple said. “We heard many stories about how people would knock on his door at night and he never turned them away. He gave money out of his own pockets.”

“We’ve been affiliated with the LaSalettes for about 20 years,” said James and Mary McGinley, founding members of St. Matthew’s in Fairburn in 1979. “We first met them in Blessed Sacrament.”

Father Richard Morrow, pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Cumming, complimented the priests of the LaSalette order for their “fraternal charity” not only to their own, but to archdiocesan priests, citing most currently the friendship between Snellville priests Father Tom Carroll, MS , and Father Mike Flanagan, MS, and retired archdiocesan pastor Father Joseph Beltran, who lives nearby.

In his homily at the Mass, Archbishop Donoghue spoke of the bond which exists between the archdiocese and the order, formally called the Missionaries of our Lady of LaSalette. It is “a bond of service to the Church which originated in a miraculous appearance of Our Lady . . . a call to repentance, a call to renewal of faith, and a call to the furtherance of the Christian community,” he said.

The order traces its beginnings to an apparition of the Blessed Virgin in 1846 to two shepherd children in the French Alps near the city of Grenoble and a village called LaSalette. This apparition and the message of reconciliation through faith in Jesus Christ was declared worthy of belief by the local bishop in 1851. The Missionaries of Our Lady of LaSalette were originally formed to minister to the pilgrims who came to the site.

Today there are nearly 1,000 LaSalette priests and brothers in over 20 countries. In North America the order began in Hartford, Conn., the province which sends clergy to the Archdiocesan of Atlanta. About 15 LaSalette priests and brothers currently work in North Georgia.

The Gospel chosen for the Mass was the selection from St. John where Christ, from the cross, gives his mother Mary to the disciple’s care, and his disciple to the care of Mary.

Reconciliation is one of the tasks embraced by the LaSalette order, Father Reilly said in a later interview.

The task begins within the lives of the priests themselves, who meet as a group weekly for fellowship and support. The order actively promotes the brotherhood of its priests in a variety of ways, Father Reilly said, and a convener in each area is responsible for calling them together on a regular basis. The priests also gather for holidays and feasts to celebrate together.

Although the LaSalettes are noted for their fraternity, Father Reilly said forcefully, “Let the people know we work at it. We fight like everybody else, but we try to reconcile.”

Current LaSalette pastors include Father Joe Aquino in Cartersville, Father Don Baribeau in Smyrna, Father Jim Caffery in Fairburn, Father Carroll in Snellville, Father Leo Cummings in Calhoun, Father Neil Jones in Canton and Father Bob Susann in Marietta.

LaSalettes who returned for the celebration included Father Barrette, Father McKeown, Father Nolan and Father Brian Sheridan.

The order hosted a dinner for clergy of the archdiocese before the Mass and a dessert reception for the congregation afterward.