Building "church" at Most Holy Trinity Parish

Today was another exciting day for Most Holy Trinity Parish in Covington, La.  In all my years of being Catholic, attending Mass and school, being an active member of a parish, I have never been involved in the planning a new church building.  As I arrived at MHT to be one of their two Permanent Deacons I was aware that an attempt to get started on a new building fell short of local governmental approval.  But this time around things were different.

Not too long after my ministry began here I was brought up to speed on the plans for the new church at MHT.  Land already secured because of Archdiocesan holdings in the Covington area, the planning was underway to gain governmental approval.  Meetings were held in the current church, which is a former retail office facility, for the parishioners, neighbors, and interested folks from throughout the community.  In the spring, formal approval was granted by the local governing planning and zoning committee, which makes a favorable recommendation to the parish(county) council.  Then at the beginning of summer, MHT was officially approved by the St. Tammany Parish Council(again this is the county) without one opposition speaker to be found.  The hard work and cooperative spirit of the staff of MHT and the Archdiocese seemed to be appreciated by all neighboring businesses and residential subdivisions.  The last step, a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers(because everything down here is wetlands) has been made and should prove to be no problem.

In recent weeks, our pastor, Fr. Rodney Bourg, began putting togehter the appropriate committees and the hard work begans.  This morning, Fr. Rodney addressed all parishioners at all Masses to alert everyone of our progress and to began the survey process which will initiate the capital campaign.  Ah yes, to build a new church we must raise money.  And if my early experiences with this very generous parish after being here for nine months is a good barometer of things to come, than a capital campaign should be well received.

Most Holy Trinity Parish was established in very late 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, in response to the rapid growth and robust health of the Catholic Church throughout the Northshore communities of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.  After meeting in several temporary facilities the parish moved into the renovated retail office space that once housed the areas largest tropical fish and reptile stores.  No kidding.  It was called Mr. Fish.  That's why so many joke that the parish should be called Holy Mackarel or something similar.  The facility is tastefully decorated with an altar, pews, statues from one of the closed parishes in greater New Orleans.  As a worship space it is fine.  The problem comes from lack of space to handle our exploding CCD program and all the many active ministries at MHT.

So from time to time I will keep you posted on this still long but now well underway process to build a beautiful church for Most Holy Trinity.  One thing for sure, MHT has already done an excellent job in building "church" among it's many ministries and involved and active parishioners!