Bishop Kihneman, Blessing the Mercy Cross Center for Homeless for 2024
"The need for the project has been an outstanding concern since I arrived in the Diocese of Biloxi as your Bishop in 2017....the need for this center really hit home for me last summer when eight members of our community who have no homes died from heat exposure. That was the final motivation for me to get this project up and going so that we do not lose any more members of our community without homes due to excessive heat."
Bishop Louis F. Kihneman Bishop of the Diocese of Biloxi, MS.

As a member of St Alphonsus Parish, Knights of Columbus 5654 and American Legion Post 42 Ocean Springs, there was a need to support veterans near Keesler Air Force Base, VA Hospital and Seabee Base in Gulfport. Post 42 currently supports the Veterans home in Collins Mississippi with books, magazines, new and used cleaned clothing and hygiene items. I attended the center blessing to access the needs of homeless veterans in the community and how Post 42 and the KCs could help. The center for homeless veterans and others was a dream of Bishop Kihneman’s heart since his arrival in Biloxi in 2017.

For me it was a long memory back in time when Mercy Cross was combined with Sacred Heart girl’s and Notre Dame High school for boys in 1981. I had five of my six children graduate from Mercy Cross High School one was the valedictorian of the first class in 1982. Years later I would serve as president of Mercy Cross School Board and was a booster club member. Mercy Cross High School after Hurricane Katrina 2005 was combined with St. John and Mercy Cross into St. Patrick High School by Bishop Rodi while I served on the Diocesan Finance Committee. Mercy Cross Center is the first multi-agency center supported by other religious denominations and non-profit agencies and the city of Biloxi to provide temporary day shelter for homeless veterans and others in the community.

Learn more at https://biloxidiocese.org/cc-homeless.

Biloxi is a city of love volunteers outnumbered the homeless four to one

Submitted by Richard Eckert, Ocean Springs, MS, 228-875-5233

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