As we celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, what are your feelings about the day on which we honor our mothers? This is a wonderful day to gather as a family to thank our mothers for how much they have given of themselves to protect and nourish their family. It’s a time when we pause to more deeply appreciate the persons that they are – or if they have died, the persons that they were to us – and to thank God for them. 

On Sunday, May 6, you will bestow the Order of St. Louis Award on 247 people who have volunteered their service in parishes and ministries across the archdiocese. How special is this award?

You traveled to Rome recently as a member of the Papal Foundation. Can you explain what the Papal Foundation is? The Papal Foundation was established in the United States in 1988, and its mission is to serve the Holy Father by bringing together individuals who are committed to sharing their Catholic faith, their energy and their resources in whatever way the pope requests.

During Holy Week, you visited inmates in three prisons to pray with them and offer your reflections on the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. Why have you made this such a priority in your Holy Week schedule? I am simply following the example of Pope Francis. When he was elected pope on March 13, 2013, Holy Week was just about two weeks away.

May God’s abundant blessings be with you as we celebrate this great feast of Easter, the resurrection of Christ. “Jesus is risen! He is not here!” Those are the words that the women heard when they went to the tomb on that Sunday morning. They were looking for the body of Jesus to anoint it.

You have announced new pastoral assignments for many pastors and parochial vicars. What is the process you go through in making these assignments? I like to announce the new assignments as early as possible. In the past, we’ve announced all the changes in parish and ministry assignments after Easter. We moved it up a couple of weeks this year because we have completed our work, and the assignments have been finalized. I think announcing the new assignments this early gives the priest an opportunity to prepare for his transition instead of asking him to announce it a few weeks before he leaves. It also gives the parish an opportunity to appropriately bid him farewell and to ask God’s blessings upon him. Even though none of the new pastors goes to his new parish before his assignment begins in July, it gives the parish the extra time to welcome the new pastor. It’s a way to make the transition easier.

You attended the regional V Encuentro gathering in Miami last week as the lead bishop for the southeast region of the United States. Can you explain what the meeting was all about?

What was your immediate reaction to the high school shooting in Florida that claimed the lives of 17 students and teachers? I can’t imagine the fear and the trepidation that the kids experienced, as well the fear that their parents experienced. This will affect these kids emotionally for the rest of their lives in one way or another.

In February, across the United States, Americans celebrate Black History Month. The celebration actually started in 1926. February was chosen because it is the birth month of two of the most important figures in African-American history – President Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12) and Frederick Douglass (Feb. 14).

On Ash Wednesday, we will begin our 40-day Lenten journey. During this time, God will call us to look carefully at ourselves and identify our weakness and sin. In so doing, we can undergo a change of heart and draw closer to the Lord Jesus.

Last week you celebrated a special liturgy at Our Lady of the Lake Church in Mandeville for children and adults with special needs. You confirmed four people and gave first Communion to six others. How did that personally affect you? It touches me emotionally to spend time walking into the lives of those with special needs, and it also helps me come to better understand the responsibilities of their parents and the ways in which they have to care for them.

We will celebrate 2018 Catholic Schools Week from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, which always brings to mind the great blessings that Catholic schools provide to the civic community as well as the great challenges our schools face. Does affordability continue to be a major challenge?

Pornography is detrimental to both the physical and spiritual life of each individual and the greater community. To directly address the harms of pornography and to provide resources to support and protect individuals, marriages and families in overcoming pornography and making their homes safe, I am asking all parishes to celebrate, for the first time, “Safe Haven Sunday” beginning with the first Sunday of Lent (Feb. 17-18).

Can you talk about the archdiocese’s role in working with WYES, Tom and Gayle Benson, the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Meraux Foundation on a project to place 45 markers of historic sites around the city to celebrate the Tricentennial of the City of New Orleans?