Rebuilding St. Genevieve

St. Genevieve Church - in the Bayou Liberty section of Slidell is finally going to begin construction.

From Nola dot com:

A fluorescent orange X marks the spot where parishioners from St. Genevieve Catholic Church near Slidell will bring handfuls of dirt from home today to fill the spot where the groundbreaking for a new church will take place.


Archbishop Gregory Aymond will celebrate Mass under the stately oaks on the banks of Bayou Liberty where parishioners gathered five years ago for the first Mass after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the original church, which was built in 1958, though the Chapel of St. Genevieve existed on the site from the 1800s.

After the Mass, parishioners will drop the dirt into the hole where the new church’s altar will stand to symbolize the church becoming their new parish home, said the Rev. J. Roel Lungay, St. Genevieve’s pastor. The groundbreaking and the blessing of the site will follow.

“It means a lot,” Lungay said about what the new church will mean to the parish’s 900 families. “But it makes me think about the people who didn’t live to see the church rebuilt.”


The church will measure nearly 12,000 square feet, with fiber cement siding and a metal roof. It will have space for more than 500 parishioners, a sizable jump from the old church’s 350-person capacity and the 300 or so seats now available for worshippers in the church’s parish hall, where Lungay has been celebrating Mass since the storm.


The church will rise 7 feet off the ground, per the area’s new flood requirements, and an elevator will take those parishioners with special needs to the main floor. Officials at one point had hoped to build the church 11 feet high to be able to use the space underneath, but the cost became prohibitive, said Kathie Lusch, the church’s secretary and a member of the Building and Design Committee that helped to create the plan for the new church.

Mary Silva, a parishioner since 1983 when her family moved to the north shore from New Orleans, said she never felt like a true part of the church until she joined the effort to rebuild it. She said with so many parishioners original to the area, her family felt like it was on the outside looking in.

“This is giving us all a chance,” she said. “This is our church now.”

Lungay is hoping that families that left St. Genevieve after the storm will come back once the new church is built. The church lost about a third of its parishioners after the storm.

In addition, the church has been unable to offer religious education classes in the interim, though it joined with St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Slidell to provide children with the classes, and no one wants to have a wedding there, with no grand aisle to walk down, he said.

Construction is expected to take 18 months and will begin as soon as the church receives its building permit from St. Tammany Parish. The parish is waiting for the church to submit some paperwork to the parish’s Department of Environmental Services before granting the permit, said Tom Beale, a parish spokesman.

Parishioners will not be able to access the church’s boat launch during the construction period.

Officials salvaged the old church’s stained-glass windows, hand-carved Way of the Cross stations, 150-year-old baptismal font and crucifix, and will incorporate the items into the new church. The congregation also plans to restore the old church’s St. Genevieve statue.

The new church will cost $3 million, plus another $1 million to outfit the church once it’s built, Lusch said. The Archdiocese of New Orleans has set aside about $2 million for the construction, while St. Genevieve is nearing its goal of raising an additional $1.5 million.

Rebirth on Bayou Liberty

Almost seven years after it was swamped by Katrina, St. Genevieve Catholic Church on Bayou Liberty has been rebuilt. I pass the church on my daily commute, so I watched in January 2007 as they demolished the old church , built in 1958. I have followed and chronicled her rebirth for the past five years .

On January 15, 2012 St. Genevieve opened to her parishoners. It was a beautiful thing to witness.

This is what she looked like before Katrina

During the groundbreaking in October of 2010, parishioners were asked to place a small amount of dirt from their home into the groundbreaking hole in celebration of their unity.

The doors to the church were donated by Dr. John Breaux and were produced in Honduras. They depict the history of the parish from the time it was a mission until the present new church.

In 1852, a brick chapel was built by Mrs. Anatole Cousin on land she donated.

In 1914, Father Francis Balay renovated the old church and rededicated it

In 1950s another Bayou Liberty Church - St. Linus - was merged with St. Genevieve

In 1958, a new church building was built and dedicated Dec. 28 by Reverend Joseph Rummel.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed the church. Immediately following the storm, Mass was celebrated under an oak tree for several weeks and then in the parish hall.

In 2011, the new church was completed!

 

From watching this steeple lying on the ground during deconstruction of the old church,

 

It was such a good feeling to see the old steeple rising toward the heavens again

The original stained glass windows are used in the new church (photo by Slidell Sentry News)

The altar looks out over Bayou Liberty

The old Chapel is shown here after the church was razed

And now the Chapel is once again united with the church

After Katrina, St. Genevieve's pastor is quoted as saying: "The church is not the building, but the people, we are the church."
~ Reverend Roel Lungay

I salute the strength and faith parishioners of St. Genevieve and congratulate them on this long-time coming occasion.

St. Genevieve Church - January 2011

Bayou Liberty & St. Genevieve Church pre Katrina.

Click on pictures for larger versions.

So much has changed in the past 5 years. The church has been torn down and the bridge is gone too. Replaced by a wide, tall one





Never thought I'd admit it, but I like the new bridge. For one thing, it's great for snapping pictures of the bayou at sunset.





St. Genevieve Church is FINALLY being rebuilt. I guess they were waiting to finish that bridge.









As they have been doing for over five years now, the parishoners of the church attend mass in the church hall.



For more on St. Genevieve, click here

Can't remember when the new church will be open, but here are older links from this blog about the rebuilding.

And here is an artists rendering of the new church:

Update ~ St. Genevieve Church

I first posted about Bayou Liberty's St. Genevieve Church about two years ago when it was being demolished as a result of damages sustained from Hurricane Katrina.

Recently I've found some updates on the status of rebuilding the Church. Last week's T.P. ran an article about parishoners' efforts to raise the $1.5M necessary to rebuild the church.


An architectural rendering of the new St. Genevieve Church, Slidell, provides a sense of its elevation – nine feet off the ground. The church will have seating for 500, about 200 more than the building destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
From the clarion herald dot com


From the clarion herald dot com:


When the tides of Hurricane Katrina washed through Bayou Liberty, six feet of water went into the church, and four feet flooded both the rectory and CCD
building, Deacon Haggerty said.

The new church will be elevated nine feet off the ground, making it 16 feet
above sea level, and will have an elevator and some type of elevated ramp. Deacon Haggerty said the church will be about 13,900 square feet and will seat 500 – 200 more than the former church. The exterior will be stucco and metal with a metal roof.

the design committee and building committee then met with architects from Argus Architecture and Engineering, LLC. This work gave rise to a design reminiscent of the wooden mission church on brick piers with a steeple that pre-dated the storm damaged church, which was built in 1958. That edifice had served as a mission for many decades.

I have a myriad of pictures of the church here

Stay tuned for updates.

St. Genevieve Church

I've lived in the Bayou Liberty section of Slidell for the past 25+ years and enjoy the way it feels like a small village. My daily commute takes me across the scenic and serene Bayou and past St. Genevieve Church.

Running chores on Friday, I was struck by the sight of the church in the first stages of being gutted (click on the pictures to view full sized versions)







I'd been wondering what was to become of the church, which sits on the banks of Bayou Liberty.

Katrina inundated it along with miles of homes that surround the bayou.

Sunday's Times Picayune carried an article about the history and future of the church. All the stained glass has been removed from the current building and used in the new church that the archdiocese is constructing.



Here is the church pre-K



I am happy for the parishoners of St. Genevieve. They are kind, gentle people.

Pirogue Races Cancelled again

The Bayou Liberty Pirogue Championships, traditionally held on the first Sunday of June, will not be held for the second consecutive year.

According to A.L. “Junior” Pichon, former St. Tammany Parish Councilman and chairman and master of ceremonies for the races for nearly 30 years, access to the Bayou Liberty boat launch area is extremely limited during the construction of nearby St. Genevieve Catholic Church.

“We looked at maybe holding the races on the other side of the bayou, but that has too many problems,” Pichon said. “But we’ll be back in our old spot next year, for sure.”

The oldest pirogue racing competition in the state, the Bayou Liberty Pirogue Championships were originally organized as a fundraiser for the church and, since that time, also have supported playground maintenance at the Bayou Liberty Civic Center.
Since then the contest has become a destination race for paddlers from as far away as Mississippi and Hahnville.

St. Genevieve Catholic Church, destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, is being rebuilt on its original site. It will measure nearly 12,000-square-feet and be able to accommodate more than 500 parishioners.

The new church will cost $3 million, plus another $1 million to outfit, once it has been built. The Archdiocese of New Orleans has set aside about $2 million for the construction. Fundraisers by parishioners have been ongoing.

Though disappointed at the cancellation, organizers vow that the Bayou Liberty Pirogue Championships will return.

“This is part of our heritage,” Pichon said.

A Wet Labor Day Weekend

September is the high point on the tropical activity calendar. We who live on the Gulf Coast accept the fact that our Labor Day weekends might possibly be hampered by tropical activity. And this year we have Tropical Storm Lee.

What follows are my pix taken on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain (approximately 30 miles away from the French Quarter). The pictures are not as sensational as the Weather Channel would have you believe about Lee's intensity. Lee is more of a slow moving storm than a powerful one. As I type this (Sunday at 8 AM) it's still pouring outside.



This was taken from Lakeview Drive, better known as Rats Nest Road in Slidell. The old piers destroyed by Katrina are in the foreground and the new Twin Spans can be seen in the background.


This train was moving slowly across the submerged marshland heading towards Lake Pontchartrain.


Six years Post Katrina, St. Genevieve Catholic Church in the Bayou Liberty area of Slidell (my neighborhood) is finally rebuilding.



I like this shot of the crosses of the chapel and church.


Bayou Liberty boat berths. Those poles in the foreground represent sunken boat slips.





Swings and benches submerged in Lee's flood waters.


This is what this area normally looks like.


Hubby pointed out the beauty of the Spanish Moss and the waters of Bayou Liberty.


This crazy truck driver drove through the flood waters to drop off a friend.



The "new" Bayou Liberty Bridge taken from the Church side of the Bayou.





A view of the piers on the St. Genevieve grounds.



A bright spot in all of this wet windy weather is that our 6 month old lab discovered how much he LOVES water!