Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., said in a July 10 memo to his fellow bishops that "the needs for diocesan recovery in the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Diocese of Biloxi (Miss.) are as great now as they were immediately after the storms which caused them."

American Catholics donated more than $130 million to a national collection for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita last September, but those funds went primarily to humanitarian relief, he said.

Bishop Skylstad said the 2006 national collection — approved by the bishops during their June meeting in Los Angeles — would give Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans and Bishop Thomas J. Rodi of Biloxi "greater discretion in meeting the church’s recovery and rebuilding needs within these two dioceses."

Sixty percent of the funds collected will go to the Archdiocese of New Orleans and 40 percent will be given to the Diocese of Biloxi.

Bishop Skylstad said that in the Mississippi diocese, with only 70,000 Catholics, church-owned structures sustained more than $70 million in damage. All but five of the 433 church-owned structures in the diocese were destroyed or severely damaged.

In New Orleans, Archbishop Hughes estimated $52 million in uninsured flood damage to buildings that the archdiocese is trying to reopen now. Buildings whose reopenings have been delayed sustained another $70 million in uninsured flood damage, he said.

"These costs place even greater burdens on people already overwhelmed by grief, dislocation and discouragement," Bishop Skylstad said in his memo.

Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, retired head of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and chairman of the bishops’ Task Force on Hurricane Recovery, was to prepare a report by Sept. 1, 2007, "on the status, distribution and disposition of the funds collected," the memo said.

In a report to the bishops in Los Angeles, Archbishop Fiorenza said, "While some of the dioceses affected by Katrina and Rita are reporting significant progress in rebuilding and recovery, extraordinary needs remain throughout the region.

"Donor intent has understandably concentrated on humanitarian relief, which remains critically important; however, ‘bricks-and-mortar’ projects ... are placing exceptional burdens on the dioceses involved," he added.

Bishop Skylstad closed the memo by quoting from an unnamed bishop in the hurricane-affected region: "Critical to the ongoing recovery is to keep the journey of the struggling people of this great region before the minds and hearts of the Catholic faithful. Their homes, their industry and their hearts are broken."