Louisiana

Sharon Lavigne has been called a modern-day Moses. But the perhaps unlikely environmental prophet — a 71-year-old retired special education teacher — doesn’t want to lead her neighbors out of St. James Parish, Louisiana. She said she just wants area industries — which lie in the 85-mile corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans ruefully nicknamed “Cancer Alley” — to stop poisoning them. So in 2018, Lavigne — a lifelong resident of St. James Parish and a member of St. James Church, a predominantly Black Catholic parish in the Diocese of Baton Rouge with a 250-year history — founded a faith-based environmental advocacy group, Rise St. James.

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Alligators are a dime a dozen in south Louisiana, but Father Stephen Dardis said he was dutifully impressed by the ambitious journey of a 7-foot gator that ended within a few feet of the front steps of the church.

“Never have I felt more connected to Mary, shoving myself into our overloaded Subaru Forester to escape the wrath of an impending storm we were told could be the strongest to ever hit Louisiana.”

After a hurricane made landfall with winds of 150 mph along the Texas-Louisiana border early on Aug. 27, bishops from the dioceses in its path found themselves the morning after assessing damages and checking in with others hours after destructive Hurricane Laura had passed.

When Pope Francis posed for a photo Jan. 18 with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, it was not a protocol-dictated nicety; it was a recognition of the commitment on the part of the pope and of a coalition of state and private agencies in Louisiana to stop human trafficking.

In his video message the bishop of Baton Rouge directed those who want to donate money or goods to go to the diocesan website.