Awesome news for the youth of the Archdiocese of New Orleans

p Abbey to become a year-round youth retreat center
Published: Wednesday, November 03, 2010, 7:30 PM
Jim Derry, The Times-Picayune

Four years after Benedictine monks announced they were closing Camp Abbey, it has been leased by the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and is expected to be reopened within a year.

For 46 years, the retreat site, which is inside St. Joseph Abbey near Covington, was a summer home to many youths across the metro area. But it closed four years ago after Abbot Justin Brown, who heads the 121-year-old monastery, said the risk and liabilities of running the camp had exceeded the monks’ capabilities.

Then on Oct. 26, the archdiocese and the abbey signed a 25-year lease that will allow for the camp to be reopened as a year-round youth retreat center and summer camp, with the archdiocese promising about $3 million worth of renovations.

“We’re very happy the archdiocese has decided to lease the camp from the abbey,” Brown said. “When we made the decision to close the camp, we did so because the needs of the camp at the time would have required a great amount of money, which we did not have. We were trying to focus attention on raising money for our seminary and retreat house, which also needed a lot of repairs.

“So we had three major areas in need of repairs, and we had to make a decision. The other reason was we just felt that we could not carry the liability anymore. We’re a small monastery. We hated to do it. I loved the camp, and we’re just delighted. ... We were holding out that someone would use the property for youth-oriented programs.”

Brown said that although some groups had stated an interest in the camp property, including one that possibly would have opened a camp for children with disabilities, nothing ever materialized. And soon after Archbishop Gregory Aymond assumed the leadership of the Catholic Church in southeastern Louisiana a little more than a year ago, he got together with local priests and found that there was a need for a facility for teens and pre-teens.

“I hope that this youth retreat center will be a great resource for our parishes, high schools, and other programs where young people truly can take a break from the distractions of the world in order to build up their relationship with Jesus and with each other as the young Church of today,” Aymond said in a press release.

In the past, Camp Abbey was able to hold up to 240 students at a time. To again make it functional, the camp will need “some major renovations, and possibly some additions,” Brown said. “The structures, however, are fairly sound.”

Work is expected to be finished by the fall of 2011 for retreats, and the camping programs should be open by the summer of 2012.