Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: April 26, 2020
How’re you doing? As we head into the second month of the present “stay at home” situation, necessitated by the Covid19 “coronavirus” pandemic, I know I’m getting tired of it! Are you? I’m an introvert at heart, so I generally don’t mind being alone, but I am more and more aware of just how much I still miss seeing and interacting with others too. Last week I spent time “catching up” on Tribunal work: canon law is my other priestly job, and one which suffers a bit during Lent and Holy Week when parish work necessarily takes precedence.
But let me “catch you up” on what’s going on around your Cathedral, for we’ve tried to stay busy! As I hope you know, we’re using this time to change the lightbulbs in the church. It’s not an easy – or inexpensive! – task since the ceiling is so high: we’ve had to have scaffolds erected to reach the fixtures way up there! You can see a few pictures I’ve posted on the Cathedral’s Facebook page (http://www.Facebook.com/SJCathedralBR) and on our website. In any case, there was a problem getting the exact right kind of bulbs and reflectors for some of the older equipment up there, so we got delayed about a week, but by the time you read this installation should be complete. Then it will take about another week to take the scaffolds down. Say a prayer or two that it all goes quickly and above all safely!
Last week our Director of Administration, Ms. Lorie Watson, spent a great deal of time with our banker preparing and submitting our application to the federal Small Business Administration for a forgivable loan. Their “Payroll Protection Program” allowed us to ask for a bit more than $30,000 (that two months’ worth of salaries and benefits for our small staff). Now we haven’t heard anything back yet. In fact, I saw in the papers that the SBA “ran out” of funds at some point, but apparently all parties in Congress are interested in additional funding for this. So we haven’t lost heart. But I tell you, I never thought I’d see the day when the U.S. government would offer money directly to our Church’s parishes. I hope in the end this is upheld as constitutional, because, yes, I suspect at some point it will be challenged in court.
But we’re not depending on the government. “We walk by faith,” as the well-known hymn goes. This means we depend on you! And in fact, that’s where it’s become obvious that the parishioners and friends of the Cathedral indeed are awesome, faith-filled folks! You’ve done a wonderful job supporting us and our mission as “mother church” of the diocese so well over the centuries, and it hasn’t stopped during this pandemic crisis. Please continue to support our mail-in, “virtual offertory”! Until we can start having real offertory collections at public Masses again, send your contributions to our office: 412 North Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70802-5496. And hopefully we’ll be back together for worship, fellowship, and ministry soon!
In the Risen Lord,
Very Rev. Paul D. Counce
