The extent of Katrina's impact on the Catholic dioceses of the Gulf Coast is immense. Warren Dazio, Director of Marriage and Family Life, in the Diocese of Baton Rouge told me today: "Catholics need to know that the economic and spiritual damage is much worse that anyone could imagine."

Dazio also said the recent decision to downsize the Archdiocese of New Orleans has been especially hard on morale. Diocesan employees from Baton Rouge and New Orleans have been working side-by-side since the hurricane, so the news of lost jobs affected both staffs.

On September 26, Archbishop Hughes explained that the revenue losses will mean that jobs will be lost in the chancery, parishes, and schools.

Unfortunately, on the following day, the Baton Rouge Advocate reported that all 9,000 employees of the Archdiocese were being let go. Hughes quickly convened a briefing the next day to say, "That is far from the truth."

But the truth is the Archdiocese has suddenly run out of money.

One hundred parishes are no longer functioning and thirty are badly damaged, leaving only thirty intact. In the month of September alone, $17,000,000 will be lost from parish collections.

The Archbishop explained that without letting go any employees, even assuming the best case scenario for revenue it would leave a $24-$27 million loss by the end of 2005.

How many will actually lose their jobs?

Archbishop Hughes says, "We expect a small minority of them will not be able to continue." But even a small minority of 9000 jobs could mean a significant loss of many devoted Roman Catholic employees. Hughes made it very clear that every effort would be made to save jobs, extend benefits for those let go, and provide assistance in finding other employment.

But the mere fact that the Archdiocese will have fewer operating schools and parishes make these cutbacks inevitable. Most of the lost jobs will be among parish and school staffs, teachers will be among the most affected.

The Catholic schools survived Katrina a little better than the parishes, but not by very much.

Out of 24 high schools:
- 15 are open either in current facilities or in satellite schools to reopen in October of January.

- 3 will be closed for the year.

- 6 have no reopening dates, but are operating in satellite schools in other cities

Out of 84 elementary schools:
- 16 are now open.

- 26 are projected to open in October.

- 43 have no reopening date.

So for the nearly 50,000 students in the Archdiocesan schools, nearly half of the elementary schools have been lost for the foreseeable future.

There is good news, however.

Pat O'Meara, of O'Meara, Ferguson & Kearns in Reston, VA, has been helping to gather data on the damage to Catholic parishes and schools. He reports that many Catholic schools are being quickly restored back to health by the local communities they serve. "They are not waiting for the government to do it. It's a perfect illustration of subsidiary at work."

Dazio adds that the restoring of New Orleans schools is taking the pressure off the Catholic schools in Baton Rouge. "Parents and children are actually returning to New Orleans much sooner than we expected." The Diocese of Baton Rouge originally accepted 4000 extra students displaced by Katrina. This week there are only an extra 2400 students, next week there will be even fewer, and will probably level off with a net gain of 1000.

Much of the media coverage has been focused on New Orleans. There are now damage assessments starting to come out of other dioceses hit by Katrina. The Diocese of Biloxi lost four schools, nine parishes, and twenty seven other parishes are more than 50 percent destroyed.

According to an informed source, the problem looming for the Diocese of Biloxi is that the diocesan insurance coverage totals only $30,000,000.

That's not nearly enough to rebuild what was lost.

The Window will continue to report on the impact of Katrina and Rita on the Catholic Church along the Gulf Coast. Perhaps the newly-established Task Force of the USCCB, chaired by Archbishop Fiorenza of Houston will be able to help coordinate the efforts of organization and agencies, both Catholic and governmental, in delivering aid quickly and abundantly.

P.S. Congratulations to the Franciscan University of Steubenville which has awarded free tuition to all the theology majors to the badly-damaged Our Lady of the Holy Cross College in New Orleans.

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