Print Issue: January 9, 2003

Spirit Calls Some To Priesthood At Georgia Tech Catholic Center

Chris Wieczorek, left, outgoing president of the Georgia Tech Catholic Center, chats with Father Mario DiLella, OFM, campus chaplain, over doughnuts and coffee following Sunday morning Mass. Wieczorek is a senior electrical engineering major at the school. Incoming president is Josh Gillespie. (Photos by Michael Alexander) (L-r) Kristen Babst and her parents Lisa and Glenn pray during the Sunday liturgy after coming up for the weekend from Marco Island, Fla., to visit Glenn Jr. and take in a Georgia Tech football game. Glenn Jr. is a sophomore majoring in aerospace engineering. Father Mario DiLella, OFM, recently celebrated his 32nd anniversary as chaplain of the Georgia Tech Catholic Center, Atlanta. In the past three years the priest has seen a 50 percent increase in daily Mass attendance.

By Will Thomas, Staff Intern

ATLANTA - As future aerospace engineers, environmentalists and biomedical scientists converge in the classrooms of Georgia Tech, it may seem incongruous to think that someone carrying a 4-inch physics book might become a priest. But it's not.

In the past 32 years, Georgia Tech has produced 21 priests - a record number in the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

"I think it's great. The Spirit works in all places and I think it is a blessing," said Father Mario DiLella, OFM, who has overseen this university's Catholic Center since 1970.

Approximately 18-19 percent of the 13,000-member Tech student body is Catholic.

While the minds of these students are extremely intricate and complex, their faith and the way they go about it is not. They look to create community and faith development by one of the simplest approaches in campus ministry: Mass.

Father DiLella credits the Mass and prayer life of the community for inspiring men to priesthood.

"The Holy Spirit moves them. I pray for them, pray with them, but you have to believe it's the Holy Spirit . . . We are a praying community."

Many priests working in the Atlanta Archdiocese received their calling while attending Georgia Tech, including Father Jimmy Adams, Father Theodore Book, Father Terence Crone, Father Kevin Hargaden and Father Augustine Tran. The Tech Catholic Center has also fostered priestly vocations for other dioceses and for religious orders.

"Dominicans, Benedictines, other dioceses," Father DiLella said, but not one Franciscan, his order. "Can you believe it?"

Father Crone, a 1992 graduate, said there that were about five students considering the priesthood while he was at Tech, and they would all take some time off after Mass to pray about their calling. Father Crone applied to the priesthood while at Tech, but was advised to wait three years before he entered the seminary.

"One of the biggest influences was Father Mario," said Father Crone. "He was very supportive of the students and their spirituality. We would even have evening prayer dedicated to our vocation calling."

Tech students, both graduate and undergraduate, keep the center and its ministries running. A 12-member council is responsible for coordinating each area, including lectors, eucharistic ministers, greeters and musicians for Mass, finance, public relations, recreation, building and grounds, special programs, retreats, social activities and outreach.

While a student, Father Crone served as a eucharistic minister and teacher and helped balance the books at the Catholic Center, Father DiLella said.

Father Book set up the computer system at the Catholic Center, while Father Hargaden, a 1994 math graduate, was president of the Catholic Center and served as a lector and eucharistic minister. While Father Tran received his master's in aerospace engineering, he was also learning how to pray the Liturgy of the Hours from Father DiLella.

The Tech Catholic Center, established in the 1940s, has always been a ministry of the Franciscans. Father DiLella has spent the majority of his 50 years as a Franciscan priest there. He has also celebrated many marriages there.

While the students use methods such as Ohm's and Newton's law to approach electricity and magnetism, their method of campus ministry is simpler. They have no "canned" response to the question of their mission, because according to Chris Wieczorek, outgoing Catholic Center president, it's pretty straightforward.

"If I had to give a mission, it would be fundamentally growing souls, growing lives and growing the faith, but other than that we don't have any fixed mission," said Wieczorek, a senior majoring in electrical engineering.

Although they don't have a "fixed mission," the students at the Catholic Center work hard at giving their peers an opportunity to grow spiritually. They hold Bible study every Monday at 7 p.m. and feed the homeless at St. Francis Table at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception near the Capitol every Saturday morning. They volunteer at night shelters, the Atlanta Food Bank and Habitat for Humanity.

About 26 or more provide music at one of the four weekend Masses, playing everything from piano, saxophone or clarinet to flute, violin and cello, Father DiLella said.

They have a variety of social activities, including parties and dinners, they hold retreats, and have intramural sports teams. However, daily Mass at the Catholic Center is what the ministry emphasizes.

"Daily Mass is the most important thing we do here, it's the essential function of the church . . . Without that, where would we be?" said Wieczorek.

In the past three years, daily Mass attendance has grown by 50 percent. They average about 40 people at Mass and Father DiLella feels that it has been a great plus for the center.

"It is great because this is a strictly sacramental ministry, looking to create communities, trying to bring love, and really being a close-knit family," he said.

A part of the center's motto is that they "minister to all, regardless of their religious affiliation or lack thereof." Graduate student Nick Price said he has truly enjoyed his experience at the center.

"I guess just being in a new city and a new school, it is refreshing to have a place where you are welcomed, and where people make you feel as if you were at home," said Price.

The Catholic Center building, completed in 1985 after decades in which the ministry moved from place to place on the campus, gives the students many opportunities to gather in faith and community. It has a worship space for 300 people, a full kitchen, study room, recreational room and a Blessed Sacrament chapel.

They are reaching out actively to Georgia State students living in new dorms adjacent to Tech.

"I think this place is a great benefit. This building is core to the ministry here because you have a fixed place that holds daily Mass, a Blessed Sacrament chapel, a place to study and a place where you find the cheapest cooks on campus," said Wieczorek.

"We have a very active community - tremendous kids," Father DiLella said. "I am the luckiest priest, the most fortunate priest in the whole world. God's given me a wonderful family here."

The Catholic Center at Georgia Tech is located on the campus at 172 Fourth St., NW, Atlanta. Every weekday except Wednesday, Mass is celebrated at 5:30 p.m. On Wednesday, a rosary devotion is held. On weekends during the school year, Mass is celebrated at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and at 10 and 11:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. For information call (404) 892-6759.