Father Larry Goulding—Waynesboro, Ga.
Nothing Going On—But Two Weeks Behind

Father Larry blesses a car for a Hispanic family after Mass in Louisville. Car blessings are a very common practice in Mexico.

“There’s not a whole lot going on here,” Glenmary Father Larry Goulding brusquely claims speaking of his Glenmary parishes in Waynesboro and Louisville, Ga. But in his next breath he says he’s two weeks behind. And hearing about Father Larry’s projects and activities, that two-week lag is understandable.

Since 1998 Father Larry has served as pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Waynesboro and St. Joan of Arc in nearby Louisville. “The churches have been here since about 1960,” he says, “but there’s been Glenmary activity in the area since 1947. Back then they had Masses in garages.”

With just a bit of prodding, one learns about the many things crowding Father Larry’s calendar. Besides nurturing the Catholics in his mission parishes, he belongs to the local ministerial association, tutors elementary school students to improve their academic skills and serves on the board of directors of Even Start, a program that teaches parenting skills to new mothers and helps them learn developmental skills to help their babies.

Throughout his over 45 years of home mission ministry, Father Larry has been instrumental in helping people deepen their faith as well as welcoming new people into the Church through his involvement with the Glenmary Commission on Evangelization, his outreach to the Spanish-speakers who have arrived in south Georgia, and even his involvement in the founding of Camp Glenmary in the 1970s.

Camp Glenmary is a camp in Mississippi which offers week-long camping programs for children of any faith—and no faith—who otherwise would not be able to afford a summer camp. The camp also offers a week of summer camping for only Catholic kids. In addition to all the camping activities, they learn about their faith through the exploration of liturgy, rituals and sacramentals. But perhaps more than anything, they spend a week surrounded by Catholic children just like themselves.

“You don’t hear the term ‘Catholic identity’ much anymore, but we used to hear it a lot,” Father Larry says. “Kids here (in the South) are immersed in public school and don’t spend much time with other Catholic children. Sometimes, in those situations, your Catholicism might get cloudy.”

That same dedication to “Catholic identity” is evident through Father Larry’s position on the Glenmary Commission on Evangelization, which looks for new ways to spread the good news of the gospel and to “encourage people in their spirituality,” Father Larry says. He and other members of the commission have worked to develop parish Web sites for all the Glenmary missions. These sites are designed to reach out to those seeking something more in their lives or help them on their faith journey.

As Spanish-speaking people have moved into south Georgia, Father Larry has helped them maintain their Catholic identity by celebrating Mass in Spanish at St. Joan of Arc Church in Louisville. Although there is no Spanish Mass in Waynesboro, several members of the Hispanic community attend the English Mass where Father Larry, who began studying Spanish a few years ago, reads the gospel in Spanish as well as English. Many of the Spanish-speakers have become active in the Waynesboro mission, including representation on the parish council.
Although many Spanish-speakers first came to south Georgia as migrant workers, families have now settled permanently and found work in agriculture, factories and at a local saw mill.
“Usually the reason they first come to church is to have their children baptized,” Father Larry says. “So that brings in the parents, other kids and the godparents.”

Father Larry at 74 is past the age that many Glenmarians become senior members. But he has set 2006 as the year that he will “retire.”

Father Larry knows, with the shortage of vocations, it would be difficult for Glenmary to replace him with a priest. So he announced his retirement date early so his congregation in Waynesboro could become acclimated to the leadership of a lay pastoral associate. He hired Sue Hinderlider to fill that role.

“She meets with the parish council, and when I’m away she holds communion services. It’s going great,” he says. “She doesn’t agree with me on everything, but she is able to assert herself, and the people have accepted her and her leadership.”

During his years as a mission pastor, Father Larry has enjoyed maintaining church buildings. “I’ve never been in a parish where I haven’t been on the roof or under the floor. That’s my recreation,” he says.

But his greatest enjoyment has been celebrating the liturgy. “I find my spiritual high point in saying Mass,” he says. It’s the ultimate spiritual social event.”

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