The Cathedral of Christ the King is a Roman Catholic church in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

The parish of Christ the King had been established in 1936 by Bishop Gerald O'Hara of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah in response to population growth in the suburbs to the north of Atlanta.

On behalf of the diocese, O'Hara purchased several acres of land along Peachtree Road in Buckhead that had previously been owned by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, using that group's former headquarters as a temporary church building and rectory.

The primary materials used in its construction included Indiana limestone and granite and marble primarily quarried from in-state, and the interior was large enough to accommodate about 700 people.

[2][note 1] As a result, in 1936,[5] O'Hara, on behalf of the diocese, purchased a 4-acre (1.6 ha) property in Buckhead that a new church could be created on.

[11][12] While this initial mass utilized the front porch altar, a chapel was soon constructed in the first floor of the rectory that could hold up to 220 people.

[1] While an earlier effort led by Bishop Thomas Albert Andrew Becker to move the cathedral city entirely to Atlanta had failed, this co-cathedral proposition was accepted.

[1] In 1937, the Holy See approved O'Hara's request, and Christ the King was chosen to serve as the co-cathedral,[18] on equal ranking with the existing Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah.

[25][26][27][28] However, due to funding and issues arising from World War II, the last stained-glass window would not be installed until 1952.

[29] On October 31, 1937, during the Feast of Christ the King,[30] the cornerstone for the co-cathedral was laid in a ceremony that included a blessing from O'Hara.

[31][33] While the dedication was planned for the following month, a funeral held on December 12 for one of the founding members of the church was actually the first rite conducted within the newly-built structure.

[33] Upon Dougherty's arrival by train the day prior, he had been greeted at Terminal Station by a crowd of roughly 3,000 spectators, including Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield and members of the cadet corps from Marist College High School.

[35] Additional notable guests at the dedication included Georgia Governor Eurith D. Rivers and Hiram Wesley Evans,[23] the latter being an imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

[42][43] During the early 1960s, the cathedral assisted with the development of Our Lady of Lourdes, a parish within its jurisdiction,[44] with a substantial financial donation towards the creation of a new permanent building for the church.

[45] In 1962, the Diocese of Atlanta was elevated to the status of archdiocese,[46][47] and since then, Christ the King has served as the site of installation for all of subsequent archbishops.

[49] By the end of the decade, as part of Catholic–Lutheran dialogues stemming from the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, joint Catholic–Lutheran services were conducted at the cathedral in November 1967.

[53] In September 2018, parishioners from around the archdiocese protested concerning the Catholic Church sex abuse cases in the United States.

[note 2] In a 1940 book created by the Work Projects Administration, the agency described the structure as harkening back to the designs of 13th-century cathedrals, including in its general cruciform architectural plan, though deviating with its lack of long transepts and flying buttresses.

[38] Additional materials included slate from Vermont, which was used to construct the roof,[28] and Italian marble, which had been sourced from Florence.