Georgia Bulletin

Louisiana

• 20 years ago Katrina hit New Orleans hard; today, the Crescent City is rising with faith and hope

  

  By PETER FINNEY JR., OSV News
  Published August 29, 2025

  New Orleans’ battered, 300-year-old history has been marked by fire, pestilence and storm, but Katrina was unprecedented in scope and pain: 1,400 people died; 200,000 homes in Orleans Parish flooded; and hundreds of thousands fled or were transported to safe havens across the country, many never to return.

• Atlanta seminarians meet with newly appointed auxiliary bishop

  

  By GEORGIA BULLETIN STAFF
  Published October 28, 2022

  Eight seminarians from the Archdiocese of Atlanta had the opportunity to meet the newly appointed auxiliary bishop for North and Central Georgia, Bishop-designate John Nhan Tran. The seminarians study at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, where the bishop-designate has been serving.

• What pastors and parishes can do to combat systemic racism in the church

  By FATHER JOSH JOHNSON, Catholic News Service
  Published October 15, 2021

  “What can our parishes do to combat the sins of racism in the geographical boundaries of our community?” This is a question I am frequently asked when I travel the nation to speak on the topics of racial justice and reconciliation.

• Atlanta seminarians provide aid, comfort to hurricane victims

  

  By GEORGIA BULLETIN STAFF
  Published October 1, 2020

  After Hurricaine Laura destroyed parishes and homes in Lake Charles, Louisiana, students from Notre Dame Seminary provided spiritual comfort and clean-up help to families affected.

• Hurricane destroys Louisiana churches, closes schools, displaces priests

  

  By CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
  Published September 3, 2020

  Catholic Charities of Southwest Louisiana began providing emergency relief within hours after Hurricane Laura passed.

• Frat house where tragedy struck reborn as faith community for students

  

  By RICHARD MEEK, Catholic News Service
  Published October 4, 2018

  BATON ROUGE, La. (CNS)—Out of the darkness of unspeakable tragedy, a light is rising, spreading a transformation of resurgence and, perhaps most importantly, one of faith. Christ the King Catholic Church in Baton Rouge, through the efforts of pastor Father Andrew Merrick, has transformed a former fraternity house where a college freshman died a year […] Full Story

• Evangelizing, caring for others at core of deacons’ vocation, nuncio says

  

  By Peter Finney Jr. Catholic News Service
  Published August 7, 2018

  NEW ORLEANS (CNS)—The core vocational work of permanent deacons is to evangelize and care for others, not to perform office duties, the apostolic nuncio to the United States said July 22 to more than 1,300 deacons attending the 2018 National Diaconate Congress in New Orleans. In his post-Communion remarks at the opening Mass of the […] Full Story

• Father Edward Buvens, SJ, dies

  Published May 3, 2018

  GRAND COTEAU, La.—Jesuit Father Edward P. Buvens died March 27 at the St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Pavilion in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. He was 83 years old. Father Buvens was a Jesuit for 60 years and a priest for 48 years. Edward Paul Buvens was born to Paul G. and Ruby Ann Jones Buvens in Montreal, Quebec, […] Full Story

• Priest says exorcism is ministry of healing that helps suffering people

  By PETER FINNEY JR., Catholic News Service
  Published November 3, 2017

  NEW ORLEANS (CNS)—Father Gary Thomas has served for the past 12 years in the Diocese of San Jose, California, as the priest authorized to perform the rite of exorcism. The rite is the Catholic Church’s largely hidden and often-misunderstood ministry of healing that Hollywood has transformed into a cash cow of blood, gore and fantasy. […] Full Story

• Atlanta man ordained a Jesuit priest

  Published July 6, 2017

  NEW ORLEANS—Four men were ordained as priests of the Society of Jesus, U.S. Central and Southern Province, on June 10 in New Orleans. Sylvester G. Tan, who grew up near Atlanta, and was a parishioner of Our Lady of Assumption Church, was one of the four. Father Tan, 38, grew up in the Atlanta area, […] Full Story

• Alexandria’s Catholic community is a ‘gumbo’

  By ANDREW NELSON, Staff Writer
  Published November 3, 2016

  ALEXANDRIA, La.—When the Catholic community was established in central Louisiana, it would be another 100 years before the Diocese of Atlanta came into existence. Alexandria, Louisiana, the new home of Bishop David P. Talley, was once part of the Diocese of Natchitoches, established in 1853. (It became the Diocese of Alexandria in 1910.) The Atlanta […] Full Story

• Throwing out welcome mat is every Catholic’s job

  By PETER FINNEY JR., Special to the Bulletin
  Published November 3, 2016

  NEW ORLEANS—You had to laugh. In an October workshop on parish hospitality at the annual conference of the International Catholic Stewardship Council at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans, Christine Heusinger, the associate director of stewardship for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, put up a cartoon on the big screen. The 1988 cartoon by Steve Phelps is […]

• Sister of Mercy takes first vows

  Published October 6, 2016

  NEW ORLEANS—Sister Phuong Mai Dong made her first profession of vows as a Sister of Mercy on Saturday, Aug. 6, at Loyola University’s Ignatius Chapel in New Orleans with about 100 sisters, family members and friends attending. The ceremony took place in both English and Vietnamese, including a song presented by Sisters of the Holy […] Full Story

• Louisiana floods called worst U.S. natural disaster since Superstorm Sandy

  

  By CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
  Published September 1, 2016

  BATON ROUGE, La. (CNS)—The line of destruction caused by historic flooding in southern Louisiana stretches for 25 miles, and according to Red Cross officials, it is the worst natural disaster in the United States since Superstorm Sandy in 2012. “As we all know the severe flooding in many areas of our diocese has dramatically affected […] Full Story

• Commercials with inviting message about Catholic Church hit movie screens

  By PETER FINNEY JR, Catholic News Service
  Published August 19, 2016

  NEW ORLEANS (CNS)—They represent a captive audience—the hundreds of people inside a movie theater waiting for the big screen to light up with the film they paid good money to see. Now the Archdiocese of New Orleans, perhaps in a bow to “Star Trek” and Pope Francis’ evangelizing message of encounter, will boldly go where […] Full Story

• Bishop feels ‘deep ache in my heart’ after fatal shootings of police

  

  By CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
  Published July 19, 2016

  BATON ROUGE, La. (CNS)—Baton Rouge Bishop Robert W. Muench renewed a call for a diocesan-wide week of prayer, fasting and reflection after the latest fatal shootings in the city, which this time took the lives of three law enforcement officers. He urged all to “work toward a lasting peace in our communities.” Early July 17, […] Full Story

• Baton Rouge bishop urges community not to give in to anger, fear

  

  Published July 8, 2016

  BATON ROUGE, La. (CNS)—Bishop Robert W. Muench of Baton Rouge is urging the local community to be “ministers of healing to a hurting world” while protests are taking place about the police shooting of a black man outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge July 5. “This week in our community, as in our nation, […] Full Story

• When Harry ‘met’ Harry, years apart, under a New Orleans bridge

  By PETER FINNEY JR., Catholic News Service
  Published June 10, 2016

  NEW ORLEANS (CNS)—It didn’t start out as a Father’s Day present, but now the tables were turned. New Orleans-born Harry Connick Jr., 48, took the stage at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome May 21, dressed improbably in an academic robe, a costume he never imagined he would wear considering his college career at Loyola University New Orleans […] Full Story

• By declining case, high court allows monks to make, sell simple caskets

  

  By PETER FINNEY JR., Catholic News Service
  Published October 24, 2013

  NEW ORLEANS (CNS)—It took the U.S. Supreme Court to make the final decision. By declining to review a lower court’s ruling, the high court Oct. 15 left standing what Benedictine Abbot Justin Brown has known in his heart for the past six years: The Benedictine monks of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington are not breaking […] Full Story

• Lindy Boggs, former congresswoman and U.S. ambassador to Vatican, dies

  

  By Peter Finney Jr., Catholic News Service
  Published August 1, 2013

  NEW ORLEANS (CNS)—Former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Lindy Boggs, whose career in public service spanned 60 years, including four years in Rome during which she served as a staunch advocate for human trafficking victims, died July 27 at her home in Chevy Chase, Md. She was 97. Her funeral Mass was to be celebrated […] Full Story