St. Angela Merici has thrived from its humble start

Their first place of worship consisted of folding chairs and a portable altar backed by a curtain. But the smell is what founding families of St. Angela Merici Church remember most about their parish’s early days.

During the 16-month-long construction of their permanent church on Pomona Street and Melody Drive, weekend Masses were celebrated in the banquet hall of Leon’s, an Italian restaurant on Phosphor Avenue.

“The tomato gravy was so aromatic,” said Nick Gagliano, 88, a 50-year choir member who was among St. Angela’s first cantors. “The smell would drift in the room when Mass was being said. Going to Communion had a different dimension to it.

“We had no organ, no organist, nothing,” Gagliano added. “So you made your own pitch and maybe half the congregation could sing.”

Despite the austere surroundings, more than 1,400 worshipers gathered at Leon’s for St. Angela’s three inaugural weekend Masses, a response that prompted Father Joseph Calato, founding pastor, to add two more Masses to the mix and to establish a new ministry: ushers charged with directing vehicular traffic.

Vibrancy continues to be a hallmark of the Metairie parish, which concluded its yearlong 50th anniversary observance with a June 14 Mass celebrated by Archbishop Gregory Aymond.

Active engagement

“This is not a parish where you see priests and deacons doing everything. Everybody is involved,” said Father Beau Charbonnet, who came on board as St. Angela’s sixth pastor last July. “Over the years the priests and deacons have really encouraged and empowered the laity to take a stand in leadership, in family, in the community itself. It is a busy, active parish. You feelit. There’s a sense of life.”

Carved out of territory once claimed by St. Catherine of Siena and St. Louis King of France parishes, St. Angela was canonically established by Archbishop John Cody on June 1, 1964. Father Calato, assisted by Father Jerry Dabria, quickly gathered 900 charter families.

Lorraine Rodriguez, 85, said she and her 3,000 fellow worshipers were misty-eyed when their permanent church opened on Oct. 17, 1965. The mother of four was among those who had watched the pilings being driven for the 50,000-square foot building, uniquely designed with the school atop the church.

“You could just visualize the children learning about the Lord, present below their feet,” said Rodriguez of the second-floor school, which initially offered grades kindergarten through five and was staffed by the Ursuline Sisters, the order established by St. Angela. “The Ursuline nuns were so fantastically beautiful in their white summer habits. The children fell in love with them immediately.”

Rodriguez watched the parish grow during her nine years as a volunteer secretary, traveling to and from her workplace at the original rectory on Beverly Garden Drive by school bus, alongside her children. She recalls not being able to leave the rectory phone unattended for even an instant – because answering machines had not yet been invented – and using a machine called an addressograph to label bulk mailings.

Lighter memories include the time Father Calato appeared at the rectory in a panic to report the confessional in his soon-to-open church didn’t have a door.

“He had a piece of purple cloth – probably something he was going to use for Lent – and we cut the cloth in half,” Rodriguez said, chuckling. “We had to tape it up and pray it wouldn’t fall down.”

March of pastors

Father Calato was succeeded by Father Louis Generes (1972-73); Father John Favalora, current archbishop emeritus of Miami (1973-79); Msgr. Crosby Kern (1979-2003); and Msgr. Kenneth Hedrick (2003-13).

Father Charbonnet marvels at how many daily communicants attend the two weekday Masses at 6:15 and 8:30 a.m. The parish currently counts 1,866 registered families.

“When I go back to the sacristy after Mass, people come in to gather,” Father Charbonnet said. “They begin their day with Mass and then go out – bringing Communion, doing Bible study, going to the hospital. I feel that I walked into one of the most blessed situations a new pastor could walk into.”

Other signs of parish vitality include hosting the archdiocese’s longest running, parish-based prayer group, and large, service-oriented ministries for men, women, youth and senior citizens. St. Angela produced 2014’s Regina Matrum – June Prados – and has four active permanent deacons. Four additional acolytes from the parish are slated for ordination in 2015.

Preserving the past

A committee of 52 planned a raft of 50th anniversary activities, including an “all-year” reunion at Rock ‘n’ Bowl that drew 300 alumni of the elementary school; a Mass honoring St. Angela’s founding families; the gala “All That Glitters;” and a parish picnic that asked families to think “plus-1” by providing food and transportation for a parishioner in need.

The links between food and fellowship were honored in a 50th anniversary cookbook – “Celebrating Faith & Food” – and at the January Mass marking the feast of St. Angela, which concluded with an Italian dinner in the parish center that recreated the interior of Leon’s.

Eric Broadbridge and a clutch of volunteers took on the task of preserving parish history, scanning 50 years of bulletins and organizing photos on the website by year. By going to www.stangela.org, browsers can access interactive maps of parochial population shifts, newspaper clippings on St. Angela’s founding, and color film footage of piles being driven for the church, the crowded Masses at Leon’s and the Ursuline Sisters unpacking books inside their new school.

Broadbridge said the website boasts tens of thousands of downloadable images.

“Photos are taken all the time by all kinds of people; they sit on cameras and on computers and nobody gets to see them,” said Broadbridge, who installed a link at which parishioners can upload their own photos.

While cataloging the bulletins, the volunteer archivists learned of how Father Calato had once commissioned “block couples” to keep an eye on the spiritual needs of their area and serve as his liaisons. This model flourished for more than five years.

“Over time, the different blocks actually started competing against each other in sports and other avenues,” Broadbridge said. “They would say rosaries at certain houses, and along with that, our parish got permission from Archbishop (Philip) Hannan to have Masses celebrated in designated homes.”

Proudly pro-life

Recent parish enhancements include the reinstatement of the Sunday evening Mass, a 5 p.m. liturgy featuring contemporary hymns led by Father Marlon Mangubat, St. Angela’s guitar-playing parochial vicar, and assisted by singers and musicians on drums, bass and piano.

Father Charbonnet also is developing St. Angela’s pro-life ministry, cognizant of how Causeway Medical Clinic is located in the parish. Parishioners offer prayer and sidewalk counseling at the clinic twice a month and lend their support to the adjacent Woman’s New Life Center and to ACCESS Pregnancy and Referral Centers. St. Angela covered two days of last fall’s 40 Days for Life, recruiting 150 parishioners as sidewalk counselors.

“Because we have this abortion clinic in our parish we have a special responsibility to get out there to pray and to minister,” Father Charbonnet said. “You never want to be that person who said they did nothing. We pray for the day that clinic will close.”

Beth Donze can be reached at bdonze@clarionherald.org.