Corpus Christi-Epiphany Parish turns 100

Love for God, family and neighbor has literally been pouring out of Corpus Christi-Epiphany Parish since its founding a century ago as a hub of faith for African-American Catholics residing in and around New Orleans’ Seventh Ward.

• In 1918, the First Communion Mass involved so many young candidates, the liturgy had to be moved outdoors.

• At its congregational peak in the early 1960s, there were nearly 3,000 registered families and about 1,500 students in the parish school. Masses – nine of them – were celebrated nearly every hour, on the hour on Sundays.

• And, although those astronomical numbers have declined over the decades, Corpus Christi-Epiphany currently counts some 25 active ministries, including the group of parishioners who receive a special blessing at the conclusion of every Sunday Mass to take holy Communion to the homebound.

“True to the name Corpus Christi-Epiphany Church, we are the Body of Christ, walking in the light of Jesus,” said Josephite Father Henry Davis, the New Orleans-born priest who became the parish’s 17th pastor in 2015. “‘Epiphany’ is that star – the manifestation of Christ,” Father Davis explained, “and ‘Corpus Christi’ reminds us that we are the Body of Christ – and that we are to take him out to the world.”

Events set for Sept. 24-25

The parish will celebrate its golden milestone with a 100th anniversary banquet Sept. 24 from noon to 3 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Downtown New Orleans. Tickets, priced at $30, are still available for the event, which will feature remarks from Father Roderick Coates, vicar general of the Josephites and pastor from 2012-15. To save attendees the pains of parking, a bus will offer transportation between the church and the Hyatt for $5.

The Centennial Mass will be celebrated at Corpus Christi Church the next day – on Sept. 25 at 1 p.m. – with Archbishop Gregory Aymond, principal celebrant, and Josephite Father Ray Bomberger, former pastor, delivering the homily.

A vibrant congregation

“I found a very alive, very active, very proud people. This parish is a pastor’s dream,” said Father Davis, who one year into his tenure is still amazed at how parishioners show up in droves to volunteer for all manner of parish jobs, including emptying trash cans, cleaning bathrooms and weeding gardens.

“The church and its location here in the Seventh Ward have always been connected with a very proud, traditional, Catholic people,” Father Davis said. “There’s a great sense of ownership of the parish.”

The Josephite priests established Corpus Christi Church on Sept. 24, 1916, its first Mass celebrated by Father Samuel Kelly, founding pastor, in a house on North Johnson Street. A seminal community of three Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament took charge of the Sunday school.

As parish rolls swelled and other parishes for African-American Catholics spun off –  such as Holy Redeemer and St. Peter Claver – many faithful remained loyal to Corpus Christi.

“Those other parishes were thriving, but none of them thrived like this one did,” said lifetime parishioner and school alumnus Robert Pedesco, noting how before Corpus Christi’s 1916 establishment, Catholics of color in the French Quarter, Treme and Downtown areas felt welcomed at only two other churches: St. Augustine and St. Louis Cathedral.

“We went from a house as the first church, to a second church – a combination church-school – and each time the number of parishioners outgrew it,” Pedesco said.

The current church at 2022 St. Bernard Ave., a double towered, stucco-walled structure in the Spanish Mission style completed in 1930, is the third church building to grace parish grounds. Designed by Paul Charbonnet Sr. – the same architect who designed St. Leo the Great Church – the church’s front column capitals feature carved heads of sheep, a nod to the eucharistic nourishment provided by Christ, the sacrificial lamb.

Blessed by many ministries

The parish, which merged with Epiphany Church in 2008, currently has 764 registered families and offers weekday Masses at 7 a.m. and three weekend Masses: a Saturday vigil at 4 p.m. and Sunday Masses at 7:30 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Among its two dozen ministries are the Knights of Peter Claver Council No. 60 and Ladies Auxiliary, whose 50 women coordinate an annual health fair; the Men in Christ group, a support ministry that handles light maintenance, painting and other tasks such as the assembly of Thanksgiving food baskets, Christmas toys and helping elderly parishioners with odd jobs; and a Bereavement Committee that walks families through every part of Corpus Christi Church’s 90 or so annual funeral liturgies and coordinates a November Memorial Mass for all deceased of the parish.

Marian-centered ministries include the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Legion of Mary and the 30-member Fatima Rosary Group, the latter founded in 1942 to pray for the many parish men who served in World War II.

Lifting worship through dance is the Liturgical Movement group of about 25 girls and women – and a handful of boys. A cantor and accompanying musician are present at every weekend Mass, including the 10 a.m. Mass featuring the main choir backed by drums, flute, guitars, saxophone, keyboard and organ.

“All of the time our music is liturgically on the money,” said the parish’s administrative assistant Linda Lagarde, describing Corpus Christi-Epiphany’s Masses as “sacred, spiritual and lively.”

School was a beacon

Corpus Christi Elementary School originated in a trio of private residences before its sturdy school-church building was erected in 1919. Through the 1970s, the school enrolled more than 1,000 students. Before its Katrina-forced closure in 2005, it offered two sections each of grades prekindergarten through six.

Late Josephite Father John Harfmann, along with Father Bomberger, who served as pastor from 2000-08, led the charge to transform the three-story school building and its late 1950s addition into the Corpus Christi-Epiphany Community Resource Center. Opened last year, the center boasts a 6,900 square-foot auditorium-gym available for reception and sports rental; a 4,000-square foot cafeteria and industrial kitchen; 10,000 square feet of classroom space; and a computer lab.

The center is also where the needy come seeking the help of the parish’s conference of St. Vincent de Paul, in operation since 1930. In addition to a food pantry, members offer rent and utility assistance Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon to about 20 monthly clients.

Other initiatives based at the sprawling community center include the LSU Ag Center, V.O.T.E. NOLA, Narcotics Anonymous, Share Our Strength and Total Community Action.

Peace in tumultuous times

Many famous locals are part of the Corpus Christi-Epiphany family, including restaurateur Leah Chase, Mayor Sidney Barthelemy, singers Deacon John Moore and Wanda Rouzan, Sybil Haydel Morial and civil rights lawyer A.P. Tureaud. Although the parish was a community meeting spot for the work of social justice during the era of segregation, parishioners who remember that time say they felt relatively insulated from racial tensions inside their church home.

“(The color bar) never would have occurred to me because we owned the church,” said Charlotte Brown, president of the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul conference. “I was never forced to sit in the back of anybody else’s church, because my church was all my people; that was a different thing about being a part of Corpus Christi Parish,” Brown said. “It was only when you went to integrated parishes that you found out what they really meant about segregation.”

Pedesco also remembers a harmonious time amazingly devoid of bullying and overflowing in Christian fellowship among the thousands of parish families.

“When I was in school here, we had redheads, blondes and brunettes in the classroom, but we didn’t ask questions like, ‘Is your grandfather white?’ or ‘Is your grandmother white?’” Pedesco recalls.

“We knew the families were mixed, but those were questions you didn’t ask,” he added. “We didn’t fight and argue with each other, despite the fact that we had all the colors of the rainbow right here in this parish.”

For information on the upcoming anniversary events, call the church office at 945-8931 or emailcce@josephite.com.

Beth Donze can be reached atbdonze@clarionherald.org.