and MARIE

POWERS

Special to The Citizen

Holy Trinity

Catholic Church, Peachtree City, dedicated its new educational building

Aug. 18, with the assistance of the Most Reverend John F. Donoghue, Archbishop

of Atlanta. The dedication followed a Mass of Thanksgiving for the parish.

In his comments

Donoghue mentioned that he was on hand last fall for the groundbreaking

and was pleased to be asked to bless its completion.

"The best

thing we can do for our children, the best thing we can do for ourselves

and the world we live in," Donoghue said, "is to hold fast to

our faith and our hope, but also to let faith and hope move us to charity.

And how better can this love be expressed than in teaching in teaching

our children especially that the only foundation upon which one can successfully

build life is the foundation of Jesus Christ."

Fr. John Walsh,

pastor of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, concelebrated the Mass along with

parochial vicars Fr. Dave McGuinness and Fr. Joseph Shaute. They were

joined by Fr. Kevin Peek, former parochial vicar and current pastor of

Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Decatur; Fr. Paul Burke, chaplain

of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School in Fairburn; Fr. Dan Fleming,

pastor of St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Mission in Sharpsburg; and Fr. Paul

Bolton, Catholic chaplain at Fort McPherson and the local Knights of Columbus

district.

Following the

dedication, Fr. Walsh noted, "This is a great evening for us. It's

been a long journey, and many, many people have walked with us and helped

us along the way. I really believe this has been a labor of love and,

as our fundraising campaign proclaimed, we are doing the work of the Lord."

In his homily

during the Mass, Archbishop Donoghue commented on the work that had been

completed by Holy Trinity's parishioners, who raised more than $3 million

through a multi-year pledge drive to fund the Education Building and other

improvements to the parish grounds.

The congregation

first met in April, 1973, and entered its first sanctuary in December,

1980. There are currently 3,129 families who call Holy Trinity their home

church.

A rectory was

built last year which houses four priests, including the parochial vicar

of the new Our Lady of Mercy High School.

The 26,000

square-foot educational building houses a large multi-purpose room with

kitchen that will be used for large gatherings and for the parish's active

Life Teen Ministry, an adult formation room that will support Holy Trinity's

growing adult faith formation program, a chapel that can be used for small

prayer services and Eucharistic Adoration, offices and 13 large class

rooms for the Parish School of Religion which serves more than 800 children

in elementary school and 400 in middle and high school, and a teen drop-in

area, for students at McIntosh High School.

The church

has just purchased the medical building on the hill behind the rectory.

Construction

overseer Philip Browning Jr. said "That's going to be it for the

present time. Our next project is a larger sanctuary, but those plans

are several years away."

Nearly 1,000

members were on hand for the dedication.

Information

about Holy Trinity can be obtained at 770-487-7672.

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