By Georgia Bulletin Staff

ATLANTA – Eight priests of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the archbishop’s personal assistant, Sally Grubbs, have received papal honors, Archbishop John F. Donoghue announced Oct. 31.

The priests will be invested as monsignors and Mrs. Grubbs as a Dame of St. Gregory the Great with the rank of commander at a Vespers Service on Dec. 20 at the Cathedral of Christ the King.

The honored priests, who will have the rank of prelate of honor, are: Msgr. Walter J. Donovan, now retired and in residence at Sacred Heart Parish, Atlanta; Msgr. Peter A. Dora, pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish, Athens; Msgr. Henry C. Gracz, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish, Hapeville; Msgr. Donald A. Kenny, chancellor of the archdiocese and vocations director; Msgr. Thomas A. Kenny, rector of the Cathedral; Msgr. Louis Naughton, judicial vicar of the Metropolitan Tribunal; Msgr. Daniel J. O’Connor, pastor of St. Jude the Apostle, Sandy Springs and Msgr. Francis Pham Van Phuong, administrator of Our Lady of Viet Nam Mission in Forest Park.

The honor, given by Pope John Paul II and requested by the archbishop, recognizes their service to the church in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Archbishop Donoghue said.

“Everyone, priests and people alike, will recognize that these are men who have given a great deal to the church,” he said.

“I’m pleased for Sally,” he added. “She has served every archbishop of Atlanta beginning with Archbishop (Paul) Hallinan . . . There is no one more devoted” to the archdiocese. Mrs. Grubbs is receiving a papal honor of high rank conferred upon lay people for exceptional service.

The archbishop informed honorees personally at a dinner he gave at his home Oct. 31 and thanked them for their service to the archdiocese. He added that other priests serving the church here also were exceptional in their service and that others would be recognized in the future.

The number honored is extremely unusual. Most recently in Atlanta Msgr. Edward Dillon, vicar general, was given the honor at the request of the late Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, and the late Msgr. Peter Ludden was honored before his death.

Mrs. Grubbs, who celebrated her 75th birthday this year, has served on the Catholic Center staff since 1961 and in continuous work for the archbishops of Atlanta since the first, Archbishop Hallinan, was named during that decade. She is well-known to priests and people for her wide knowledge of the archdiocese and its history, church protocol and church people, and for her willingness to help those in need of information.

In alphabetical order, the priests being honored follow.

Msgr. Donovan celebrated his golden jubilee this year. He was ordained July 1, 1944, at St. Bernard’s Seminary in Rochester, N.Y. After first serving in the Savannah area he was assigned to Atlanta when it became a separate diocese in 1956. He was founding pastor of Most Blessed Sacrament Parish in southwest Atlanta. At the time of his retirement in 1988 he was pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Cumming.

In the early 1960s he was a member of the St. Martin de Porres Inter-Racial Council. He served as second president of the diocesan Catholic Charities and first president of the Senate of Priests.

Msgr. Dora, who is pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in Athens was ordained in June 1972 by Atlanta Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan at the Cathedral of Christ the King.

For nine years a priest serving in the Metropolitan Marriage Tribunal, he was officialis from 1984 to 1988 until he was appointed a personal administrative aide to Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ. He is a former editor of The Georgia Bulletin and served the archdiocese as the primary spokesperson to the media, a post which he has held from 1986 to the present.

Msgr. Gracz was ordained for the archdiocese in May, 1965 by Archbishop Hallinan at the Cathedral of Christ the King. In addition to his pastorate, he is archdiocesan vicar for clergy and has been active on the priests’ Personnel Board.

He was pastor at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Decatur during the years from 1972 until 1981 when the parish was successfully integrated. He served several years as executive priest for Marriage Encounter and is a former pastor of our Lady of Lourdes and Transfiguration parishes.

Ordained Dec. 8, 1984 by Archbishop Donnellan at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Msgr. Don Kenny is a native of Portarlington, County Laoise, Ireland. His background as a teacher and assistant principal in London before he entered the seminary led to his work as an assistant principal and dean of students at St. Pius X high School in Atlanta after ordination.

He became the first full-time vocations director for the Archdiocese of Atlanta in 1990 and has shepherded groups of seminarians averaging 50 to 60 people per year in studies, a number that far exceeds most other vocations programs in the U.S. In September 1992, when his health was weakening, Archbishop Lyke appointed Father Kenny as chancellor of the archdiocese to assist in the administrative work borne by the vicar general. He was reappointed chancellor by Archbishop Donoghue and is also Secretary for Particular Ministries, overseeing a number of archdiocesan offices and departments.

Msgr. Thomas Kenny, rector at the Cathedral of Christ the King, was ordained in June 1965 in Ireland. A native of Easkey, County Sligo, Msgr. Kenny studied and was ordained at All Hallows Seminary in Dublin.

His first pastorate was St. Michael’s in Gainesville where he spent six years. He was pastor at Corpus Christi in Stone Mountain for 13 years before becoming rector of the cathedral in 1990. He celebrated his 25th anniversary as a priest June 3, 1990 at Corpus Christi.

A priest for 23 years, Msgr. Naughton was ordained July 11, 1971 by Bishop Michael Browne of Galway, Ireland, in the Cathedral there. Born in 1937 in Galway, he worked as an engineer before entering theological studies as a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

He holds a licentiate in Canon law and serves as judicial vicar of the metropolitan Marriage Tribunal where annulment cases are decided for the archdiocese. Msgr. Naughton has also served on the staff of a variety of parishes while working for the archdiocese, including currently the Cathedral of Christ the King.

Msgr. O’Connor, who is pastor of St. Jude the Apostle in Sandy Springs, was ordained May 20, 1961, in Hartford, Conn.

Msgr. O’Connor was a teacher and later principal at St. Joseph’s High School. He served as Secretary of Education from 1964-1974 for the archdiocese. During those years the diocese’s Lay Congress and Synod mandated the reorganization of the Education Office into a Department of Catholic Education responsible for Catholic schools, religious education in parishes and campus ministry. Msgr. O’Connor has served as pastor at St. Philip Benizi church, Jonesboro, St. Thomas Aquinas, Alpharetta, and Sacred Heart in Atlanta.

Msgr. Phuong was ordained at the Basilica in Saigon, Viet Nam. He was the first Vietnamese priest to serve his fellow countrymen in Georgia. He celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination in 1993.

He is administrator of Our Lady of Viet Nam Mission in Forest Park.