After 25 years, priest returns to bless the fleet

Sunday’s blessing of the fleet ceremony was very meaningful to celebrant the Rev. Michael Russo, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Lafayette.
Russo is a native of Patterson and 25 years ago after he was ordained he returned the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival to bless the fleet.
“Here I am 25 years later participating again,” Russo said. “Many memories come back to me of being a little boy and being part of this celebration. It is great seeing people who saw me growing up as a young boy and see how shocked they are when they see me.”
Earlier in the day Russo presided over Mass at Holy Cross Catholic Church in a ceremony moved from Lawrence Park after rainy weather Saturday.
Russo, 51, quipped, “I prayed for sunshine and it worked,” of Sunday’s almost blistering hot weather during the Blessing of the Fleet and Water Parade at the Morgan City waterfront.
“It is always good to invoke God’s blessing on our way of life in the Tri-City area and I think our faith is important to the people of this area,” he said. “It incorporates our livelihood by plugging into our faith life too.”
There were 67 boats participating in the water parade.
Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi said, “The shrimp and petroleum industry still represents the bulk of our economy — it is an opportunity to recognize that here today, not only the Morgan City economy, but the whole parish. People don’t realize we still have a fishing community here that do this for a living and we try to accommodate them as much as we can. But the bulk of our economy right now is the petroleum industry.”
Grizzaffi noted Saturday’s rain highlighted the city upgrading the area under the U.S. 90 bridge.
“I think the improvements under the bridge paid off in this particular festival because of the inclement weather,” he said. “Instead of shutting down the whole festival, we were able to operate during the rainy time. That was a blessing itself.”
Nathalie Weber, president of the festival’s board of directors, said the festival was blessed to have Russo to attend. “He celebrated his first Mass of the festival 25 years ago. This is his 25th celebration as priest, so we asked him to return and bless the boats.”
Festival visitor John Babin of Baton Rouge was attending his first Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival.
“It is awesome,” he said. “I was able to tough out the weather yesterday.”
Babin said the festival is unique. “The only thing that surprised me was all the pleasure craft getting blessed,” he said. “But that’s cool before Labor Day. Why not have everybody.”
Festival Queen Hailee Thomas was back on the wharf after she and King Michael Patterson toasted each other from a meeting on the water.
“It was so much fun,” she said. “I knew a lot about it coming in because I’ve seen my aunts and grandmas pictures and everything, but it was so much more than what I thought it was going to be.”
Thomas said the “coolest part was when my king, Michael Patterson, and I toasted and all the horns started going off.”
Patterson said, “It was a wonderful experience for us. The weather held out and we had a good crowd. The highlight is today with the sunshine coming out and the boat parade is real fun.”
At the end of the boat parade was the first Atchafalaya Oar Boat Race organized by Dutch Vaandenaardweg, who said the goal was to give the community something else to be excited about.
After the race with two boats manned by seven-member crews, he said, “We are going to struggle really hard now to see if we can get some other people interested in racing.”
Joe Cavalier, captain of the winning boat crew from LAD Companies said, the race was fun. The tough part “was team work. You got to work together.”
Winners in the boat parade were:
Pleasure class – Paw Paw’s Last, first; Maria, second; and Lagniappe, third.
Petroleum vessels – Miss Erin, first; Sea Otter, second; and Capt. Black, third.
Shrimp – Miss Vickie, first; Quality Time, second; and Bearthe, third.