All Saints: For 100 years, a West Bank blessing

Story and Photos By Christine Bordelon, Clarion Herald

A century ago, African Americans found a new Catholic home on the West Bank of New Orleans when All Saints Catholic Mission Church was established by Archbishop James Blenk.

On Nov. 2, current All Saints parishioners marked their 100th anniversary – almost to the day – with a Mass concelebrated by Archbishop Gregory Aymond and Archbishop Emeritus Alfred Hughes, and a banquet the following day.

Archbishop Aymond followed the anniversary theme of “Guided by the Light of Faith for the First 100 Years, Marching Onward by Faith, Hope and Love toward the Future” by stressing how the hand of God has followed the parish through its centennial.

He thanked God for planting the seed of faith on Teche Street, where the parish is located, and for the founding mothers and fathers who built the foundation of the church and whose relatives continue to practice their faith there.

“We come together to tell the sacred story of 100 years old – the story of your parish,” Archbishop Aymond said. “In telling this story, we give a few details … to show the hand of God was in the founding of the parish as well as its growth.

“This story is closely tied to the Josephite community who came to New Orleans in 1909 and who have been serving here in this local church.”

The first service for All Saints Church was held in June 1920 in an old YMCA building that was bought, dismantled and reassembled on Teche Street.

“The community continued to grow because the hand of God was upon the leaders of the community and all its members,” Archbishop Aymond said. “The family got bigger, and when a family gets bigger it needs a new house. So, in May 1931, the church where we stand today, this holy ground, this blessed place, was dedicated by Archbishop (John) Shaw … built for $27,000” in the Spanish Mission style.

  The Knights of Peter Claver were present in their regalia with swords at that Mass, just as they were at the 100th anniversary Mass.

Priests, nuns had impact

One couldn’t talk about the parish without mentioning the school, which opened in 1924 with the Sisters of the Holy Family at its helm, teaching several generations of students with their mission “to produce saints,” Archbishop Aymond said.

Several of the sisters were present at the centennial Mass.

Parishioner Carmelite Lombard Goodreaux, 85, whose Lombard family was a founding family of the parish, is an active choir member. Her daughter Melissa Gaston is the parish’s traditional choir director.

Goodreaux recalled how the Sisters of the Holy Family were instrumental in her and her siblings’ learning the faith. She and her siblings were baptized at All Saints and walked seven blocks to attend All Saints School, where the sisters not only taught them math, reading skills and faith but also exposed them to the arts, with plays and operettas.

Her brothers were also altar servers.

“We always had something,” Goodreaux said. “They were a big influence on us. They helped us and would come visit us at home,” and Goodreaux and her siblings would go to places with the nuns on buses and streetcars.

  Goodreaux continues to sing in the choir and is a member of the Legion of Mary and a weekly rosary group started by her mother in 1950. She also says a rosary before daily Mass on certain days.

             

Filling a need

Founding pastor, Josephite Father James Albert, was invited by Archbishop Blenk to open a mission on the West Bank to serve African Americans who, 100 years ago, weren’t always invited to celebrate in other Catholic churches.

Archbishop Aymond said the history of All Saints Church notes that Father Albert crossed the river each day by ferry until land was found, and the first Mass was celebrated on Nov. 1, 1919, at the Sacred Heart Burial Society Hall on the corner of Vallette and Evelina streets. Three hundred fifty people attended.

“The hand of God was in that appointment,” he said.

Since that time, All Saints reports having buried more than 1,000 parishioners, married more than 1,000 couples, registered almost 4,800  baptisms, with 988 of them converts.

“The same spirit that supported our ancestors through the trials of life … is still alive and well at All Saints,” a history of the parish states.

Archbishop Aymond thanked parishioners for carrying on the mission of Christ – to bring Christ to others. He urged All Saints to build on its 100-year foundation by continuing to make a difference in the local community through living their faith and being the body of Christ today. Josephite Father Peter Weiss, the pastor, is their spiritual leader, the archbishop said.

As he does at all milestone parish anniversaries, Archbishop Aymond asked parishioners to think about three things: What more can they do as a parish for the good of the church? How can they be sent to call back, by name, those who are distanced from the church? And, who in the parish is being called to the priesthood or religious life?

“The same Jesus who called Zacchaeus (from the Gospel) out of the tree, doesn’t pass us by,” he said. “He calls us by name and sits at our table and give us his own body and blood in the Eucharist, and his word in the Scriptures.”

Christine Bordelon can be reached at [email protected].