|
By Erika Anderson
ATLANTA—Hoping to ease the heavy workload of Father David
Talley, chancellor and director of vocations, Archbishop John F. Donoghue has
named four priests, including Father Tim Hepburn, who will also serve as
chaplain for Blessed Trinity High School in Roswell, as assistant directors of
vocations.
Archbishop Donoghue appointed Father Hepburn, currently pastor at
the Church of St. Gabriel in Fayetteville, to assist Father Talley, effective
June 1. He also formally appointed three other priests, who have been assisting
in vocations work for some time, to promote vocations in various parts of the
world.
Father Luis Zarama, pastor of St. Mark’s Church,
Clarkesville, will recruit new priests in Colombia, South America; Father John
Murphy, pastor of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Atlanta, will travel
to Ireland to promote vocations; and Father Frank Giusta, who is on special
assignment with archdiocesan seminarians in El Paso, Texas, will promote
vocations in Mexico.
  Wherever I have seen the Gospel preached clearly, I
have seen vocations.
Father Tim Hepburn |
|
Father Hepburn, who, since his ordination in 1993, has also served
at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta, St. Joseph’s Church, Athens,
and at St. Gerard’s Church in Fort Oglethorpe, is looking forward to his
position as assistant vocations director. His primary responsibility, he said,
will be recruiting new priests.
“Wherever I have seen the Gospel preached clearly, I have
seen vocations,” he said. “The word ‘recruiting,’ in a way,
is a misnomer because the Holy Spirit is the primary recruiter.”
Father Hepburn said that this new position is an extension of the
work he already does.
“I just have to really get out there and awaken people to the
vocations they have within them and I can do that through things that I love
doing,” he said. “When I look at an assembly of people, my eyes will
be more attuned to the fact that there are callings out there and I will be
helping to ripen that.”
Father Hepburn hopes to ease the overwhelming workload of Father
Talley, who has served as vocations director since 1998 and recently began
serving a dual role as chancellor of the archdiocese.
Father Talley first had the opportunity to work with Father
Hepburn in 1990 during a Sonfest retreat for teenagers and said he believes
Father Hepburn will bring with him that joy for Jesus and the priesthood that
Father Talley first saw in him.
“Father Tim will speak to those discerning lives of
consecrated service, asking them to open their hearts to the joys that await
each disciple,” he said. “(He) will work with the whole presbyterate
and with the three Serra Clubs of Atlanta, to seek out men and women that may
be ready for the call.”
Father Talley is also looking forward to working further with the
other priests in the archdiocese who have already assisted vocations in
invaluable ways.
“Twice each year, Father Zarama travels to his native
Colombia, and talks to the rectors, staff and students of several seminaries
about the great challenges that face the Archdiocese of Atlanta, such as the
earth-shaking growth and the reality of ‘Hispanic’ Atlanta,” he
said. “By God’s grace, his hard work has paid real
dividends—seminarians from Colombia that have committed to be a part of
this archdiocese.”
Father Talley said that recruitment in Colombia had previously
been led by Father Richard Kieran, a priest of the archdiocese for 35 years,
who suffered a brain hemorrhage October 1999, and, following surgery and
lengthy hospitalization, has been in rehabilitative care.
Father Zarama said that he has been recruiting new Colombian
priests for four or five years now.
“It’s important for this archdiocese to have more
priests that speak Spanish,” he said. “It’s almost impossible
right now to respond to the needs of the Hispanic community.”
Father Zarama said that with his official title, he feels more of
a responsibility for his vocations work. He said that it is important for the
seminarians to know that they need to be involved in both Anglo and Hispanic
culture here in Atlanta.
Though vocations from Ireland to the United States are at a low,
Father Talley hopes Father Murphy will encourage new vocations in his home
country.
“Father Murphy assists me with his travels to Ireland,”
Father Talley said. “Though the vocation picture in Ireland seems to be
where it was in the U.S.A. some 10 years ago, Father John will make contacts in
Ireland with the hope of bringing a few more men of Ireland to these
shores.”
Prior to Father Murphy’s work, Father Talley said, Msgr. Don
Kenny, former vocations director, and Father Frank Richardson, pastor of St.
Thomas More Church, Decatur, assisted in these efforts.
Father Murphy said that the goal is to bring at least one or two
seminarians a year from Ireland.
“We have so many Irish priests that it is easy for them to
fit in here,” he said. “The older guys really help the younger guys
starting out to settle into American culture and Georgian culture. There’s
a great support base.”
Father Murphy also said that all the seminarians, by the end of
their formation, would be able to celebrate the Eucharist in Spanish and preach
in Spanish.
“This is really a multicultural type of diocese,” Father
Murphy said. “It’s fantastic that so many new priests are being
ordained, but others are retiring. It’s always growing.”
Working closely with seminarians, Father Giusta will also continue
his vocations work.
Last year the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Diocese of El Paso,
Texas, began a joint work of formation, Father Talley said. The Atlanta-El Paso
Formation Project allows a group of Atlanta’s seminarians to spend eight
weeks of the summer in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. During these eight weeks, the
seminarians have the chance to immerse themselves in the cultures of El Paso
and Juarez, while beginning their study of the Spanish language.
In addition to the eight-week summer project, the archdiocese has
taken responsibility of covering a parish in El Paso with a priest from the
Archdiocese of Atlanta. The idea is to rotate an Atlanta priest to El Paso
every four years, allowing him a full immersion in the language and in the
cultures of that region.
Father Talley said that the hope of this project is to continue to
serve the growing Hispanic population in Atlanta.
“As each priest returns from this rotation, he will be ready
to assume leadership in one of our predominantly Hispanic parishes,” he
said.
Father Giusta has been an important part of the project and in
recruiting new priests from Mexico.
“Father Giusta has been an anchor for this project, in
serving as the first Atlanta priest in El Paso,” Father Talley said.
“He leads the seminarians during their eight-week summer stay.
Additionally, he makes several trips to seminaries in Mexico each year, talking
about the changing reality of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. By God’s grace,
Father Giusta’s hard work has paid dividends. Several young Mexican
candidates want to join us.”
Father Giusta said he is pleased to be, officially, an assistant
director of vocations.
“I think it will be much easier for me because now when I go
to the seminaries, they kind of look at me like ‘who are you?’”
he said. “But now I will go there with a title and with some kind of
recognition. I think it will help.”
Father Giusta said that although it is important to serve the
Hispanic community of North Georgia, the new priests must be willing to serve
all people.
“We want these priests to have the capacity to work with
everyone in the archdiocese. Though their presence in the presbyterate will be
good to serve the growing needs of the Hispanic population, we want them to
serve everyone in the archdiocese,” he said.
Father Talley said he is grateful to Father Dan Stack, pastor of
St. Anna’s Church in Monroe, who, before the inception of the El Paso
Project, worked to recruit Mexican priests for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
|
