>>>This is a good news story for the Archdiocese that I'm priviledged to serve and have lived in all my life. Because of demographic trends and the post Katrina reality, the Northshore communities of New Orleans are growing and so is the Catholic population. While a vast majority are transplanted New Orleanians there is a trend in America that Catholicism is enjoying a boost in non-traditional Catholic areas. When I moved over here 15 years ago I ignorantly asked my wife do you think we will find a strong Catholic influence. What I did not know! The Northshore boasts the largest Catholic parish in the archdiocese if not the state, Our Lady of the Lake in Mandeville; over 6500 families, a well run and very respected Catholic Seminary College at St. Joseph's Abbey a.k.a. St. Benedict's Seminary, four Catholic High Schools and robust Catholic ministries. Our area also has the newest, start from scratch parish, Most Holy Trinity which has been around now for 5 or 6 years. When Wendy and I joined St. Jane de Chantal Parish in rural Abita Springs we were one of a little over 300 registered families (1996) and now we have well over 1,300 families. So the article below is truy good news:
Archdiocese of New Orleans will open office in St. Tammany
Published: Sunday, August 08, 2010, 7:00 AM
Ron Thibodeaux, The Times-Picayune
The Archdiocese of New Orleans is planning to elevate its profile in St. Tammany Parish by creating an administrative center to better serve its booming north shore flock.
I wanted to raise the question of whether we as a Catholic church were meeting all the needs of the people on the north shore,' Archbishop Gregory Aymond said.
The plan to create a free-standing office apart from an existing church parish represents a rare move for the archdiocese, which long has been based on Walmsley Avenue in New Orleans and covers eight civil parishes in southeastern Louisiana.
“We would like to have on the north shore a building that says ‘Archdiocese of New Orleans’ for our offices, our departments and ministries to have a place to meet,” Archbishop Gregory Aymond said.
A specific location has not yet been determined. Church officials will begin meeting later this month with representatives of the archdiocese’s various departments and services to determine specific needs and projected uses for a St. Tammany
headquarters, and planning will proceed from there, Aymond said.
Long a hotbed of suburban growth, St. Tammany Parish has 91,382 Catholics in 15 church parishes, archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey McDonald said. Just to its north, rural, sparsely populated Washington Parish is home to 18,172 Catholics.
Combined, St. Tammany and Washington parishes account for more than 23 percent of the estimated 471,700 Catholics in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Among the many issues vying for his attention since he became archbishop almost a year ago, Aymond said he has been particularly aware of the active and ever-growing Catholic community in St. Tammany Parish, with its geographical buffer imposed by Lake Pontchartrain and its conservative, suburban outlook that complements but nonetheless differs from that of some other parts of the archdiocese.
It’s appropriate for the archdiocese to “have a visible presence there that will bespeak the large number of Catholics that are there’’ and minister to those church members as effectively as possible, the archbishop said.
“This month, we will be meeting with departments like Catholic schools, religious education, Catholic Charities, marriage tribunal -- we’re just starting with those departments but we will do that with all of our departments eventually -- and saying, what services are you offering on the north shore, what more could you do on the north shore and how could you utilize a building on the north shore,” Aymond said.
Aymond, the 14th archbishop of New Orleans and the first native New Orleanian, was one of several associate bishops in the archdiocese until he was named bishop of Austin, Texas, in 2000.
“Before I left 10 years ago, the north shore was developing and continuing to grow and develop,” he said. “In the last 10 years, it has boomed and developed even more. I sort of knew that, being away and kind of keeping up with New Orleans, but as I got around the archdiocese, it was very, very clear to me that the north shore has just gone through incredible growth and in my estimation has handled it well, better than I’ve seen in some other communities.
“One of the things I realized almost immediately when I got back was, because of the growth, I wanted to raise the question of whether we as a Catholic church were meeting all the needs of the people on the north shore.”
With that in mind, he has held occasional meetings with several priests from across the north shore to address specific, important issues.
“We have met twice already and are meeting again at the end of this month,” Aymond said. “Our question is, based on the growth that has taken place, where will the growth continue? Where should we be looking at property for the future? What are we doing well as a church? How well are we serving the Catholics on the north shore? What is it that we can do better? Are we really keeping up with the growth?
“We have realized that those are questions that we are still drawing for the answers.”
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