Members of the Congregation of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church Parish of Brusly earnestly appeal to its administration to temporarily pause its plans as announced in May 2025 for the removal of the classroom building and St. Francis Hall. We wish to fully participate in a spirit of cooperation in the development of the Parish’s campus to better serve our community of faith. We believe great strides can be made by an information gathering phase including not only the parish staff but all of the congregation who are interested.

The demolition of these buildings, particularly the historically important St. Francis Hall, underscores a disconnect from the congregation and a departure from the parish’s master plan which is the guiding document for the parish’s development, and which presents the last congregation-wide consensus on our historic campus.

The parish has not engaged the congregation in any form of outreach, information gathering, assessment reports, cost analysis or proposed building plans. These actions only serve to alienate the faithful who give freely of their time, talents and treasure.

A Brief Note on St. Francis Hall

St. Francis Hall, formerly St. Francis Chapel is one of the only buildings, if not THE only building, from the lost community of Sardine Point, La. It was a mission of St. John the Baptist, Brusly, until the early 1930s when the entire community was abandoned to the Mississippi River. The chapel was relocated to Brusly and has been a fixture on the campus as a community gathering place, education building and parish office until the present day.