‘‘I was always impressed with the stories of prayer getting them through those dark, difficult minutes’ -- Father Gregory Le Blanc

Experience teaches Greensburg pastor of the ‘fragility of life’

By David Myers

Southwest Kansas Register

Although St. Joseph Church in Greensburg was destroyed in the May 4 tornado, it stands as a beacon for the entire community; its cross is reportedly the only cross left standing in the shattered town, and its bell is still rung at noon and 6 p.m., bringing with it inspiration and hope.

“I was there yesterday and so many people came by to ring the bell and take pictures of the cross,” said Father Gregory Le Blanc, pastor of St. Joseph’s. On May 10, he and Bishop Ronald Gilmore visited the site, where Bishop Gilmore greeted some of the neighboring parishioners as he walked around the ruined structure. Residents haven’t lost their sense of humor. One smiling resident told the bishop, “This neighborhood’s really going to pot.”

Father Le Blanc was at his home in Pratt, where he is also pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, when the storm hit.

“I was 30 miles away and saw this horrific lightning,” he said. “It was just amazing. I probably heard 35 ambulances from midnight to 6 a.m. Then I heard the choppers and thought, this is not good at all. It was really eerie, especially to hear the choppers. It’s a sound you just don’t hear in southwest Kansas.

“I was listening to the storm reports, and the reports got worse and worse, saying that a greater part of the city had been destroyed,” he said. “I typically pray the rosary at night, so I kept them in my prayers.”

Approximately 30 of the 55 families who attended St. Joseph’s lived in Greensburg.

Since the town was closed off the next day and Sunday, Father Le Blanc and members of his pastoral council visited a shelter in Haviland on Sunday where he greeted “10 to 50 parishioners staying there.” At the shelter, he was able to determine where several other parishioners had gone to stay. “By the time I got there, they were looking for places to live, dealing with insurance, and trying to put their lives back together.”

At the shelter, he listened as families shared their stories. “One said how all the statues in their house were not toppled over. They remained upright and kind of served as beacons in a sense. Even as cars were thrown around and houses turned upside down, the statues remained unscathed.

“I was always impressed with the stories of prayer getting them through those dark, difficult minutes.”

On Monday, he tried once again to get into Greensburg, but “they had an ammonia leak and evacuated the town.”

That same morning, before the evacuation, local Grand Knight Andy Kimble had gone into the church and rescued several items, including the sacristy, computer, and many other items, and placed them in storage.

“On Tuesday a parishioner with a truck, Willy Peltier and his wife, Cecilia, and I went into Greensburg,” Father Le Blanc explained. “We entered the town from the east. The northeast was the least affected, and I thought, this doesn’t look so bad. But the farther west you go, the worst I saw the destruction had been. It was totally overwhelming. It was mind boggling to see what a storm could do. The destruction was just horrific. I likened it to a lunar landscape; no green, just gray: indescribable.”

Father Le Blanc said that the storm made him aware of the “fragility of life.”

“What we know to be stable and sturdy and indestructible is absolutely fragile. This is my house, this is my car, this is my family, this is my church. Yet all those things are God’s and he entrusts them to us. We are just trustees of those gifts. That’s what really hit me, the notion that we tend to want to own -- ownership is so important to us. But we don’t really own anything.”