ATLANTA--Father Gregory Benassu, parochial vicar at St. Catherine of Siena Church, Kennesaw, remains in very serious condition as he battles cancer.

Father Benassu, four months away from the second anniversary of his ordination, was diagnosed with melanoma in early 1997. Since mid-February the 37-year-old priest has received care at Sloan-Kettering cancer institute in New York. He was scheduled to be transferred to a nursing care facility in New Jersey March 17 so he could remain close to his family.

Archbishop John F. Donoghue ordained Father Benassu to the priesthood July 8, 1995 at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta. Since his ordination he has been assigned to St. Catherine of Siena Parish.

Father Mark Lacey, chancellor, Father James Miceli, pastor of St. Mary's Church, Rome, and Father John Anderson, parochial vicar at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Alpharetta, visited with Father Benassu at Sloan-Kettering in March. Both Father Lacey and Father Anderson studied as seminarians with Father Benassu in Italy.

Born in New York City, but raised in Green Brook, N.J., Father Benassu entered the seminary for the Diocese of Trenton, N.J., after working for four years as a computer programmer and one and a half years as a computer analyst. During his second year of study at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, he met Msgr. Donald Kenny, director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Atlanta. Impressed by the emotional, spiritual and financial support offered to Atlanta's seminarians, he decided to continue his studies as a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

A pastoral year at St. Mary's in Rome was followed by three years of seminary studies in Italy, where he earned an undergraduate degree in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas and a master of arts in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained a transitional deacon July 9, 1994 at St. Mary's Church in Rome.