UNSHAKEN FAITH

Shortly after Archbishop Alfred Hughes began celebrating Mass on Sunday, he abruptly started speaking in Vietnamese.

Glancing at a note card he pulled from his robes, he uttered a few clipped phrases in which "Katrina" was the only English word. Then he returned to his native tongue to say, "That's as far as I can go."

The audience clearly appreciated his effort, which symbolized the cross-cultural spiritual event at Mary Queen of Vietnam, billed as a "Resurrection Mass for New Orleans East."

Throngs filled pews and overflowed the large church on Dwyer Boulevard, where gospel songs interspersed the Vietnamese choir's hymns. More than 1,000 gathered at the church in an area that still lacks electricity, water and sewer service eight weeks after it was largely ruined by the storm.

Generators powered a few lights at the altar, microphones and speakers, but the service lacked air conditioning and relied primarily on natural light. In the rear of the church, metal and pieces of the ceiling dangled from where the storm tore off sections of roof.

Asked later what Hughes had said, the Rev. Nguyen The Vien translated: "God has seen the suffering from the hurricane, and He is with you."

Hughes invoked Katrina again in his homily, when he posed the question, "How do you interpret what has happened in the eyes of faith?" The answer isn't facile, he said, but he suggested it should strengthen one's belief.

Hughes quoted St. Paul, who acknowledged his inability to comprehend the divine by saying, "How inscrutable are God's judgments and how unsearchable His ways."

Hughes asked, "Who has ever known the mind of God?"

The archbishop used the tower of Siloam, which fell and killed 18 men, as an object lesson in faith. Interpreting that destruction, Jesus told his listeners to repent, Hughes said, unless something worse happened.

"What could possibly be worse," Hughes said, than Katrina's devastation?

"If we should find ourselves permanently separated from God," he said.

The archbishop said the Vietnamese in the congregation had experienced extraordinary loss before setting foot on American soil, and "you know what it is, in the midst of all this, to have faith." God doesn't cause physical evil, he said, but he tolerates it for the greater good. He referred to the crucifixion as the greatest evil that allowed for the ultimate enrichment of mankind.

Hughes said the aftermath of Katrina is an opportunity to live a less consumer-driven, materialistic lifestyle. It is a chance to be less self-indulgent, more self-sacrificing, he said.

It should encourage "a community with one soul" that collaborates "across lines of former division," he said, such as Asian, Caucasian, African-American.

Hughes was joined by 18 priests as concelebrants, including Monsignor Earl Gauthtreaux, eastern New Orleans' dean.

Before the homily, the archbishop praised Father Vien, pastor of Mary Queen of Vietnam, for his "extraordinary leadership" before, during and after Katrina.

To the congregation, he exclaimed, "Welcome home. The church is alive in New Orleans East." Before the consecration of the Eucharist, the St. Paul the Apostle Church choir sang "Order My Steps." After the Lord's Prayer, just before Communion, the Mary Queen of Vietnam choir sang "Trong Cay Chua."

"Who can say there is not hope for New Orleans East? God is our hope," Hughes said after another song. "What a magnificent expression of the church: Different cultures, different races, one faith." At the conclusion of Mass, several political officials in attendance addressed the congregation, as well as representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Entergy.

Many spoke of their faith and vowed the entire community will be rebuilt.

"We will be back, and we will be back better," said Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis. "But in His time, not ours."

State Sen. Ann Duplessis, D-New Orleans, told the crowd, "You're not just my constituents. You're my family." In the hurricane, "I didn't lose anything but stuff." She said she has her family and God, "and that's all the assets that really matter."

Clerk of Criminal Court Kimberly Williamson-Butler urged the audience, "Let's not be like Lott's wife. Let's look forward, because our future is bright. We will be a model community."

Vien welcomed everyone in attendance to enjoy meals served in the parking lot behind the church, including egg rolls, roast beef and fried chicken. At side tables set up under tents, relief workers gave tetanus and diphtheria shots while contractors offered brochures or took applications.

. . . . . . .

 

Staff writer Bruce Hamilton can be reached at bhamilton@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3378.