[StBernard] New Orleans pastor welcomes aid, prays for rebirth

[Westley Annis]

New Orleans pastor welcomes aid, prays for rebirth
Mark Hare 



(January 25, 2007) - Yes, having the New Orleans Saints march deep into the
National Football League playoffs was important to the city and the region
laid waste by Hurricane Katrina, says the Rev. Danilo "Danny" Digal, pastor
of Our Lady of Prompt Succor Roman Catholic Church in St. Bernard's Civil
Parish, just outside the city. 

But the Saints are not - as much of the media imply - a metaphor for a city
on its way back. The reality of post-Katrina New Orleans is that it doesn't
fit neatly into our belief that American ingenuity can make short work of
any obstacle. 

"You have to see it to understand it," Father Danny told me. Except for the
downtown French Quarter party district, New Orleans was largely laid to
waste, and remains so today - in part because of bungling state and federal
bureaucracies, in part because it's hard to know where to start (or even if
to start in some areas) the rebuilding. 

Father Danny spoke last weekend at Masses at St. Catherine of Siena Church
in Mendon, which, with Transfiguration and St. Louis churches in Pittsford,
has raised more than $87,000 to help rebuild Our Lady of Prompt Succor, the
only Catholic church remaining in St. Bernard's parish, or county. Nearly 30
Rochester area Catholic churches have formed partnerships in the New Orleans
area. 

Father Danny expressed what he called his "profound gratitude" for the help
of the Rochester parishes. His bishop decided to cluster seven other area
Catholic parishes with Our Lady "because we had the least damage," he said.
"The others were completely underwater; we had only four feet." 

Ten of the 11 buildings on the church grounds are gone, but contractors have
cleaned, repaired and reopened the church. Used trailers now house other
church ministries and the parish school. 

The Christmas theme last year was "recovery, rebuilding and rebirth," Father
Danny says. Before Katrina, more than 70,000 people lived in St. Bernard's
parish; today there are about 23,000. 

Very few homes have been rebuilt; mountains of debris remain uncleared.
Shopping malls are gone; there are few jobs. But reconstruction of the
physical infrastructure may be the easiest part of the job ahead. 

"What's tougher," Father Danny says, "is rebuilding our confidence, our
character, our self worth." Some people are angry with God, he says. "It is
my responsibility to help them rebuild their spiritual lives," he says. 

Glenda Nothnagle, a St. Catherine's parishioner who has helped with the
fundraising effort, once lived in New Orleans and has visited the city -
where her daughter still lives - twice since Katrina. 

The people with money, she says, will be fine. They can rebuild. "But the
poor - what will happen to them?"

The obvious priorities, she says, are to secure the city's levees and to
control the violent crime that is reaching new heights. But there are other,
less visible, priorities. Depression and suicide are major threats. 

"My daughter and I knew a hairdresser," Nothnagle says, who had many
prominent clients. "He needed an organ transplant, but wasn't able to get
the medical care he needed and he died." Others have suffered the same fate,
she says. 

Father Danny, from the Philippines, has seen his share of typhoons. He is an
optimist by nature. But Katrina exposed New Orleans as hugely vulnerable to
future storms and raised the possibility that a major city would simply
disappear. 

"We have learned a painful lesson," he says. "We are not in control of our
lives. So we have to return to God."

And thank God for the good people who have stepped forward to help. But no
one is quite sure yet what compassion for the people of New Orleans requires
of the rest of the country.