Mississippi parish hall gets new use as distribution center

Published: 2005-09-09

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (CNS) -- Father Tom Conway's cell phone never stops ringing. The pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Hattiesburg has been getting calls for help and offering help since his cell phone started working again in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane winds swept through his town 70 miles north of the Gulf Coast taking down hundreds of trees, roofs, metal signs and power lines in its path. Huge trees fell on the property of St. Thomas Aquinas and the church also sustained roof damage and flooding, but Father Conway had bigger concerns: helping hurricane victims. His parish turned itself into a distribution center to provide food, cleaning supplies, water and lots of baby items -- formula, diapers, wipes and jars of baby food -- to those in need. Donated items were arriving by the truckload from Catholic Social Services, the Salvation Army and Catholic churches across the country. Before distributing the goods, volunteers from the parish and surrounding parishes were unloading the trucks and organizing everything.

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