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| PASTOR: Fr. Fred
Wendel |
BY BETTY SCHOENBAECHLER
Special To The Bulletin
ATLANTA--In its 40 years serving Catholics in northeast DeKalb County,
Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish has strived for a spirit of unity that reaches
the hearts of long-time parishioners, but also welcomes newcomers into its
fold.
It is a parish committed to building up the Body of Christ through
ecumenical outreach, community service and fellowship within its own church
family.
The first bishop of Atlanta, Bishop Francis E. Hyland, founded IHM in 1958
in what was then the outer Atlanta suburbs. The first pastor was Msgr.
Cornelius L. Maloney, who was also superintendent of Catholic schools.
The parish currently has 1,400 registered families and is “a
multi-cultural and multi-faceted community,” said Father Fred Wendel,
pastor. “This is a very warm, inviting parish that is made of people from
all different cultures and socio-economic groups. We have a number of people
who have lived here their whole lives and others who have come from a whole lot
further than somewhere else in the United States. We have a strong Hispanic
community, a large group of Eritreans, a very sizable Anglo community and a
variety of other cultural groups.”
Like the parish they minister to, the priests serving IHM are a diverse
group. Father Wendel likened the rectory to “living in the United
Nations.” Parochial vicars are Father Duvon Gonzalez-Florez from Colombia,
Father Karl Duggan from Ireland and Father Jim Sexstone from Rochester, N.Y.
Several other priests reside at IHM, including Jesuits Father Carlos
Garcia-Carreras and Father Tom Stegman. Father Garcia-Carreras is chaplain of
the Misión de Nuestra Señora de Las Americas in Doraville, a
mission supported by IHM and other parishes, and Father Stegman is working on
his doctorate at Emory University.
The church has a pastoral council, comprised of the pastor and 12 members,
nine elected and three appointed by the pastor. Numerous groups and ministries
fall under five commissions: Education, Evangelization and Renewal, Fellowship
and Family, Community Service and Social and Ecumenical Concerns. Every other
month, the church sponsors an assembly where members of the pastoral council,
clergy and representatives of organizations and ministries meet to talk about
their groups’ activities.
“It is a wonderful opportunity for the different commissions of the
parish to meet and share ideas,” said Father Wendel. “It serves to
bring everyone closer together.”
A sense of welcome can be felt from the moment one walks through the doors
leading into the church. To the left in the vestibule is a sheltered area
dedicated to Mary for prayer. Another place for quiet, private prayer is the
adoration chapel to the left of the altar, where the tabernacle is located.
At a desk near the front doors, volunteers from the welcome committee greet
people before and after weekend Masses.
Next to the church is IHM School, which serves 500 children in kindergarten
through eighth grade and Marian Manor, formerly a convent for the Grey Nuns of
the Sacred Heart, now a personal care home for frail elderly run by Catholic
Personal Care Homes, Inc.
IHM is a parish alive with opportunities to serve or to find a faith family
within one’s church. Parishioners young and old can discover their niche
within the community, whether it’s attending a Bible study led by Father
Wendel, small group communities, prayer groups, sports activities or ministry
to the homeless, shut-ins or people living with AIDS.
“We work very hard to make this a parish where people can feel at
home,” said long-time parishioner Mary Smith.
IHM has undergone many changes over four decades, but Father Wendel said the
church has maintained its strength and vitality and in many ways has
continually renewed itself. Probably the best evidence of this are the
ministries that reach both inward to its church family and outward to the
community at large.
IHM first offered a Mass in Spanish in 1977. There are now 300 Hispanic
families registered with the parish. Orlando Caicedo, a native of Colombia,
serves the church as Hispanic pastoral minister, assisting Father Gonzalez.
Caicedo said the Hispanic population at IHM has changed over the past 10 years,
with more families with young children joining the church.
“Many Hispanic people are coming to Atlanta from cities like New York
and Los Angeles because this is a great place to raise strong, moral families
and find good jobs.”
Caicedo said the music at the Masses in Spanish is lively Caribbean-styled
liturgical music with a Latin tempo.
“People who come are moved by the music and the deep messages of our
priests. Every priest here is wonderful and such a gift to us. When people come
to a service here for the first time they leave saying, ‘I love this Mass.
I can see the world more clearly.’”
Sunday services in Spanish are standing room only with as many as 700 people
attending. On Saturday the church fills with families of school-aged children
who attend religious education classes after Mass. While the children are
learning catechism, the adults attend Educación Cristiana de Adultos led
by lay people from a group called Agrupación Católica
Universitaria de Atlanta.
“Basically, the group leads different talks about Catholicism each
week. It helps the parents to be able to better answer their children’s
questions about the church,” said Caicedo.
Religious education at IHM underwent some major changes this past fall.
Religious Education Director Sister Marietta Jansen, ACJ, said, “What
we’re trying to do this year is to get more family participation. We
started a family night program on Sunday evenings and have all the parents and
children come every week. The idea was to get the parents more involved in
their children’s religious education and so far it’s working. The
ones attending really enjoy it. It’s timed so people can attend the 5
o’clock Mass, enjoy a community dinner and then attend class.”
IHM is active in RENEW 2000, has a strong Order of Christian Initiation of
Adults community, offers weekly Bible studies on Tuesday mornings
and Wednesday evenings, and is forming a youth program. Currently the 5 p.m.
Sunday Mass is geared toward youth and eventually the church hopes to support a
Life Teen group.
“Right now it’s a small group and we’re trying to build it
up,” said Sister Jansen. “The youth involved have a wonderful
spirituality that they want to share.”
IHM was the starting point for the Cursillo movement in Atlanta. After three
parishioners from the church attended a Cursillo weekend in Chicago,
representatives from Cursillo there came back to Atlanta to hold the first
retreat in 1965.
“A lot of good people worked together to keep it alive here, including
Father Richard Kieran, our former pastor, and now Cursillo has a life of its
own,” said Bill Kingery, a long-time parishioner.
Led by their pastor, IHM parishioners have a strong sense of social justice
and desire to find ways to support the poorest and most vulnerable in society.
They spend a great deal of time putting their faith to work helping others.
“When I first came to IHM I’d been away from the church for quite
a while,” said Susan Amsden, who heads the church’s AIDS Ministry.
“I went to a returning Catholics class and because of the things I
experienced there, I knew that I wanted to do some kind of social justice. I
think Father Richard Kieran and his vision are what helped me get started. Some
of the things he spoke of, about his sense of responsibility as a Catholic and
a Christian, I connected with. I knew I needed to be involved in a type of
social justice, but I wanted to do it in the context of a church.”
Amsden said the church’s AIDS ministry serves primarily to educate the
parish and school communities about AIDS and to offer volunteer opportunities.
The ministry has arranged for speakers from AID Atlanta to meet with students
at IHM middle school and other groups within the parish.
IHM parishioners help several area shelters with gifts of time and financial
contributions. A group from the church supplies meals for four weeks each year
to Nicholas House, a transitional housing shelter for homeless families located
on nearby LaVista road. The church actively supports the St. Vincent de Paul
Society and a group of parishioners serves weekly meals at Crossroads Community
Ministries (formerly St. Luke’s Soup Kitchen) in Midtown.
“We have a solid group of volunteers who go there every Friday to help
prepare and serve meals,” said Bill Layburn, who coordinates IHM’s
efforts. “This group is terrific. They do it because they want to. They
know what has to be done and start to work as soon as they arrive and continue
until it is time to go.”
Through the Creative Hands, a group of parishioners sew, crochet and knit
items for patients of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cancer Home and other
charities. They also gather clothes and medical supplies for babies with AIDS
in Haiti.
Bob Zimmer works on a commission which is currently identifying various
projects and programs related to social and ecumenical concerns.
“We’re a planning committee that helps identify and establish
goals for the parish as well as helps educate parishioners about the ecumenical
teachings of the church with respect to social justice,” he said.
“Our current thrust is starting a refugee program and working with other
nearby churches in participating in Habitat for Humanity.”
Some of the organizations that fall under the Social and Ecumenical Concerns
Commission are: Atlanta Building Leadership for Empowerment, which seeks to
help the poor and vulnerable through the unity of broad-based faith
communities; the Christian Council of Metro Atlanta, which promotes cooperation
among metro area churches to operate shelters, help refugees and migrant
workers, provides prison ministry and teaches survival skills to new
immigrants; Villa International Atlanta, a ministry of housing and hospitality
by the Christian community for international visitors; the Pro-Life Group; the
Atlanta Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women; and Church Women United.
Parishioner Mary Smith said last year IHM and other nearby churches, that
make up the Toco Hills Ministerial Alliance, were honored at the Christian
Council of Metro Atlanta breakfast for their sponsorship of a community health
fair and quick response to a nearby Jewish synagogue that had been defaced by
vandals.
Smith is also involved with Church Women United, an international group that
locally supports area ministries ranging from education to day care, clothing
to job skills.
“For me, ecumenical service is vital to our faith,” said Smith.
“I’ve always believed that as a family of believers, we are
responsible to give back to God by helping all of his people, especially those
most in need.”
She and Paula Stephens, who coordinates the parish’s meal schedule at
Nicholas House, share a commitment to service like many others in the parish.
Stephens is involved in other aspects of parish life as well. She is a member
of the IHM adult singles group and the traditional choir, which joins at times
with the Hispanic choir for special bilingual services throughout the year.
The diversity of the parish and overwhelming acceptance of each other’s
differences--whether it’s race, socio-economic background or age--is a
drawing card for some.
“There are so many open-minded people here,” said Amsden. “We
have many different nationalities of people who worship here. That’s what
I like best about this parish. My kids get to meet so many different kinds of
people.”
Like the parish, the school has a diverse population.
“You’ll find a great sense of acceptance in the students and
parents,” said Principal Karen Russ, who moved to Atlanta from Kentucky
last year. She pointed out that students in all nine grades learn Spanish and
explore various aspects of Hispanic culture.
The school has a reputation for strong academics and excels in other ways as
well.
“Most schools do a pretty good job of developing the mind,” said
Russ. “Our aim at IHM is to develop the total child, providing for their
many needs. Our teachers are very much aware of their students as individuals
and adjust programs to meet the student. This is especially evident in our
middle school.”
Diane Gilsdorf, assistant to the principal, said that after her children
graduated from IHM School she missed the community so much she wanted to
return.
“One of the reasons I came back to work here is it is a very
family-oriented school. One of the most important things in my life is my
family and this school has become my large, extended family.”
That sentiment is shared by most IHM parishioners about their church--the
long-timers and newcomers as well.
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