ATLANTA - After a two-year delay, Southern Catholic College officials announced recently they will open the doors for their inaugural freshman class in the fall of 2005.

Southern Catholic originally announced it would open this fall and staged an elaborate groundbreaking ceremony two years ago at a 356-acre site in Dawsonville, Ga., to tout the opening of the private liberal arts college.

Though college leaders said they had raised $10 million and were readying construction plans, the project stalled. Since then, $4.2million has been raised.

"The economy went south," said Jeremiah J. Ashcroft, president of Southern Catholic.

To avoid any further delays, college officials abandoned the initial plans and instead purchased a conference center in Dawsonville. The new 100-acre campus includes nine buildings, tennis courts and a swimming pool - plus existing water and sewer lines.

It is on the site of the Gold Creek Resort, at the intersection of Ga. 9 and Ga. 136, 60 miles north of downtown Atlanta.

The projected inaugural class of 150 students will be served by 25 faculty members and administrators. The old site is expected to be sold to a Texas developer, a college spokeswoman said.

"The important thing was to get up and running. It's difficult to hang on to a vision for an extended period of time," Ashcroft said.

Part of the college's vision includes providing an education from a Catholic perspective. All the college's trustees are Catholic. The campus ministry will provide spiritual retreats, daily Mass and celebration of Catholic feast days for students.

While most students will be Catholic, college leaders say students from all faiths are welcome. Students can major in business, English, psychology, history, philosophy and theology. Tuition is $16,500, but financial aid is offered.

"It's still uncertain out there," Ashcroft said about the economy, "but this new approach allows us to get started for less cost and with the infrastructure in place."

Southern Catholic's opening was prompted in part by the growing Catholic population in Georgia and the South. Atlanta's Catholic population has grown from 208,905 in 1990 to 374,185 10 years later thanks to immigration and people moving here from the Northeast and the Midwest.

Though the demographics showed that a Catholic college was a good idea, Ashcroft said, he sometimes wondered whether the economy would smother his dream of leading a Catholic college.

During those times, Ashcroft said, he took refuge in his own Catholic faith.

"When I read the lives of the saints, I haven't met one that had it easy, so why should I," he said. "This is going to happen in God's time, not mine."