After nearly five years, St. Augustine Catholic Church in New Orleans—one of the oldest African-American parishes in the country—is once again worshiping in their historic edifice, following repairs due to hurricane damage in 2021.
Parishioners held their first Sunday Mass back in the church on June 7 after the extended period of liturgies in their parish hall, welcoming a long-awaited crowd that included Mayor Helena Moreno and City Councilman Freddie King III.
“We are back home,” said Fr Emmanuel Mulenga, a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate who has served as pastor of St. Augustine for 10 of the last 12 years.
“Many, many pieces to move. Many, many people involved [from] August of 2021 to now. Many people to thank, and collectively thanking God for making all this possible as the different pieces have come together.”
The church—one of the central sites in Tremé, the nation’s oldest surviving Black neighborhood—was first forced to relocate due to Hurricane Ida, second only to Katrina in its damage and intensity in Louisiana. The Category 4 storm left 112 dead and destroyed buildings across the city. St. Augustine suffered catastrophic roof damage that led to water seepage in the main sanctuary.
Most visibly, the church’s 180-year-old iron steeple cross was mangled by gale-force wings, leaving a public reminder of the storm’s destruction. The church, in partnership with the Archdiocese of New Orleans, thereafter commenced a $2.5 million restoration campaign, aided by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The cross was reinstalled in 2024.
Nate Tinner-Williams
Founded in 1841 by New Orleans’ free people of color, St. Augustine has stood as a bastion of Black Catholic faith in the city for centuries, and also as a central site of resistance. Under a bygone system of pew fees in parts of the Catholic Church, African Americans who attended the church would fund seats for the enslaved—an otherwise unheard of practice in the United States.
Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the church was threatened with closure amid the archdiocese’s parish reorganization plans but was saved after a period of nonviolent resistance from parishioners and the pastor, the African-American Divine Word priest Jerome LeDoux. Major repairs were made to the church thereafter.
An integrated parish from its earliest days, the parish is known to attract tourists from around the country, especially for its lively gospel jazz Masses each Sunday. Also notable is the Tomb of the Unknown Slave outside the church, memorializing African Americans buried in unmarked graves in the surrounding neighborhood.
Among the church’s notable parishioners over the years are Venerable Henriette DeLille, the foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family, the nation’s second-oldest surviving Black Catholic religious order; Homer Plessy, who took his 19th-century fight against segregation to the Supreme Court; the pioneering 20th-century civil rights lawyer A. P. Tureaud Sr.; “Krazy Kat” cartoonist George Herriman; and the jazz musician Sidney Bechet.
In his homily for the return to in-church worship, Fr Mulenga spoke on the theme of patience, emphasizing how Christians can learn from periods of prolonged suffering by focusing on God’s blessings.
“Even through our struggles and our grief, there's a lesson of the Holy Spirit. God is teaching me something even through difficulties,” he said, noting that parishioners’ sometimes tense reactions to the St. Augustine’s worship relocation were all in view of a greater goal.
“We wanted to make it to this, our promised land.”
Further repairs are expected for the 185-year-old church, including the restoration of walls that currently have plaster still peeling from the water damage. Other age-related deterioration is also due to be addressed, necessitating further fundraising. Interested donors can find more information on the church’s website.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.
