Bishop Francis Hyland, the first Bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta, founded Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in 1958. Reverend Monsignor Cornelius Maloney was named the first pastor and he quickly set out to build the original church, the rectory and the school.

Over the years our parish naturally grew as Atlanta grew and the original buildings needed to be enlarged and modernized. For more than sixty years, IHM has been a diverse and loving Catholic community unified by its mission to continue the work of Jesus Christ through worship, education and service.
 

Albert W. Jowdy, a North Carolina native, has called North Georgia home since 1966. He studied philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and theology at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida, receiving the Master of Divinity degree with honors. During 2002-2003, he pursued postgraduate studies at Heythrop College, the Jesuit faculty of the University of London. 

Father Jowdy was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Atlanta in 1984, and served as parochial vicar at All Saints parish in Dunwoody and St. Thomas Aquinas parish in Alpharetta, and then pastor of the latter from 1991-2002. He was pastor at St. Lawrence parish in Lawrenceville from 2003 until 2015 when he was appointed to Immaculate Heart of Mary. In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI named him a Chaplain to His Holiness, with the title of Monsignor.

He is a judge on the ecclesiastical Court of Appeals for the Atlanta province and a member of the archdiocesan College of Consultors. He is a member of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM), the National Organization for the Continuing Education of the Roman Catholic Clergy (NOCERCC) and Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace movement.  Monsignor Jowdy's personal interests include theater, music, reading, cooking, traveling- and Tarheel basketball!

 To learn more about Immaculate Heart of Mary Church visit: www.ihmatlanta.org.