Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta

Like most of the American colonies, the British Province of Georgia enacted laws to bar Catholic settlement. After the American Revolution and the enactment of the US Constitution, the restrictions on Catholics in Georgia ended.[3] The Vatican in 1784 created the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States, removing the small population of American Catholics from the jurisdiction of the church hierarchy in Great Britain.[4]

Five years later, in 1789, the Vatican converted the prefecture into the Diocese of Baltimore, with jurisdiction over the entire United States.[5] The first Catholic presence in north Georgia was a log cabin mission church in Locust Grove, build in 1800 by a small group of Catholic settlers from Maryland.[6]

The Vatican erected the Diocese of Charleston in 1820, covering Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.[7] The first Catholic church in Atlanta, Immaculate Conception, was dedicated in 1848.[6]

The Vatican in 1850 established the Diocese of Savannah, with jurisdiction over Georgia and most of Florida.[1][8] By the start of the American Civil War in 1860, there were approximately 4,000 Catholics in Georgia. In 1864, General William T. Sherman entered Atlanta with the Union Army. His military campaign had been characterized by the burning of towns in Georgia. Reverend Thomas O’Reilly met with Sherman and convinced him to spare not only the Catholic Immaculate Conception Church, but four Protestant churches as well.[3]

In 1880, the first Catholic infirmary opened in Atlanta, later to become Saint Joseph Hospital.[6] In 1937, in recognition of the economic and population growth of Atlanta, Pope Pius XI renamed the Diocese of Savannah as the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta.[8]

On July 2, 1956, Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Atlanta, taking northern Georgia from what now became the Diocese of Savannah .[1] The pope designated the Co-Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta as the cathedral church of the new diocese and named Auxiliary Bishop Francis Hyland of Savannah-Atlanta as the first bishop.[1][9]Hyland retired in 1961 due to poor health.

On February 10, 1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the Diocese of Atlanta to the Archdiocese of Atlanta. He designated the Dioceses of Savannah, Charleston and Raleigh, along with the Territorial Abbey of Mary Help of Christians in North Carolina, as its suffragans [1] The pope named Bishop Paul Hallinan of Charleston as the first archbishop of Atlanta.[10]

Hallinan's first act as archbishop was to order the racial integration of all Catholic institutions under his jurisdiction.[11] He also sent priests and nuns to Alabama to participate in the Selma to Montgomery marches with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Hallian encouraged Atlanta Catholics to open their neighborhoods "so Negroes can exercise the right of every American to live where he wishes."[11]

During his six years as archbishop, Hallinan opened several churches and missions, as well as the John Lancaster Spalding Catholic Center at the University of Georgia. He moved St. Joseph's Boys Home from Washington, Georgia, to Atlanta and renamed it the Village of St. Joseph, for both boys and girls. He also established The Georgia Bulletin, the weekly archdiocesan newspaper.[12] Hallinan died in 1968.

The second archbishop of Atlanta was Thomas Donnellan from the Diocese of Ogdensburg, named by Pope Paul VI in 1968.[13] During his 19-year tenure, the number of Catholics in north Georgia rose from 50,000 in 1968 to over 133,000 by 1987. In 1970, Donnellan barred new enrollments in the archdiocese's Catholic schools. At that time, many parents were pulling their children out of local public school systems. In 1971, Pope Paul VI erected the Diocese of Charlotte, making it another suffragan diocese of Atlanta.[5] Six years later, Paul VI removed the suffragan status of the Territorial Abbey of Mary Help of Christian.[14] These actions established the present configuration of the Metropolitan Province of Atlanta. Donnellan died in 1987.

In 1988, Pope John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop Eugene Marino of the Archdiocese of Washington as archbishop of Atlanta, the first African American Catholic archbishop.[1] However, in August 1990 Vickie Long, a lay minister in the archdiocese, stated that she and Marino were married and had been in a sexual relationship for the previous two years.[15] The Vatican forced Marino to resign as archbishop in July 1990.[1]

To replace Marino, John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop James Lyke of the Diocese of Cleveland in 1991 as the next archbishop of Atlanta.[16][17] However, Lyke died in 1992. The pope then selected Bishop John Donoghue from the Diocese of Charlotte to serve as archbishop.[18] On taking office, Donoghue started building more schools to accommodate the growing population of the archdiocese. He also provided more Spanish-speaking priests for the increased Hispanic population.[19]

The archdiocese in September 2003 sued the Capilla de la Fe (Chapel of the Faith) network of churches in Atlanta to bar them from claiming to be Catholic. The archdiocese said the Capilla de la Fe churches were duping new Hispanic immigrants into thinking they were attending an archdiocese church.[20] A judge in October 2003 permanently banned Capilla de la Fe from calling itself Catholic.[21]

In April 2004, Donoghue sent an edict to the priests in the archdiocese forbidding women from performing the traditional foot washing ceremony on Holy Thursday.[22] When Donoghue retired in 2004, John Paul II appointed Bishop Wilton Gregory from the Diocese of Belleville as archbishop of Atlanta.[23] In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI named Luis Zarama as the second auxiliary bishop of Atlanta.[24]

In 2010, the archdiocese said that the population of Catholics in the archdiocese had grown from 30,840 in 1960 to 292,300 in 1998 to 900,000 in 2010.[25] The increase was fueled by Catholics moving to Atlanta from other states and nations, and from newcomers to the church.[2][26] About 11 percent of all metropolitan Atlanta residents were Catholic.

In 2013, David Talley was installed as an additional auxiliary bishop of Atlanta.[27][28] In 2014, Gregory stated that the archdiocese would not allow guns in its churches, except for military and civil service personnel who were required to have them.[29][30][31] Gregory said that carrying guns in churches places vulnerable individuals, such as children, the disabled, and the elderly, at risk.[30][31]

In 2014, Gregory was criticized[32] after the archdiocese used $2.2 million from a bequest to build a new archbishop's residence in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. The residence was also designed to also serve as a banquet and conference facility.[33][lower-alpha 1] Gregory later apologized to parishioners of the archdiocese, saying that he had "failed to consider the impact on the families throughout the Archdiocese who, though struggling to pay their mortgages, utilities, tuition and other bills, faithfully respond year after year to my pleas to assist with funding our ministries and services". He announced that the archdiocese would sell the residence, although he had moved into it only three months earlier.[33][38][39] Later in 2014, the archdiocese sold the Buckhead property for $2.6 million, and Gregory moved into a more modest home, purchased for $440,000, in Smyrna.[40]

In 2018, a group of Catholics petitioned Gregory to remove the so-called "pro-LGBT" Monsignor Henry Gracz of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Atlanta from his position as a spiritual advisor to victims of sexual abuse. The group accused Gracz of contravening Catholic teaching. Gregory declined the petition, saying, "Msgr. Gracz is following the admonition of Pope Francis to accompany people on the periphery of society. His priestly heart is not closed to those who find themselves misunderstood or rejected."[41] In 2019, Gregory became archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington.[42]

Pope Francis appointed Bishop Gregory Hartmayer from Savannah as the next archbishop of Atlanta in 2020.[43] In 2021, a former archdiocesan employee, Mary Elkins, sued the archdiocese, claiming that she had been terminated due to age discrimination and her health issues.[44]

As of 2023, Hartmeyer is the current archbishop of Atlanta.

Kenneth Joseph Cassity, a youth worker at the Church of St. Ann in Marietta, pleaded guilty in 2003 to fondling two brothers between 1999 and 2000 at the church rectory. Cassity was sentenced to three years in prison.[45] The Archdiocese of Atlanta settled a lawsuit brought by the boys' parents in 2003 for $10 million. The lawsuit revealed that St. Ann had been warned about Cassity a year before the abuse happened.[46]

In December 2018, a former altar boy filed a lawsuit against the archdiocese, alleging that it shielded a priest who sexually abused him. The plaintiff accused Reverend Douglas Edwards Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Dalton of abusing him during the 1970s.[47] Edwards allegedly molested the plaintiff eight to 10 times, The plaintiff said that Edwards would frequently bring boys to his house on Lake Allatoona in Acworth. Edwards died in 1997.[48]

In November 2018, the archdiocese released a list of 15 clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors since 1956.[49] A second review of sexual abuse allegations in the archdiocese was completed by the Prosecuting Attorney's Council of Georgia in March 2023. The report listed 25 archdiocesan priests with credible accusations.[50]

Francis Edward Hyland (1956–1962)

1. Paul John Hallinan (1962–1968)
2. Thomas Andrew Donnellan (1968–1987)
3. Eugene Antonio Marino (1988–1990)
4. James Patterson Lyke (1991–1992)
5. John Francis Donoghue (1993–2004)
6. Wilton Daniel Gregory (2004–2019), appointed archbishop of Washington (elevated to cardinal in 2020)
7. Gregory John Hartmayer (2020–present)

• Joseph Bernardin (1966–1968), appointed general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; later appointed archbishop of Cincinnati and archbishop of Chicago (elevated to cardinal in 1983)
• Luis Rafael Zarama (2009–2017), appointed bishop of Raleigh
• David Talley (2013–2016), appointed Bishop of Alexandria; later appointed bishop of Memphis in 2019
• Bernard Shlesinger (2017–present)
• Joel Matthias Konzen (2018–present)
• John Nhàn Trần (2023–present)

Eusebius J. Beltran (1960-1978), appointed bishop of Tulsa; later appointed archbishop of Oklahoma City in 1993

• Holy Spirit Preparatory School – Atlanta and Sandy Springs campuses (independent)
• Notre Dame Academy – Duluth (independent)
• Pinecrest Academy – Cumming (independent)
• St. Johns The Evangelist Catholic School – Hapeville[53]

Marist School – Brookhaven (independent)

• Blessed Trinity Catholic High School – Roswell
• Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School – Atlanta (independent)
• Monsignor Walter J. Donovan High School – Athens (independent)
• St. Mary's Academy – Fayette
• St. Pius X Catholic High School – DeKalb County[53]

Our Lady of Mercy – Fayetteville (closed 2022)