Northshore Seder meal a faith-teaching tool

    Father Buddy Noel, parochial vicar at Our Lady of the Lake, showed his love for ecumenism on Palm Sunday, when Rabbi John Nimon of the Northshore Jewish Congregation led a Passover celebration in the cafeteria at the Mandeville church.     Father Noel is Ecumenical and Interfaith Director for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Although he was ordained to the priesthood just last June, he has years of experience as a director of religious education (DRE) and as a leader in interfaith dialogue in New Orleans.

    “I have had a close relationship with the Jewish community” in New Orleans, where he was DRE at Holy Name of Jesus on St. Charles Avenue before entering the seminary.
    
His many interfaith accomplishments include starting an interfaith Seder meal at Loyola University with Adam Bronstone of the Jewish Federation of New Orleans, viewing Mel Gibson’s “The Passion” in 2004 with members of the Jewish community in order to dialogue with them afterward, organizing a Holocaust memorial with former Archbishop Alfred Hughes and Holocaust survivors at St. Louis Cathedral, and much more.
    
“I am very comfortable with the Jewish community,” Father Noel said. And so when he arrived at Our Lady of the Lake in July, he naturally called the rabbi down the road and invited him to lunch.