News from New Orleans

Jen and Tom’s good friend Fr. Jon Parks is a resident of New Orleans. There has been a lot of concern for him and it turns out he is alive and well…
Dear Salesians, family, and friends….
Pray for all the parishoners at St. Rosalie in Harvey and the Salesians from our priests,brothers and sisters and all who are displaced because of Hurricane Katrina.

Yesterday Fr.Jim Curran and I left via Baton Rouge–Fr. Jim is in New York and I am with friends in Tampa. The other Salesians from Marrero and Harvey are at Mary Help of Christians Schoool in Tampa while the Salesian Sisters are going to move to their respective Mother Houses in Texas and New York.
I received a phone call from the Gretna Police (where my mom’s house is) and they said power and water are restored. There is some electricity back in Marrero and in Westwego, but the lawlessness continues in all areas of the cities and until that ends then no one can go back.
My family is fine, my sister, brother in law, niece and grand nephew are on their way to Virginia, and won’t arrive for another day or so.. the travel is slow, my brother in law is quite sick.
I received a call that Mr. Lenny Thibodeaux died, the father of Jeremy Thibodeaux. He reamined in Marrero and expired from a heart attach. Have been playing phone tag with many people in the south, as cell phones allow…things are bad but are getting better slowly.
The Salesians count on your prayers for all of the victims, and for our ministries.
If anyone cares to help, a fund will be set up at St. Rosalie’s to help the kids in the area upon our return, pray God soon. Until then pray for all of us and know of my prayers.
My cell phone is off and on since I have a LA area code.. ugh…
May God Bless each one of you…. Fr. Jon Parks
It is great to know he is well and our prayers are with Jon and his family.