St. Francis Xavier parishioners whip out chainsaws, wallets

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

One step at a time.

That’s the mantra being repeated both by those in Lake Charles whose lives have been upended by Hurricane Laura and by those Catholic parishioners from the Archdiocese of New Orleans who are doing what they can to help their southwest Louisiana neighbors recover from the disaster.

Father Joe Palermo, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Metairie, said 33 people – including Father Thien The Nguyen and 25 parishioners – drove to Lake Charles after a 5:15 a.m. Mass on Labor Day with chainsaws, rakes and shovels to clear debris and felled trees from the homes of 10 parishioners of Immaculate Heart of Mary, a Black Catholic parish in north Lake Charles.

Father Palermo will return to Lake Charles on Monday to present Lake Charles Bishop Glen John Provost with a $35,000 check, courtesy of parishioners collections over the last two weekends, and he is planning other onsite recovery efforts.

“I’m finally going to get a chance to give someone one of those nice, big checks,” Father Palermo said. “We’ll also give Bishop Provost a real check.”

In addition to the physical labor of St. Francis Xavier’s Knights of Columbus, Men’s Club and school parents, including school moms, school kids got involved in raising money.


“Three of our fourth-grade girls (Julia Wigley, Lane Vonderhaar and Lillian Welty), on their own, decided they wanted to have a lemonade stand to raise money, and they made $445 selling lemonade and desserts and another $130 for the animal shelter in Lake Charles,” Father Palermo said. “That was so generous. I was in a state of shock.”

The 10 families helped by the St. Francis Xavier parishioners were Immaculate Heart of Mary parishioners whose homes sustained major wind damage. Father Wayne LeBleu, the Immaculate Heart pastor, identified the parishioners who had been hardest hit.

“Father Wayne led us in prayer and we got to work,” Father Palermo said. “That particular church had very light damage, but his parishioners’ homes were badly damaged. He would drive us to different locations, and the people there were largely elderly and needed help.”

Father Palermo expressed his concerns that a disaster of such a large magnitude might not get the attention of the nation.

“I didn’t see anything about it on any of the national news stations, and nobody was talking about the recovery from the hurricane,” he said. “It was like the story was over and we should move on to all these continuing political embroilments and COVID. It’s hard to get any legs for this story.”

Although unlike Hurricane Katrina there was no more standing water 10 days after the storm, Father Palermo said Laura packed a huge punch.

“They did not have the water damage, at least in this part of Lake Charles, like we did in Katrina, but the wind damage was worse than Katrina. It was catastrophic damage. As soon as you stepped out of the car, you could smell the rotten food.”

Father Palermo said he hopes to keep a relationship with Immaculate Heart of Mary for future relief initiatives. 

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