We, the faithful of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, are a people of prayer, love and joy who are dedicated to the salvation of all. As disciples and believers in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we proclaim the good news and grow in faith, hope, love, and service to others. We are unified in our commitment to sacramental life, pastoral care, and life-long formation in our Roman Catholic faith. We express our love through evangelization, fellowship, Catholic education, social services and charity in the full pursuit of effective discipleship.
The Catholic population in North Georgia can trace its beginnings to a simple
log church in Locust Grove where a small group of faithful worshiped in 1792.
Since then the population has experienced steady growth. It was in 1850 that
Catholics in Georgia and parts of Florida became a new diocese, the Diocese
of Savannah. By the time of the Civil War there were 4,000 Catholics in
Georgia alone, with parishes in Atlanta, Savannah, Macon, Columbus and Locust
Grove.
After the war, along with the growth of the city of Atlanta, came a growth
in the Catholic population. The first Catholic church in Atlanta, the Shrine
of the Immaculate Conception, built in 1849, was used as a hospital during the
Civil War. Sacred Heart Parish was next established in 1880 when Atlanta only
had 37,409 souls. In the same year the Sisters of Mercy opened an infirmary
on Baker Street which later became St. Joseph's Hospital. St. Anthony's Church
opened in 1903, adding a school in 1912, the same year that Our Lady of Lourdes
Church opened.
The Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta
In 1936, the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta was established and the Cathedral
of Christ the King on Peachtree Street was erected. Bishop
Gerald P. O'Hara (b.1895-d.1963), appointed Bishop of Savannah in 1935,
was the last Bishop to serve the faithful of the entire state of Georgia.
The Diocese of Atlanta
The Diocese of Atlanta was established in 1956 when the northern 71 counties
of Georgia were separated from the Diocese of Savannah and assigned to the new
diocese giving the state two dioceses. The number was later reduced to 69 when
two counties were returned to the jurisdiction of the Savannah Diocese. At
the time, the Diocese of Atlanta, which covered 23,000 square miles, numbered
23,600 Catholics in 23 parishes and 12 missions. The total population in the
region totaled 1,800,000. The first Bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta was Francis
E. Hyland (b.1901, d.1968), who had first served as Auxiliary Bishop of
Savannah since 1949. He began his service to the new diocese as the city of
Atlanta and the Catholic population of the area was experiencing rapid growth.
Bishop Hyland resigned in 1961.
The Archdiocese of Atlanta
On February 21, 1962 the Diocese of Atlanta was elevated to the status of
Archdiocese, becoming the center of an Ecclesiastical Province which included
the states of Georgia, North and South Carolina and Florida. (Florida
was detached in 1969 to become the Province of Miami). That year the Catholic
population of the diocese numbered 32,000 out of a total population of 2,152,000.
When the
Diocese of Atlanta became the Archdiocese of Atlanta, the ecclesiastical
Province of Atlanta came into being as well.
The Archbishops
Paul J. Hallinan (b.
1911, d. 1968), Bishop of Charleston, S.C., was named the first Archbishop of
Atlanta. During the last two years of his life, Archbishop Hallinan was assisted
by Auxiliary Bishop Joseph L. Bernardin, who subsequently became Cardinal-Archbishop
of Chicago.
Since Archbishop Hallinan’s reign, the Archdiocese has been served by
five succeeding archbishops. Thomas
A. Donnellan (b.1914, d.1987) was Archbishop
from 1968 until his death. Eugene A.
Marino (b.1934, d.2000), the first black
Archbishop in the United States, served from 1988 to 1990. James
P. Lyke (b.1939,
d.1992) was installed as Archbishop in 1991 and died the following year. John
Francis Donoghue (b.1928, d.2011) was appointed the fifth Archbishop of Atlanta in 1993 and served until his retirement in 2004.
Archbishop Wilton D.
Gregory, S.L.D. (b. 1947) was appointed sixth Archbishop of Atlanta on
December 9, 2004 and was installed on January 17, 2005. He was ordained a Catholic
priest at the Archdiocese of Chicago on May 9, 1973. He was then ordained a
Bishop in 1983. Bishop Gregory was installed as the Seventh Bishop of Belleville
in 1994, following ten years as Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago. In 2001, Bishop
Gregory was elected President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,
following three years as Vice President under Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of the
Diocese of Galveston-Houston.
The Archdiocese Today
Since the beginning of Archbishop Gregory’s tenure in Atlanta, four
additional parishes have been organized for a total of 101, while the Catholic
population of the Archdiocese has risen to over 650,000. The oldest operating
parish in the archdiocese, established in 1845, is Saint Joseph in Washington,
Georgia. The oldest Catholic church still standing is Sacred Heart in Milledgeville,
Georgia, which was built in 1874.
Edited by Archivist Carolyn S. Denton, August 27, 2008
History of the Archdiocese of Atlanta