Thursday, August 29, 2013

Post Katrina: the birth of Most Holy Trinity Parish

8 years later many of us can reflect that out of Katrina's destruction has come some amazing blessings.  For me, my very ministry at Most Holy Trinity Parish is a result of Hurricane Katrina.  In 2006, responding to the amazing shift in population from one side of the lake to the other, the Archdiocese of New Orleans established Most Holy Trinity Parish.  It truly was a response to a need as many of the Catholic Churches on the north shore of the lake were overwhelmed by worshippers.

Most Holy Trinity was assigned a pastor who had built a parish from the ground up before, Fr. Rodney Bourg.  Because the hurricane made early planning frantic, the new parish wandered a little bit in those early years.  As a congregation they would meet in locations that technically were inside boundaries of other Catholic parishes.  MHT settled for some time in a senior living facility in Mandeville known as Roquette Lodge.  Once a more stable "temporary" facility was found, a former retail storefront that housed the famous Mr. Fish, a pet store, the new parish family began to grow.  Today, MHT still finds this temporary facility her home, although construction for the new church has finally begun.  Unfortunately, the timetable for moving in to a 900 seat state of the art beautiful church is still 24 months away.  Still, our newest parish has over 1,000 registered families, offers daily mass and 4 Sunday masses including the vigil, has a robust CCD program and currently has about 2 dozen active ministries.

I was assigned to join the MHT family in 2011 after having served as a Permanent Deacon at my home parish, 10 miles north in Abita Springs at St. Jane de Chantal Parish.  Now having been at MHT for over 2 years I have been kept quite busy and our needs have resulted in an additional Permanent Deacon, Charlie Swift, assigned to us.  We are busy; a true stewardship parish and one that stays busy all week long!

Amazingly, despite our existence, we have not been much help to all our neighboring Catholic parishes as they too remain robust and full.  What a good problem.  The north shore of New Orleans is a great place to be Catholic because we are big, active and faithful!

It's such a blessing to hear the stories and the happiness of so many people who took the brunt of Katrina in New Orleans, St. Bernard, Slidell and rejoice today in their new life across the lake and their new "church family" at MHT!  And for me personally, I guess you could say my very service for the Archdiocese of New Orleans at MHT is a result of Katrina. 

So today we remember those who lost lives and lost lifestyles and careers to a devastating killer storm, but we can, now 8 years later celebrate our blessings like Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church and Parish!

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