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NEWORLEANS-CHURCH Apr-10-2006 (620 words) Follow-up. With photo. xxxn
Archbishop reopens New Orleans church after dispute is resolved
By Peter Finney Jr.
Catholic News Service
NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- New Orleans Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes April 8 re-consecrated a historic New Orleans black church he had ordered closed "for the foreseeable future" after a protest disrupted Mass there two weeks earlier.
The March 26 demonstration at St. Augustine Church was organized to protest the archdiocese's decision to close the parish and merge it with a neighboring parish, but keep the church building open for one Mass each Sunday.
Archbishop Hughes announced that the archdiocese and parishioners who want their parish to remain open had settled their dispute. He re-established St. Augustine Parish for the next 18 months.
The archbishop said he hoped the resolution of the dispute would become a symbol of reconciliation for the entire city. He said the parish could remain open longer if it met agreed-upon guidelines for viability and vibrancy.
The archbishop re-consecrated the church during a 45-minute ritual attended by about 75 parishioners. Afterward he held a news conference outside the church to announce the settlement of the dispute.
"I hope that what we have been through, with all the anger and suffering and difficulties, can now lead to our having realized a good model of how ... to work out a dispute in the spirit of and fidelity to the Gospel," Archbishop Hughes said.
The archbishop also celebrated Passion Sunday Mass April 9 at a packed church; it was the first Mass since a sign-waving, verbally heated protest during Mass at the church cut short the liturgy.
The protest prompted the archdiocese to declare that a sacrilege had been committed, and the church was officially closed the next day.
But on Passion Sunday, the mood was joyous. Archbishop Hughes was the main celebrant, and he was joined by the former St. Augustine pastor, Divine Word Father Jerome LeDoux, and Edmundite Father Michael Jacques, the pastor of nearby St. Peter Claver Parish.
The dispute arose in the weeks following a Feb. 9 promulgation of a post-Hurricane Katrina archdiocesan pastoral plan that called for the closing of seven parishes, including St. Augustine, and delayed the reopening of another 23 parishes because of drastic population shifts.
St. Augustine Parish, on the fringe of the French Quarter, was established in 1841 and was a house of worship to whites, free people of color and slaves. In recent years, the financially strapped parish had relatively few baptisms, first Communions, confirmations and adults participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, but its pastor, Father LeDoux, built a loyal and passionate following.
While the archdiocesan plan called for St. Augustine Parish to close and merge with St. Peter Claver Parish -- a thriving African-American parish in the inner city -- St. Augustine Church was to remain open for Sunday Mass and for weddings and funerals.
However, protesters opposed to the parish's closing occupied the St. Augustine rectory in mid-March and refused to leave. They were among the people who entered the church during Mass March 26 carrying signs and decrying the presence of Father Jacques.
Two days of discussions between archdiocesan and parish leaders in early April led to an agreement to reopen the parish for the next 18 months and established "benchmarks" that, if met, would keep the parish open beyond that.
The benchmarks included: increasing registered and participating parish households from 300 to 400; providing "full sacramental life ... with the appropriate sacramental programs" within the next six months, or having access to those programs in a neighboring parish; celebrating Mass "in fidelity to the church's liturgical directives immediately"; placing the parish's sacramental records in order within a month; and developing a plan for capital repairs to parish property by Dec. 31.
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Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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