Dear Brothers and Sisters,

May I extend a warm Southern welcome to you as a visitor to the Web site of the Catholic Diocese of Savannah.

We are a vibrant community of about 74,000 Catholics covering 37,000 square miles of south Georgia in the United States of America.

Spanish missionaries first brought the faith to the barrier islands of Georgia in the 1500s. The Church thrived for two centuries until the British took over the colony of Georgia in 1733 and outlawed Catholicism.

Following the American Revolutionary War, a band of Maryland pioneers, seeking to better themselves economically, traveled south and established a Catholic community near Sharon, Georgia. The hamlet, consisting of a log church and cemetery was named Locust Grove, Georgia. This small settlement of English-speaking Catholics was soon joined by French, German and Irish Catholics.

Today many cultures, including African Americans, some of whose ancestors came here by way of Haiti, and Vietnamese, who came in the 1970s following the fall of Vietnam to Communism, make up the fabric of our local church.

The Spanish influence, which brought the first wave of Catholic Christianity to Georgia, is felt today with the presence of over 60,000 Hispanic Catholic migrants, residing at varying times within our borders. Increasingly, these families are settling in our communities, bringing their language and customs to many of our churches.

Whether you are an active member of one of our parishes, a Catholic who has drifted away from the faith, or someone just surfing the World Wide Web looking for something of spiritual value, I welcome you to stay a while and get to know us better. If you are not a resident of south Georgia and are ever traveling in our area, please stop by for a visit at one of our parishes.

Whatever route you use to reach us, whether in person or through the marvels of technology, I extend to you the warmth of our Southern hospitality in the name of Jesus Christ.