The Archdiocese of Atlanta () is a

Latin Church The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...

ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or

archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

, of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in northern Georgia in United States. The archdiocese is led by a prelate

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

, who also serves as pastor of the

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...

, the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta.''The Archdiocese of Atlanta: A history'', Strasbourg, France: Editions du Signe, Archdiocese of Atlanta, 2006. As of 2023, the archbishop of Atlanta is Gregory Hartmayer,

O.F.M. Conv. The Order of Friars Minor Conventual (O.F.M. Conv.) is a male religious fraternity in the Catholic Church and a branch of the Franciscan Order. Conventual Franciscan Friars are identified by the affix O.F.M. Conv. after their names. They are ...

Territory

The Archdiocese of Atlanta covers 69 counties in northern Georgia. The cathedral is the

metropolitan see Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ...

of the Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Atlanta, which covers Georgia, South Carolina, and

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. It includes the following suffragan dioceses: *

Diocese of Savannah The Diocese of Savannah () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in southern Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia in the United States.

* Diocese of Charleston *

Diocese of Raleigh The Diocese of Raleigh () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church that covers eastern North Carolina in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archbis ...

Diocese of Charlotte The Diocese of Charlotte () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in western North Carolina in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Atlanta. The Diocese of Char ...

In 2020, the archdiocese included 102 parishes and missions with 1,200,000 registered Catholics.

History

1776 to 1850

Like most of the American colonies, the British Province of Georgia enacted laws to bar Catholic settlement. After the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

and the enactment of the

US Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constitut ...

, the restrictions on Catholics in Georgia ended. 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. Five years later, in 1789, the Vatican converted the prefecture into the

Diocese of Baltimore The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore () is the archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in northern and western Maryland, western Maryland in the United States. It is the Metropolis (religious jurisdiction)#Western Catholic Ch ...

, with jurisdiction over the entire United States. The first Catholic presence in north Georgia was a log cabin mission church in Locust Grove, built in 1800 by a small group of Catholic settlers from

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

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

1850 to 1956

The Vatican in 1850 established the

Diocese of Savannah The Diocese of Savannah () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in southern Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia in the United States.

, with jurisdiction over Georgia and most of Florida. By the start of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

in 1860, there were approximately 4,000 Catholics in Georgia. In 1864, General

William T. Sherman William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is ...

entered Atlanta with the Union Army. His military campaign had been characterized by the burning of towns in Georgia. Reverend Thomas O’Reilly, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Atlanta, met with Sherman and convinced him to spare not only his church, but four Protestant churches as well. In 1880, the first Catholic infirmary opened in Atlanta, later to become Saint Joseph Hospital. In 1937, in recognition of the economic and population growth of Atlanta,

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI (; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, ; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State u ...

renamed the Diocese of Savannah as the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta.

1956 to 1963

On July 2, 1956,

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

erected the Diocese of Atlanta, taking northern Georgia from what now became the Diocese of Savannah . 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. Hyland retired in 1961 due to poor health. On February 10, 1962,

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963. He is the most recent pope to take ...

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 The pope named Bishop Paul Hallinan of Charleston as the first archbishop of Atlanta.

1963 to 1988

Hallinan's first act as archbishop was to order the

racial integration Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation), leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of Race (classification of human beings), race, and t ...

of all Catholic institutions under his jurisdiction. He also sent priests and nuns to Alabama to participate in the

Selma to Montgomery marches The Selma to Montgomery marches were three Demonstration (protest), protest marches, held in 1965, along the highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery. The marches were organized by Nonviolence, nonvi ...

with the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., ...

. Hallian encouraged Atlanta Catholics to open their neighborhoods "so Negroes can exercise the right of every American to live where he wishes." 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 The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

. He moved St. Joseph's Boys Home from

Washington, Georgia Washington is the county seat of Wilkes County, Georgia, United States. Under its original name, Heard's Fort, it was for a brief time during the American Revolutionary War the Georgia state capital. It is noteworthy as the place where the Co ...

, to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

and renamed it the Village of St. Joseph, for both boys and girls. He also established ''The Georgia Bulletin'', the weekly archdiocesan newspaper. Hallinan died in 1968. The second archbishop of Atlanta was Thomas Donnellan from the

Diocese of Ogdensburg The Diocese of Ogdensburg () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in the North Country region of New York State in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Archd ...

, named by

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

in 1968. During Donnellan's 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 due to opposition to

racial desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

. In 1971, Paul VI erected the

, making it another suffragan diocese of Atlanta. Six years later, Paul VI removed the suffragan status of the Territorial Abbey of Mary Help of Christian. These actions established the present configuration of the Metropolitan Province of Atlanta. Donnellan died in 1987.

1988 to 2010

In 1988,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

named Auxiliary Bishop

Eugene Marino Eugene Antonio Marino, SSJ (May 29, 1934 – November 12, 2000) was an American Catholic prelate who served as archbishop of Atlanta from 1988 until 1990. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 19 ...

of the

Archdiocese of Washington In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

as archbishop of Atlanta, the first

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

Catholic archbishop. 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. The Vatican forced Marino to resign as archbishop in July 1990. To replace Marino, John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop James Lyke of the Diocese of Cleveland in 1991 as the next archbishop of Atlanta. However, Lyke died in 1992. The pope then selected Bishop John Donoghue from the

to serve as archbishop. 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. 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 archdiocesan church. A judge in October 2003 permanently banned ''Capilla de la Fe'' from calling itself Catholic. 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 Maundy Thursday, also referred to as Holy Thursday, or Thursday of the Lord's Supper, among other names,The day is also known as Great and Holy Thursday, Holy and Great Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Sheer Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries. is ...

. When Donoghue retired in 2004, John Paul II appointed Bishop Wilton Gregory from the Diocese of Belleville as archbishop of Atlanta. In 2009,

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

named Luis Zarama as the second auxiliary bishop of Atlanta.

2010 to present

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. The increase was fueled by Catholics moving to Atlanta from other states and nations, and from newcomers to the church. About 11 percent of all metropolitan Atlanta residents were Catholic. The archdiocese in 2011 received half of the literary rights to the 1939 novel ''Gone With the Wind''. The donor was the estate of Joseph Mitchell, the nephew of author Margaret Mitchell.The novel and its film version had been criticized for its depiction of African-Americans. In 2013, Monsignor David Talley was installed as an auxiliary bishop of Atlanta. 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. Gregory said that carrying guns in churches places vulnerable individuals, such as children, the disabled, and the elderly, at risk. In 2014, Gregory was criticized 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. 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. 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 Smyrna ( ; , or ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna ...

. 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." In 2019, Gregory became archbishop of the

. Pope Francis appointed Bishop Gregory Hartmayer from Savannah as the next archbishop of Atlanta in 2020. In 2021, a former archdiocesan employee, Mary Elkins, sued the archdiocese, claiming that she had been terminated due to

age discrimination Ageism, also called agism in American English, is a type of discrimination based on one's age, generally used to refer to age-based discrimination against elderly people. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe this discrim ...

and her health issues.As of 2023, Hartmeyer is the current archbishop of Atlanta.

Reports of sexual abuse

Kenneth Joseph Cassity, a youth worker at the Church of St. Ann in Marietta, pleaded guilty in 2003 to fondling two young brothers between 1999 and 2000 at the church

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

. Cassity was sentenced to three years in prison. The archdiocese 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. In December 2018, a former

altar boy An altar server is a lay assistant to a member of the clergy during a Christian liturgy. An altar server attends to supporting tasks at the altar such as fetching and carrying, ringing the altar bell, helping bring up the gifts, and bringing up ...

filed a lawsuit against the archdiocese, alleging that it shielded a priest who sexually abused him. The plaintiff accused Reverend Douglas Edwards of Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in

Dalton Dalton may refer to: Science * Dalton (crater), a lunar crater * Dalton (program), chemistry software * Dalton (unit) (Da), a.k.a. unified atomic mass unit * John Dalton, chemist, physicist and meteorologist * 12292 Dalton, an asteroid Ent ...

of abusing him during the 1970s. Edwards allegedly molested the plaintiff eight to 10 times, The plaintiff said that Edwards would frequently bring boys to his house on

Lake Allatoona Lake Allatoona (officially called Allatoona Lake) is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Etowah River in northwestern part of the State of Georgia. This reservoir is mostly in southeastern Bartow County and southwestern Cherokee C ...

in Acworth. Edwards died in 1997. In November 2018, the archdiocese released a list of 15 clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors since 1956. 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.

Bishops

Bishop of Atlanta

Francis Edward Hyland (1956–1962)

Archbishops of Atlanta

# Paul John Hallinan (1962–1968) # Thomas Andrew Donnellan (1968–1987) #

Eugene Antonio Marino Eugene Antonio Marino, SSJ (May 29, 1934 – November 12, 2000) was an American Catholic prelate who served as archbishop of Atlanta from 1988 until 1990. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 1 ...

(1988–1990) #

James Patterson Lyke James Patterson Lyke, O.F.M. (February 18, 1939 – December 27, 1992) was an African-American Catholic prelate who served as archbishop of Atlanta from 1991 to 1992. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland ...

(1991–1992) # John Francis Donoghue (1993–2004) #

Wilton Daniel Gregory Wilton Daniel Gregory Jr. (born December 7, 1947) is an Catholic Church in the United States, American Catholic prelate who served as Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, archbishop of Washington from 2019 to 2025. Pope Francis made him a ...

(2004–2019), appointed archbishop of Washington (elevated to

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

in 2020) # Gregory John Hartmayer (2020–present)

Auxiliary Bishops of Atlanta

Joseph Bernardin Joseph Louis Bernardin (April 2, 1928 – November 14, 1996) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Cincinnati from 1972 until 1982, and as Archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death from pancreatic cancer. B ...

(1966–1968), appointed general secretary of the

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 2001 after the merger of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Co ...

; later appointed

archbishop of Cincinnati The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cincinnati () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church that covers all of the dioceses in the State of Ohio. As of 2025, the archbishop of Cincinnati is Robert Casey. T ...

and

archbishop of Chicago The Archdiocese of Chicago () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church located in Northeast Illinois, Northeastern Illinois, in the United States. The Vatican erected it as a diocese in 1843 and e ...

(elevated to

in 1983) * Luis Rafael Zarama (2009–2017), appointed bishop of Raleigh * David Talley (2013–2016), appointed

Bishop of Alexandria The Patriarch of Alexandria is the archbishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Historically, this office has included the designation "pope" (etymologically "Father", like "Abbot"). The Alexandrian episcopate was revered as one of the three major episc ...

; later appointed bishop of Memphis in 2019 *

Bernard Shlesinger Bernard Edward "Ned" Shlesinger III (born December 17, 1960) is an Catholic Church in the United States, American Catholic prelate who has served as an auxiliary bishop for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta, Archdiocese of Atlanta sin ...

(2017–present) * Joel Matthias Konzen (2018–present) * John Nhàn Trần (2023–present)

Other archdiocesan priests who became bishops

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

Schools

As of 2023, the total enrollment in Catholic schools in the archdiocese was 10,555 students. As of 2025, the superintendent of the archdiocesan school system was Patty Childs.

Kindergarten through grade 12 schools

Holy Spirit Preparatory School Holy Spirit Preparatory School (abbreviated HSP) is an independent, Roman Catholic preparatory school located in Atlanta and Sandy Springs, Georgia. It was originally established in 1996 as Donnellan School. Location and administration Pre-K4 ...

– Atlanta and

Sandy Springs Sandy Springs is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States, and a suburb of Atlanta. The city's population was 108,080 at the 2020 census, making it Georgia's 7th most populous city. It is the site of several corporate headquar ...

campuses (independent) * Notre Dame Academy – Duluth (independent) * Pinecrest Academy – Cumming (independent) * St. Mary's Academy — Fayetteville (archdiocesan); formerly Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School

Grade 7 through 12 school

Marist School – Brookhaven (independent)

High schools

Blessed Trinity Catholic High School Blessed Trinity Catholic High School, also known as Blessed Trinity or, informally BT, is an Archdiocesan Catholic high school in Roswell, Georgia, United States, a northern suburb of Atlanta. The multi-level curriculum provides Advanced Placeme ...

– Roswell * Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School – Atlanta (independent) * Monsignor Walter J. Donovan High School – Athens (independent) * St. Mary's Academy – Fayetteville; formerly Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School * St. Pius X Catholic High School – DeKalb County

''The Georgia Bulletin''

The ''Georgia Bulletin'', the official newspaper of the archdiocese, was established in 1963. It is published weekly (except for the months of June, July and August, when it is published monthly).

Notes

References

External links

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Official Site
*
Places of traditional Catholic masses St Pius V of Atlanta
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atlanta

Archdiocese of Atlanta The Archdiocese of Atlanta () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in northern Georgia in United States. The archdiocese is led by a prelate archbishop, who also serves as pastor of the mother chu ...

Christian organizations established in 1962 Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 20th century Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States 1962 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Christianity in Atlanta