Southern dioceses still a long way from hurricane recovery

Published: 2006-06-19

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Some Catholic dioceses in the South -- especially the New Orleans Archdiocese and the Diocese of Biloxi, Miss. -- are still a long way from recovering from the massive damage caused last summer by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the U.S. bishops were told June 15. "They're still flat on their backs," said recently retired Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Task Force on Hurricane Recovery. "Their process of recovery is barely begun," he added in a report to the bishops on the first day of their June 15-17 national meeting in Los Angeles. He said the Diocese of Biloxi, which has only 70,000 Catholics, suffered $70 million in property damage -- only half of it covered by insurance. He said the New Orleans Archdiocese has $52 million in uninsured losses on churches and schools that it is trying to reopen -- and an additional $70 million in uninsured losses on buildings that it doesn't even contemplate reopening until some later date.

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