Interesting. Thanks for telling me.
I understand that St Louis is now something other than a church? My grandmother lived in NOLA, and I visited every year at Easter time, always went to mass there. It was lovely. She lived out on St. Charles and we took the streetcar. One day, when I was about 11, we got on and she said, “There are no seats.” “Yes there are,” I said, and headed for the back of the car. She held me back and said “that’s where the black people sit. “
I had a hard time believing that...and the black people looked at me with that, “There goes another racist” look. We had a black guy at home in Chicago who was absolutely wonderful, did work in the house for us, even dressed up in a tux and served drinks at a Christmas party at our house. It was shocking to look at segregation.
And now, shocking to hear that those unsegregated blacks won’t work.
“I understand that St. Louis [Cathedral] is now something other than a church?”
Still very much an active parish in every respect, with a heavenly choir, and a full schedule of masses presided over by Archbishop Aymond.
However, the Cathdral is the oldest in North America., built in the early 1700s— it pre-dates the Declaration of Independence!
As such, in ADDITION to a church, it is ALSO an architecturally significant museum. There are regularly scheduled tours for tourists, when masses aren’t going on. So perhaps that’s what you’re referring to.
There’s a beautiful statue of Joan of Arc — NOLA’s patroness. Also a whole bunch of priests buried in the walls & floors.
When John Paul II visited NOLA in 1987, he slept in the Cathedral’s rectory, and held several gatherings for young people & clergy in the Superdome. He celebrated mass for 130,000 in a field near UNO (which the NYT reported was “poorly attended.”)
LOL.
You said you enjoyed Easter Mass there. Me too. The choir is like no other— positively supernatural. Voices of angels!
Though it wasn’t my parish, I often snuck in.
The Sunday evening Mass the week before Christmas features a choir performance that packs in a lot of non-Catholics for the sacred music. Afterwards the crowds spill into Jackson Square for Christmas caroling (one year led by Pavarotti!) then it’s across the street to Cafe Du Monde for beignets!
Also, next time you’re in NOLA, try attending a Sunday mass at St. Augustine’s Church in the Treme neighborhood. The historically black church— founded by freed slaves —features a full Gospel Jazz Mass. They rock the rafters— voices and trumpets!