Monday, December 19, 2005

Last Friday, Sr Joan and I went in with a friend to New Orleans. I had been to Metairie after Katrina, and except for debris and sheetrock piled up everywhere, it looked fairly normal, except for trailers parked in front yards while residents redid their homes. But New Orleans parish was quite a different story, we went to the Rampart Street Monastery [photo], and also our little Monastery home on Mirabeau Ave.

The French Quarter didn’t flood so the damage on Rampart Street was wind damage. But there was a lot, one of the thick exterior enclosure walls took a big hit when an oak fell on it, and the beautiful chapel was damaged the most. Father Capucci from Boston was getting ready to return to his diocese. Once Katrina came his bishop allowed him to stay another year as he is so needed there to run the Center of the Lord Jesus. He’s a wonderful priest. He said the doors to the chapel blew open and then the wind rushed in and blew out numerous stained glass windows: four of the big ones, and two in the back of the chapel higher [photo], and even the one of the transfiguration in the sanctuary high up in the wall. The rose window at the back suffered extensive damage too. Most of the cherubs, and our Lady were blown out in the Rose Window. It looked so strange to see it in that condition: headless cherubs and Our Lady gone. Father Capucci said it would cost about $25,000 per window to repair, and they don't have that money, as so many other repairs are needed. They aren't doing retreats or conferences yet but some money is coming in as a big hotel is renting rooms there for their workers and repair crews. Father Capucci is such a gracious host. We had dinner with him in his kitchen (our former sacristy). He has a picture on the wall of one of our Carmelite Nuns preparing for Mass when it was still the sacristy. He wants to do that in every office, showing a picture of what it was originally used for; we had given him a lot of negatives from our archives.

From Rampart we went to the Mirabeau Monastery. It was like entering another world: desolation, destruction everywhere, hardly a car in the streets. Block after block of ruined homes with the water mark clearly showing. And the water mark is where the water stood for three weeks, it actually rose higher. The mayor and the governor are saying ‘come back, come back’ to the people, now that the government is going to give $3.1 billion to improve the levees but what will they come back to? Not everyone can afford to rebuild, and what if you are the only one on the block to rebuild, and all around you is desolation. What kind of life would you be able to reconstruct? And what about your safety? At Mirabeau we got out and were even able to walk inside the little monastery. I am so glad Mother Mary did not live to see it; she would have been devastated. I thought it was the perfect little monastery. I loved everything about it. The only problem with it was it was too small to receive novices and not much grounds for our way of life. What if we had stayed? Where would we be now?

Here are pictures of the Mirabeau monastery. The water level line was just below the middle of the windows, then the familiar marks on the door which mean the place has been inspected, then the plank on the front porch saying, "Gutt It."

Lest we wondered what "Gutt it" meant, we then walked inside. Here’s what we found. The whole neighborhood, for blocks and blocks, is uninhabited and looks like this. Sad, sad." [Sr. Joan, photographer]
The first floor was an absolute mess; water still standing in some places, everything gutted; the front yard and back yard a sea of mud, and all around it the same stillness and desolation and destruction. The oak tree was still there but nothing else. I feel so sorry for the Teresians; they bought the convent from us in 1995 and had renovated it so nicely for their retired sisters.
We passed by St Joseph Convent. I hardly recognized it; it looked like a group of old, blighted buildings. Sr. Suellen, our Vicar for Religious, told us they are not coming back, the Holy Family sisters too are not coming back. What a tragedy!

The minute we passed from Orleans Parish into Metairie (over the 17th street canal) where it had not flooded, what a difference! Still debris around but so much more life, cars in the streets, stores open, homes occupied or being renovated. Please keep in your prayers all these people and that some day New Orleans will return to normal, hopefully in my lifetime.
Sr. Aletheia

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