The Trials of St. Augustine Church

During our viewing of the documentary “Shake the Devil Off”, we saw that St. Augustine parish was to be shut down and merged with the near by parish of St. Peter Claver, as a result of a plan enacted by Archdiocese Hughes to consolidate the churches of New Orleans, after the massive amounts of property damages which had occurred in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. As a result of that Father Jerome LeDoux, who had been the minister of St. Augustine Church for 16 year would be replaced by Father Michael Jacques, who was the minister for St. Peter Claver Church. However this did not sit well with Father LeDoux or the Parishioners, who on many occasions petitioned the Archdiocese to reconsider his decision. Though, after many petitions by both the parishioners and people throughout New Orleans and one unsuccessful appeal the Archdiocese went and dissolved St. Augustine parish and Father LeDoux was order to leave for a congregation in Texas. Even with the parish dissolved and the minister gone, this was not the end for some parishioners who protested the Archdiocese decision by barricading themselves along with volunteering students within the rectory of the church and by protesting Father Jacques during his service. These protest finally came to a head when on April 8, the Archdiocese and a Mediator for the Pastor Council negotiated for the St. Augustine parish to be reopened on the conditions that they meet the twelve benchmarks set by the Archdiocese within the period of eighteen months. Another condition set up by the Archdiocese was that Father LeDoux was only allowed to return a specified amount of time each year, which left the church with a minister for a few months. Having met these benchmarks and gained a new minister the question still remains as to why father LeDoux was forced to leave his congregation, which he had been minister for sixteen years, when his congregation was nearly halfway back to its usual number of parishioners, and the church only sustained minimal damages from Katrina.