St. Benedict Parish looks back while steadily forging ahead

Story and photos by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald

With ministries that have tenaciously continued to operate, even in the shadow of COVID-19, it was only fitting that St. Benedict Parish in Covington would close out its 50th-anniversary year with a Mass on the Feast of Christ the King.

During the homily of that Nov. 22 liturgy, Benedictine Abbot Justin Brown lauded St. Benedict’s dedicated priests, deacons and parishioners for continually striving to emulate Christ the Good Shepherd – the humble servant-leader who tirelessly sought out the weak, the wounded and the marginalized, the one who turned the notion of “king” on its head.

“This faith community of St. Benedict, during these 50 years as a parish, has been faithfully and generously serving Christ in the hungry and the thirsty; in the sick and the stranger,” said Abbot Justin, the Mass’ principal celebrant, addressing masked and physically-distanced congregants inside 325-seat St. Benedict Church.

“Christ truly reigns as king in this community, a community that has been blessed with faithful and loving shepherds,” Abbot Justin added. “Thank you, the parish family of St. Benedict for being a Christ-centered, loving and welcoming community living out the truth and spirit of the Gospel. All of you have been a blessing – a blessing to this local church and the whole church.”

Known for its hands-on outreach ministries

Located in rural, oak-shaded north Covington, the Benedictine-founded and operated parish of 761 registered families models its mission on the loving and welcoming nature of its saintly namesake, the patron saint of hospitality.

For example, the church’s long-standing Lunch Ministry has St. Benedict parishioners cooking and hand-delivering hot meals to the sick, elderly, disabled and their caregivers each and every Wednesday. When the pandemic temporarily suspended the effort, Lunch Ministry members emptied St. Benedict’s pantry and freezers and brought the food to quarantined seniors at Rouquette Lodge and St. Teresa’s Villa, nearby residences operated by Christopher Homes.

“We were delivering about 115 meals a week before COVID – we’re back up to about 80 now,” said Benedictine Father Charles Benoit, who came on board as St. Benedict’s eighth pastor in 2015. “We also do baskets for Thanksgiving and at Christmas. The baskets are really practical. We used to give the uncooked turkeys, but now we pick up rotisserie chickens. If it’s a bigger family, we’ll do two or three rotisserie chickens, so it’s already (conveniently) cooked.”

Parishioners involved in the parish’s decade-old Prayer Blanket Ministry also seamlessly shifted gears when the pandemic struck in mid-March: from sewing and crocheting their usual prayer blankets to making more than 400 masks and 200 medical gowns for skilled-care staff at Chateau de Notre Dame Nursing Home and Hospice, Our Lady of Wisdom and Wynhoven Health Care Center.

Jackie Edrington, the ministry’s coordinator, said her volunteer seamstresses prayed for the eldercare workers who were to receive the protective attire, just as they always do for the future recipients of their prayer blankets. A St. Benedict Cross is hand-sewn into each blanket and comes packaged with a handmade rosary and a prayer. Father Charles blesses them before they are given – often as a surprise – to each recipient.

“(The prayer blankets) are for anyone who is suffering either mentally, physically or in need of some spiritual guidance,” Edrington explained.

Other ways the parish has met the challenges of the pandemic include compulsory online sign-up for Masses and Sunday adoration (which facilitates contact tracing, should it be needed); misting the church with disinfectant between Masses; an outdoor Mass on Mother’s Day that drew more than 450 faithful; and the addition of a 2 p.m. Saturday Mass for congregants 65 and older – a temporary accommodation that will end when the ongoing dispensation is lifted.

On Easter Sunday, during the height of the lockdown, Father Charles and his deacons invited parishioners to receive a drive-up blessing while dressed in their Easter outfits. Every load of passengers received a bottle of holy water, a prayer card, candy and a book from Dynamic Catholic.

“In  a three-hour period of time, we had 325 cars come through the parking lot,” Father Charles said. “It was truly an overwhelming experience!”

Also, in response to the pandemic, St. Benedict’s Parish School of Religion went completely online for the 2020-21 academic year and its youth ministry has managed to stay connected via Tuesday-night meetings in an outdoor area of Panera Bread, a location chosen for its proximity to area high schools, Father Charles said.

Provided a safe, welcoming haven in 2016 flood

Father Charles said he is not surprised by the faithful, nimble and generous ways in which his parishioners have met this latest crisis, having already witnessed their can-do attitude when floods devastated the Covington area – including St. Joseph Abbey and Seminary College – in March 2016. Parishioners not only fed several elderly monks who took up temporary residence on parish grounds; they also dispensed red beans and rice and jambalaya to the community from their parish plant and delivered food directly to those involved in the clean-up.

“We fed 350 people over that (first) weekend,” Father Charles recalled, noting that the church was used by abbey monks for their Triduum services, while his parishioners gave a whopping $60,000 to a second collection mounted for flood victims.

Pre-pandemic events got in, under the wire

While COVID-19 threw a wrench into St. Benedict’s quarterly potlucks and big 50th anniversary party, some celebratory events did go according to plan. In January, the parish kicked off its milestone year with 50 hours of continuous adoration and prayer in the church, with families signing up for shifts in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

A pilgrimage called “In the Footsteps of St. Benedict” also took place right before the global lockdown: Father Charles and two dozen parishioners traveled to major Benedictine sites in Italy and to the Franciscan city of Assisi, the latter in honor of the strong links between the two religious orders.

Roots go back more than a century

Although Archbishop Philip Hannan formally established St. Benedict and entrusted it to the pastoral care of the monks of St. Joseph Abbey on June 6, 1970, the parish’s history goes back even further – to 1913, when Benedictine Father Odilo Alt got lost on horseback on his way home to St. Joseph Abbey. After stopping at a farmhouse for directions, he encountered a farmer who shared that he was “Catholic” but had never been baptized – something that was rather common in rural St. Tammany Parish at that time. Father Odilo carried the farmer’s story back to his abbot, Benedictine Father Paul Schaeble, and the monks’ mission work ensued.

The first Mass was celebrated by Benedictine Father Lawrence Scheidle in November 1914 inside a private home located in an area then known as Liberty Settlement. Three years later, a small chapel was built and blessed as a mission of St. Joseph Abbey on donated land along present-day Smith Road.

By 1970, Mass attendance had grown sufficiently to earn St. Benedict parish status – and its first pastor, Benedictine Father Bernard Gorman. St. Benedict's subsequent pastors were Father Charles Villere (1977-78); Father Marian Larmann (1978-82); Father Peter Hammett (1982-87), a concelebrant of the Nov. 22 Mass; Father Marian Larmann (1987-2005); Father Adam Begnaud (2005-07); and Father Jonathan Defrange (2007-15), Father Charles’ predecessor.

A new church, necessitated by growing parish rolls and built on Smith Road, near the original chapel, was blessed by Archbishop Francis Schulte on Sept. 17, 1989. The St. Scholastica Catechetical Center was added in 1997, and a permanent rectory was built in 2008. Subsequent expansion projects in 2013 and 2017 doubled the size of the church and increased the square footage of the catechetical center, respectively.

“We have a real family atmosphere here,” noted Philip Rapp, a parishioner since 2008 who is part of St. Benedict’s 45-member Men’s Club and the parish’s “Wednesday Work Crew,” a group that does everything from trimming trees to picking up trash. The Men’s Club coordinates fundraisers and returns all proceeds to the parish, with recent projects including replacing all lights in the catechetical center with LED bulbs, improving lighting in the parking lot and mulching gardens with pine straw.

“There’s so much camaraderie with the groups here – you’re in one group and it branches out," Rapp said. “It grows and grows, and you end up knowing a lot of people. You just feel very comfortable with people.”

Father Charles, too, is struck by “the strong, strong sense of community” at St. Benedict.

“We’re in a rural area, so this parish has always been about the people,” he said. “It’s that whole concept of Benedictine hospitality. Everyone knows each other, so when there’s a stranger or a new person, they’re welcomed.”

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