By David Ball

david.ball@panews.com

When the Rev. Kevin Badeaux woke up and felt something wet when his feet touched the floor, he knew something went terribly wrong.

Badeaux is the priest at St. Joseph Catholic Church on Procter Street in Port Arthur. Like so many others, he discovered water had entered into the church from Tropical Storm Harvey and he needed rescuing by boat.

Since that time, the church and parish hall are closed for repairs and Badeaux and his parishioners needed to find a new place to minister.

“I asked myself, how do I keep running my parish without the parish grounds,” he said.

Fortunately for St. Joseph, Badeaux’s old friend and fellow priest, the Rev. David Edwards, opened the parish of St. James on Gulfway Drive for St. Joseph to share while their church is being repaired.

Badeaux and Edwards served together before at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Orange in 2002. Some parishioners from St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church are also attending St. James while their church is being renovated.

“We have three churches under one roof,” Edwards said. “Half of St. John’s go to Sacred Heart/St. Mary’s Parish on the west side. In 2005 following Hurricane Rita we had parishioners from St. Peter’s in Groves worship here at Kerwin Hall (the parish hall).”

Both pastors emphasized a merger is not happening.

St. James didn’t totally escape damages from Harvey. Edwards said there was damage to the church roof that caused it to leak and the church’s bell tower leaked on the choir area, but the church is still operational.

“We are one Catholic Church and we work together. Father Kevin has the same understanding as me,” he said.

Edwards said the two churches didn’t have to wait on a decision from the Diocese of Beaumont to get moving. In fact, the diocese immediately signed off and gave their blessing.

Badeaux said everyone is willing to work together and the experience has been really good.

“Communication and collaboration is the key,” Edwards said. “Father Kevin gives me his schedule and it works.”

St. Joseph is focusing on recovery to complete Cody Hall, their parish hall, and they aim to celebrate Mass there later this year.

Another focus is to minister to parishioners around the churches in the neighborhoods by giving out food, water and cleaning supplies.

Teams are being formed to help people clean and/or repair their homes.

St. James distributes goods on Tuesday and Thursday. A ladies Cursillo group from Lafayette has been cooked and served 500 meals. The Knights of Columbus, Catholic Daughters of America from Humble, a seafarers group affiliated with the Port Arthur International Seafarers Center and St. Therese the Little Flower of Jesus Parish in Port Arthur donated supplies.

One large challenge for St. Joseph’s is the church is it has more than 500 students enrolled in Christian education and they have no place to hold classes.

“We were challenged enough already with not enough space,” Badeaux said. “We needed to do something different. The Family of Faith program can be done in homes where the parents teach and the kids are tested regularly. It’s based on the Universal Catechism.

“We are having religious education, baptisms and weddings. All the programs we want to do.”

Edwards said he’s concerned Catholic population in Port Arthur has grown much smaller since Harvey based on sacramental records.

“We face an uncertain future. What will it look like?” he asked. “We have eight Catholic parishes in the city. We still have one faith and one hope.”

Badeaux said the demographics for St. Joseph is younger multicultural members than at St. James. He believes younger families will stay there because of their jobs and kids in school. Though he also worries older members may have packed up and left.

Edwards worries they may never come back—and maybe they will never be replaced.

“It will be interesting to see what the demographics are six months to a year after Harvey,” Badeaux said. “There has not been a whole lot of recent immigration to the city. The families are already here.”