Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: January 27, 2019
Dear Parishioners and Friends,
Sometimes my column in The Carpenter focuses on a single theme. Not today!
Food comes first. Tomorrow evening (Monday, January 28) we’ll be having another Parish Pot-Luck Supper. This is turning out to be one of the most “favorite” things we do here in our Parish Family, probably because it’s so simple! The Parish itself will supply the “main course,” and we just depend on YOU to bring the rest. Do you make a great casserole? A salad that’s unique? Veggies to remember? A dessert to die for? Please come and join us at 6 pm in the Parish Hall and we’ll share tastes!
When our Parish Development Committee first picked a date for the potluck they – like all of us! – had hoped that the New Orleans Saints would be playing in the Super Bowl next weekend. But as we all know, the referees of last week’s NFC Championship Game decided otherwise. Bummer! Still, we’re forging ahead with a Super Bowl Tailgate theme. Our last “football themed” potluck was immensely popular, so again come in your black-and-gold, fleurs-de-lis, or even your college colors while you share a dish with your fellow parishioners. It’s a simple way to enjoy each other’s company and build community in the Parish.
What comes last? Well, we hope, an eternal banquet! You know, the community of the Church doesn’t just extend to living persons. Our spiritual understanding is that there is also a “communion of saints,” that is, a real relationship between us and those faithful souls who have gone before us with heaven as their destiny!
One little known ministry of St. Joseph Cathedral Parish is our ownership and operation of our own St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery. It’s “behind the old Goudchaux’s building” on Main and North Streets between the railroad tracks and 17th Street. It’s officially a historic, largely inactive, cemetery, since there are not very many unfilled plots left available for sale. Our parishioner Mr. Chip Landry is the sexton, and his encyclopedic knowledge of who and where people are buried in it is incredibly impressive! While the cemetery is owned by the Parish, many years ago a wonderful group of people determined to raise money and fund the cemetery’s operations for the Parish. As a result of the generosity of the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery Fund, Inc., then, most ongoing costs associated with the cemetery (like mowing the grass) and other more occasional expenses (tree-trimming, that sort of thing), and even some periodic repair of dilapidated tombs and markers, are taken care of at no cost to the Parish! This past year they even repaired and repainted the entire fence around the cemetery’s perimeter.
As you can see, this is a real blessing to the Parish! And the Board of Directors of the Cemetery Fund is always interested in fostering new interest in our historic cemetery, and Board membership, so I’ve promised them I’d put in a good word for them from time to time. They meet monthly.
So, do you have an historic bent about the citizenry of Baton Rouge, and their families? Are you able to contribute to increasing the cemetery fund to meet its ever-increasing costs? Do you have an eye for beauty amidst the peacefulness of the resting places of our forebears? Would you be interested in helping to organize our plan for the cemetery over the next decade or so? If your answer to any of these questions is “yes,” please be in touch with me: the other members of the cemetery Board want to meet you! I promise they will welcome your ideas and your help!
Always yours in Christ,
Rev Paul D. Counce
