Local bystanders fell to their knees …

My dear friend Father Michael Champagne spent two years planning his annual boat parade. Privately he told me, “Nobody’s gonna give me a tugboat for two days, that’s ridiculous! And they did.”

And so his annual Eucharistic procession took to the Mighty Mississippi.

I followed the Eucharistic procession down the Mississippi. It was easy to do by car because there were stops along the way. I stood in the heat with faithful Catholics, kneeling in silence when we heard the bells ringing as the boats approached us.

The crowding inside the cathedral in New Orleans made the breezy French Quarters more appealing to me and many others. The PA system allowed us to hear clearly, and many watched the Mass on their phones livestream. Local bystanders fell to their knees!

Early Sunday morning, Father Michael and I were sharing stories with each other when he mentioned his admiration for Father Chester Arceneaux, rector of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in the Lafayette, Louisiana, who had heard the confession of a homeless man at the event.

Although he is suffering from cancer treatments, he attended; but he needed to sit down when all seating was already taken. He asked a man sleeping on a bench to make room for him. After assuring the man that once you are baptized, you are a Catholic for life, the man poured out his painful story and received the sacrament of reconciliation right there on the spot.

This was a shining example of his personal belief that his job as a priest is to be “hope in the midst of despair.”

WATCH

Monica Hidalgo Breaux, Ph.D., MSW, earned her Ph.D. from Arizona State University while teaching human behavior and research methods as a faculty associate in the social work graduate program.

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) – The University of Southern Mississippi sent out an alert late Friday night about a shooting near campus being investigated by the Hattiesburg Police Department.

The university did conclude the brief message by saying, “There is no threat to campus at this time.”

HPD provided no information Friday night.

A heavy police presence and crime scene tape was visible near McDonald’s, Cadence Bank and Exxon Gas Station/Krispy Krunchy Chicken on the north side of Hardy Street.

The full “Eagle Alert” message that went out just before 11 p.m. to USM students, faculty and staff read:

“EAGLE ALERT Hattiesburg Police Department is investigating a shooting at the intersection of 31st Ave. and Hardy St. There is no threat to campus at this time.”

This report will be updated as more information becomes available.

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PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) – Larry Stephenson may love his fruit trees, but he seems to enjoy sharing his knowledge about then nearly as much.

Stephenson will be one of two guest speakers scheduled for 2024 Fall Garden Day, set for Friday, Sept. 27, at the Forrest County Extension Office, 952 Sullivan Drive, Hattiesburg.

Registration is set to open at 8:30 a.m.

Stephenson, who owns a Mississippi-centric orchard/nursery in Carrollton, Mississippi, cultivates a selection of fruit trees specifically meant for the Deep South’s warm and humid climates.

Stephenson said that many types of fruit trees were brought to North American soil as seeds from colonists. While many of the non-native seeds struggled to grow, some trees adapted to their new climate, matured and produced fruit.

“They’d plant 1,000 seeds and like 999 of them would die because they weren’t suitable for their new climate,” Stephenson said. “But there was always at least one of the 1,000 that would make it to produce fruit.

“They were naturally selective like that and we have a lot of them for that reason.”

The reason that most typical non-specialized fruit trees struggled was because winters in the Pine Belt do not get cold enough.

In other words, growers said that a certain amount of “chill“ hours per year were important to a tree’s ability to produce fruit.

“That’s a physical requirement,” Stephenson said. “They have to have that to set fruit and spurs for the next year. Most of your well-known (apple) varieties, like Red Delicious and Gold Delicious, need a minimum of 1,000 chill hours to set fruit.”

Stephenson, who includes a variety of apple trees among his stock, said that the Pine Belt may only see 600 to 800 chill hours every year, which is why he grows different fruit tree varieties that will thrive in Mississippi.

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