Three years after Katrina, God’s light still shines on south La.

A couple of week ago, I attended funeral Mass for one of my relatives, Mickey Netzhammer, at St. Gabriel the Archangel Church in New Orleans East. She had lived in New Orleans but, after Hurricane Katrina, she evacuated to her sister’s home in Ozark, Ala., where she died.

It was a grim reminder for me that many people are still suffering from the effects of that devastating hurricane. Katrina also displaced other relatives who attended the funeral.

When young people lose their possessions, starting over is easier. When the elderly lose everything they’ve worked for all their life, it can have a detrimental affect on their physical, emotional, mental and spiritual life. That is why we need to encourage one another.

The restoration of St. Gabriel Church is a good example of what can happen when people encourage one another. When the pastor, Msgr. Douglas Doussan, visited St. Gabriel Church five weeks after Hurricane Katrina, he was convinced his parish had died. The church had been under six feet of water and, when it drained, the whole floor was left covered with muck and soot.

Not a pretty sight!

Father Tom Ranzino, the pastor of St. Jean Vianney Parish in Baton Rouge, asked his evacuated friend, “Doug, why don’t you let St. Jean Vianney handle the cleanup of St. Gabriel Parish?” It was one of those moments where God works directly through people. “This was a moment of resurrection for us, the first light in the darkness of our despair,” Msgr. Doussan said.

Seventy St. Jean Vianney parishioners traveled to New Orleans to clear the rubble from the church and other parish buildings, allowing St. Gabriel to celebrate its first Mass inside the barren church three months after Katrina. Incredibly, 300 people drove in from several states for the first liturgy.

Although no parishioners had yet returned home, the parish celebrated Mass without electricity or air conditioning every Sunday, beginning Feb. 12, 2006.

After the church was minimally restored, the parish staff decided to help parishioners restore their homes. Since April 2006, more than 2,500 volunteers from all over the country have made the trip to St. Gabriel Parish to gut and renovate the houses in the neighborhood. Through outside donations, the parish established a fund that provided up to $1,800 in building materials to 150 families that returned to fix their homes. This is Christianity at work – sheltering the homeless!

St. Gabriel Parish received $1 million from a national Katrina collection, and it raised another $800,000 from foundations and individuals across the country. However, the donation that will remain dearest to Msgr. Doussan’s heart was the anonymous gift by a Hispanic woman who attended Mass at St. Lawrence of Brindisi in Los Angeles’ Watts section.

The woman was at the church on the day of a Katrina collection and had no money to give. So, she took off her gold wedding ring and placed it in a collection envelope. The woman scribbled in Spanish on the envelope: “For the victims of the hurricane. I did not bring any money, but this should be of some value. It is with all of my heart.” This is a modern example of the widow’s mite.

“When we experience death or destruction or failure, the seeds of light are always planted within that death, waiting to sprout,” Msgr. Doussan said. “This has renewed my faith and my parishioners’ faith. God always brings good out of evil. The enormity of the devastation we’ve experienced has been matched by the care and generosity from so many people and churches around the country.”

St. Paul tells us, “Encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) The beautiful renovated St. Gabriel Church was dedicated on Feb. 8.