The Parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel: A Brief Sketch
by Brian Morgan, OCDS
On February 16, 1887, the Most Reverend Francis Xavier Leray, Archbishop of New Orleans, erected a new parish in the Garden District, under the patronage of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
Our Lady of Good Counsel is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary, after a miraculous painting now found in Genazzano, Italy. According to tradition, in the year 1467, a fresco of the Madonna and Child suddenly appeared in the unfinished parish church. It was no thicker than a carte-de-visite and no more than eighteen inches square. Many miracles occurred in the portrait's presence, and it was discovered that it had been miraculously transported from a church in Albania. The reproduction above our Marian altar was touched to the sacred original, and was blessed by Pope Pius XI.
In 1887, the new parish was carved from territories belonging to Redemptorist and St. Stephen's parishes, with boundaries from Seventh Street and Foucher Street from "the river to the woods," i.e., Carondelet Street. The Reverend J. F. Lambert was appointed first pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel, and a parish school opened in 1891. Three years later, the School Sisters of Notre Dame arrived at the school. The little building used as a church in July 1887 had been replaced by a larger wood-frame building, and the third and present church, with impressive stained-glass windows and two towers (one of which was toppled by Hurricane Betsy in 1965), was dedicated on January 21, 1894.
Father Lambert served as pastor for thirty-one years, and passed away in 1918. He was followed by the Reverend Joseph Levesque (1918-1919), the Reverend W. J. Heffernan (1919-1924), and Monsignor August Bruening (1924-1944). The school building was erected during his administration, in 1925. The following year, the house which serves as the rectory was purchased. The next pastor was Monsignor Charles Beauvais (1944-1960). In his regime, in 1953, our present high-altar of marble was installed. Following him were Monsignor Charles J. Plauche (1960-1969), the Reverend Bernard Mistretta (1969-71), Monsignor Ray P. Hebert (1971-1974), the Reverend Kenneth Richard (1974-1982), the Reverend John Bahan (1974-1982), and the Reverend Lawrence DeMaria (1982).
During the nineteen-sixties and -seventies, sociological changes brought a decreased parish membership. Drastic reductions in the number of priests and Religious following the Second Vatican Council (with its current decline in church attendance) also brought difficulties for the parish. The School Sisters of Notre Dame withdrew from the parish in 1970, although the school struggled to remain open until 1988, when it was closed by the Archdiocese. The lack of secular priests led the Archdiocese to invite the Trinitarian friars (the Order of the Most Holy Trinity) to staff the parish in 1982. The following years saw a further depletion in the ranks of parishioners, and a marginalization of Good Counsel's presence in the city and Archdiocese.
The year 2000 saw the departure of the Trinitarians from the parish and the appointment of the Very Reverend Patrick E. Collum, VF, Irish-born priest of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, as pastor. These few years since have seen the revitalization of the parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel in all areas, despite the catastrophic visit of Hurricane Katrina to the city of New Orleans.