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BY ERIKA ANDERSON
Staff Writer
ATLANTA--At a topping ceremony for the new Catholic Center at the Atlanta
University Center, students rejoiced in the completion of the roof for the new
building, bringing them one step closer to the completion of the long-awaited
project.
On April 29, students, alumni, supporters and staff of the Catholic Center
gathered on a wet day to give thanks to God for their building, which should be
completed in July. The ceremony included hymns, prayers, Scripture readings and
reflections by members of the Catholic Center, who also imprinted their hands
into poured cement for the building.
Father Edward Branch, chaplain of the Catholic Center at AUC, said that the
topping ceremony was a special event, especially for the students.
“It was a moment for the students to understand and celebrate the fact
that it is real,” he said. “When they come back to school in the fall
they will have the center.”
The new center, which will be named in honor of the late Archbishop James P.
Lyke, OFM, is a $2.1 million project which was designed by architects Stanley
Love-Stanley of Atlanta and built by VT/HCB. Built in the heart of the campus,
the Lyke House sits adjacent to the Robert Woodruff Library on a site acquired
through the purchase of many small, privately owned lots.
Catholic students from the six institutions that make up the AU
Center--Spelman College, Morehouse College, Clark-Atlanta University, Morris
Brown College, Morehouse School of Medicine and Interdenominational Theological
Center, account for approximately seven percent of the population, Father
Branch said. The colleges combined represent the largest center of
African-American scholarship in the world.
The two-story Catholic Center was designed after one of the oldest Catholic
churches in Africa, a chapel in Lalibela, Ethiopia. The Catholic Center will
include a chapel for 230 people, a daily Mass chapel, a library, conference and
meeting rooms, a recreation center where students can relax and meet, a
kitchen, pantry, sacristy, administration area and living quarters for a
priest.
Catholic students at AUC currently meet for study and Mass in a small house
on James P. Brawley Drive. Though they have been in the temporary house much
longer than anticipated, Father Branch said it has been “very fruitful in
a lot of ways,” because the students have been able to develop
relationships with each other.
Father Branch said that the new center will allow for expanded programs for
the students, which will benefit the universal church.
“It’s just so important for the church as a whole,” he said.
“We’re serving the best and brightest from across the country and
they are the ones who are forming the church of today. ...I’m not only
excited about the building, but about the people who are being built.”
Deacon Fred Sambrone, who along with his wife, Connie, has served as
assistant chaplain at the Catholic Center for five years, said that he believes
the new center will attract more students.
“The biggest benefit will be just a place where students can gather for
camaraderie, and a place to gather for worship,” he said. “It will be
nice to have a place on campus, a Catholic church, that the students can be
identified with.”
Deacon Sambrone said that at the topping ceremony he experienced a
“sense of excitement and fullness that this dream is finally coming to a
realization,” and that the students, many of whom served on the building
committee, feel the same way.
“I think the students are feeling excitement and anticipation,” he
said. “They also have tremendous satisfaction just knowing they’ve
had a big part and that their opinions were respected. It’s really a dream
come true for them.”
Father Branch said that his hope for the center is to fulfill the dream of
Archbishop Lyke, a priest who served as a campus minister at Grambling State
University in Louisiana and who wanted a place at AUC where students could draw
spiritual strength, find a healthy self-concept, and learn what it truly means
to be a black Catholic.
“(Archbishop Lyke) wanted it to be their home,” Father Branch
said. “I’m hoping it will become all he wanted it to and that all of
that will come true. I’m certain it will.”
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