Bayou Catholic Magazine October 2019

INSIDE

Bayou Outdoor Guide

Bayou

Catholic

Respect Life

from conception to natural death OCTOBER 2019 ~ VOL. 40 NO. 4 ~ COMPLIMENTARY

Faith in Our People

Hope for Our Future

Love for Louisiana and the Bayou Region

A Busy Bee ... Ÿ Who will make decisions based on her conservative Catholic values

to preserve our culture and better our Bayou region. Ÿ Who will work to ensure continued funding for restoring our coast to protect our homes, businesses, and our way of life. Ÿ Who will restore jobs to our working coast by increasing workforce education and restructuring bid laws to show preference to local businesses and labor.

e t o VDr. Brenda Leroux Babin State Senate, District 20 #BabinForTheBayou

Contents

Features 30 Father Noas Kerketta

celebrates 25 years

By Janet Marcel

36

St. Joseph Manor centenarians

By Janet Marcel

Columns 8 Comfort For My People

By Bishop Shelton J. Fabre

12

Pope Speaks

Pope Francis I

13

Questions of Faith

By Father Wilmer Todd

14

Readings Between the Lines

By Father Glenn LeCompte

35

Reading With Raymond

By Raymond Saadi

48 Overtime

By Ed Daniels

In Every Issue 6 From the Editor 16 Scripture Readings 26 Heavenly Recipes 32 Youth In Action 34 Daily Prayer for Priests,

Deacons and Seminarians

40

Diocesan Events

Guest Columns 28 What do we believe?

By Father Joshua Rodrigue

42

World Mission Sunday

By Father Robert-Joel Cruz

Announcements 46 Catholic Foundation update 47 Catholic Foundation annual dinner On Our Cover LAWRENCE CHATAGNIER/BAYOU CATHOLIC

4 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

October is Respect Life Month. Pro Life means regarding all life as sacred from conception to natural death. See pages 18-25 for respect life articles from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Thom

Thomas Cooks:

WILD GAME

Bayou Old Fashion P Catholic INGREDIENTS:

1 medium size wild sw (similar to the way you wo tbsps. olive oil How to reach2us: medium white onion,

BY PHONE: (985) 1 850-3132 4 of garlic, thinly

BY MAIL: P.O. Boxcloves 505 Story and Photos by Lawrence Chatagnier Schriever, LA 70395 1/2 tsp. of cayenne pep the rabbit

BY FAX: (985)of850-3232 1/2

BY E-MAIL: teaspoon of sea sa bayoucatholic@htdiocese.org the rabbit This month’s heavenly recipe comes from Thomas Becnel, Pinchmonthly, of ground black p The Bayou Catholic is published for a native of “Back Vacherie” and resident of Chackbay.theHe is of the Roman2Catholic tbsps.Diocese Lea & Perrins W people sharing his recipe for old fashioned pot fried rabbit. Thomas of Houma-Thibodaux by H-T of Publishing onthetop rabbit Co., P.O. Box 505, Schriever, LA 70395. learned to cook from many people. He remembers watching his grandmother and mother cook when he was young.Subscription Later rate is $35 per year.

DIRECTIONS: in life his cooking was influenced by some of the older men at Catholic is a member The Bayou of the Catholic Pour Newspaper olive oil in pot. M Press Association, the National the Vacherie Deer Hunting Club. “Each one that I watched and Association and an associate member ofwith the seasonin coat evenly learned from had their own technique. I have compiled all their Louisiana Press Association. to get fast even heat starte cooking styles and made a style of my own always using simple pot closely, you will start to Lawrence Chatagnier ingredients, salt, pepper, red pepper and oil.” Thomas has been editor and general manager (sizzle).

After allowing the a member of the hunting club for the past 32 years. medium brown in the pro Thomas lives with his wife Holly. They have two children, April LeBouef business manager half cup of water to the p Erica and Hunter, who are currently serving in the U.S. Military. Thomas and Holly are parishioners of St. James to start the searing proce Janet Marcel Chapel in Choctaw. process until the rabbit is staff writer/administrative assistant Thomas is a teacher at West St. John Elementary School in water in small amounts s Edgard, where he teaches seventh grade English and American Brooks Lirette the executive meat is seared to the advertising accounts History. His teaching career came about after years of working medium, then layer the o in the chemical plants along the Mississippi River and with a Lisa Schobel Hebert the rabbit evenly. Keep th building contractor as a carpenter. “I was working at a plant graphic designer while they start to cook; one day and decided that I couldn’t do this type of work the rest Meridy Liner to the bottom as t of my life. My mom encouraged me to go back to college. I went accounts receivable/payable assistant Bayou a caramelize to Nicholls and received a degree in O Upsychology T D O O R and history. I dish pai worked for a refrigeration and electrical contractor in the GUIDE home c Like us on Facebook F A L Lafter 2019five years I morning and went to school at night; or received my teaching certification.”

Find us on the web www.bayoucatholic.org Thomas loves being a teacher. He says the best part life. I is when you see the students get what you are teaching. people He says it’s like a light bulb that goes on when they Where to find your Bayou Catholic hunt an have figured out what you are trying to explain.

Bayou Catholic magazine can be found Thomas Thomas, 55, says through the years he has acquired much at all Catholic churches and Catholic schools throughout appreciation for nature. Always being an outdoorsmanthroughout who the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.

To pick up a copy, you may also visit the many ways. I h enjoys hunting, fishing and gardening, he is now realizingmerchants that it who advertise in ourin issue. Those parents.

I have a loving wife a wishing to receive the magazine by mail can is not always about the kill when hunting. “I have realized that call Janet Marcel at (985) 850-3132 or write children.

We have been able to it’s not about the kill; it’s about nature. It is great to getto away Bayou Catholic, P.O. Box were hardships along the way.

505,deer Schriever, LA 70395. and enjoy the outdoors. Sometimes I will bring a book to the Subscription price is $35 stand and just enjoy being away from the busyness of everyday times and bad times. There is n annually. For the online edition,

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26

30

32

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26 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

go to www.bayoucatholic.com

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 5

From the Editor

Respect life from

its beginning to its end and every point in between

Each October the church in the United States celebrates Respect Life Month, and the first Sunday of October is observed as Respect Life Sunday. As Catholics, we are called to cherish, defend and protect those who are most vulnerable, from the beginning of life to its end and at every point in between. During this month, the church asks us to reflect more deeply on the dignity of every human life.

This year’s theme for respect life month is “Christ our Hope in Every Season of Life.” We live in a very hostile world today. In many instances proclaiming your beliefs on many issues can be met with resistance. The church’s teaching on topics like abortion, assisted suicide, and the death penalty can provoke challenging and emotional responses from those who disagree.

When we watch the news or surf through social media, we are swamped by stories of violence against human life. The attitude of public debate and discourse disrespects the dignity of the human person. We can often feel that

sorrow surrounds us as abortion, assisted suicide, the death penalty, and other offenses to the dignity of the person find wide public support.

Respect Life Sunday is Oct. 6 this year. In many areas of the diocese you will see people displaying signs that read Abortion Kills Children.

In these communities Christians gather to protest the horrendous act of abortion. Many people form a life chain and pray the rosary in silent protest. It is good that we can gather prayerfully and peacefully as people of God in unity to promote the sacredness of life.

Let us not forget during this month that we are celebrating the sacredness and dignity of all human life. As mentioned before we are called to defend life from its beginning to its end and every point in between. This means that we are called to defend the lives of those who are terminally ill and stand against assisted suicide. We are called to defend the lives of those who have been handed down the penalty of death because of a crime committed. We must stand against the death penalty.

If we truly believe that all life is sacred and that we respect the dignity of all humans, we must stand against the terrible actions of human trafficking which is defined as the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labor, sexual slavery or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others.

Let us also not forget the dignity of immigrants worldwide who are

6 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

fleeing their homeland seeking personal freedom or relief from political or religious persecution.

There are also many who are fleeing their country because of violence and civil unrest.

There are many unjust situations and issues that cripple the human population in our country today. If we really claim to be Pro Life, we will show concern for those who suffer because of poverty, unjust wages, racism, homelessness, addiction and unmet mental health needs. The list is long and can be overwhelming to contemplate in its entirety.

Through prayer and action changes can be made to help those who struggle through life daily. If we all live and act out the Gospel values of Jesus with one another and especially those who are less fortunate we can bring about hope for many. We are the ones who can help bring about change if we truly believe this month’s Respect Life theme, “Christ our Hope in Every Season of Life.”

Remember, after reading Bayou Catholic, pass it on to a friend or relative who might not be attending Mass. It’s one of the great ways to do your part in spreading the Good News! BC

Lawrence

Lawrence Chatagnier Editor & General Manager

Comment

Praying the rosary can help us grow closer to Jesus

Bishop Shelton J. Fabre

Since the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary occurs on October 7, the month of October is dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, and is particularly focused on praying the rosary. The purpose of the rosary is not primarily the repetition of prayers. Its purpose is to meditate on the major events of Jesus’ earthly life stated in the mysteries of the rosary. The repetition of prayers, particularly, the Hail Mary, is at the service of deeper meditation on the mystery. God speaks to humanity through various signs and symbols.

God has spoken to us through prophets and teachers, and he speaks to us definitively through Jesus his Son. God is so creative that even historical events communicate his revelation.

The events recorded in the Bible are sources of powerful prayer. The rosary helps focus our attention on a number of these events that we can return to often. The Gospel of Luke proclaims that as Mary encountered God throughout her life, she would ponder these events in her heart. In this pondering and discernment of Mary, the church finds a model for prayer.

The mysterious encounter of prayer where God interacts with us carries two great obstacles. First, finding a place to start is difficult. There are so many ways to pray. No one way is easier, better, or more fool proof. No one way works for every person. Second, prayer can be difficult even when we have a direction. Perhaps one day the prayer is good, and we feel close to God. On the next day, we repeat the exact same process and the prayer is not as good, and we do not feel close to God. All

too often we find ourselves getting in the way, or there is some unforeseen distraction. What feels like it should be so simple proves difficult.

While the rosary does not promise to take away all of the difficulties of prayer, it can lift some of them. The secret to the rosary is its simplicity.

Once its practice is habitual, it becomes very flexible and can be picked up at a moment’s notice. The 20 mysteries associated with the rosary and the traditional days give a curriculum for our daily prayer. On Sunday, we reflect on the resurrection. On Friday, we reflect on the death of Jesus. During the week, we mediate on the whole story of Jesus’ life in order. The rosary is flexible. One person may spend several minutes on each mystery taking ample time to draw out all of its meaning, while the next person may take less time because of the demands of life.

Each mystery of the rosary has endless depth. Take for example the mystery of the Annunciation which is found in Luke 1:26-56. In this event, we see Mary receive the pivotal message that the messiah is going to be born, and he will be born through her.

We might meditate on the revelation of the angel. We might meditate on Mary’s reception of the message. We might meditate on her docility and surrender to the will of God. We might place ourselves in the moment. We might place ourselves in Mary’s shoes knowing that God is already asking us to do things that stretch us. We might express our gratitude to God for choosing to send Jesus. We might express our gratitude that Mary said yes. Each of these reflections could give us several minutes of deep reflection on the work of God in the world.

The repeated prayers of the rosary, the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be, keep the meditation moving along and provide a backdrop for our reflection on the mystery of the rosary.

These prayers provide an important mental pause to allow us to dive more deeply into the mystery. The rosary

8 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

“

While the rosary does not promise to take away all of the difficulties of prayer, it can lift some of them.

The secret to the rosary is its simplicity.

“

Comfort For My People

retrains the mind to slow down from our usual frantic pace before moving on to the next activity. In addition to their purpose in the rosary, on other occasions these prayers can give voice to our difficulties, or simply give us words for things we cannot otherwise express. Sometimes in our most difficult moments we do not know what to say to God or how to hear him. The three prayers of the church can give trustworthy and meaningful words to use when everything else feels inadequate.

Praying the rosary can help us grow closer to and better follow Jesus. This is the core of Christianity to know Jesus and to follow him. There are many paths to prayer and meditation.

However, the rosary is flexible, easier, and more thorough than most. It is in a way the whole Gospel in summary.

Imagine how different our lives could be if we spent even 15 minutes a day reflecting on the life of Christ by praying the rosary.

Our Lady of the Rosary pray for us, and with us! BC

Comentario

Rezar el Rosario puede ayudarnos a acercarnos a Jesús y se puede tomada en el momento anunciado. Los 20 misterios asociados con el rosario y los días tradicionales dan un programa para nuestra oración diaria. Durante la semana, meditamos sobre la historia completa de Jesús en orden. El rosario es flexible. Una persona puede dedicar varios minutos en cada misterio tomando un tiempo amplio para sacar todo su significado, mientras la siguiente persona quizá tome menos tiempo porque la vida se lo demanda así.

Cada misterio del rosario tiene una profundidad infinita. Toma, por ejemplo, la Anunciación la cual está fundada en Lucas 1:26-56. En este evento, vemos a María recibir un mensaje crucial de que el Mesías va a nacer y nacerá a través de ella.

Podríamos meditar sobre la revelación del ángel. Podríamos meditar sobre la recepción de María del mensaje.

Podríamos meditar en su docilidad y su sumisión a la voluntad de Dios.

Podríamos colocarnos nosotros mismo en ese momento. Podríamos ponernos en los zapatos de María sabiendo que Dios está ya pidiéndonos hacer cosas que nos sobrepasan. Podríamos expresar nuestra gratitud a Dios por su elección de enviar a Jesús. Podríamos expresar nuestra gratitud de que María dijo sí. Cada una de estas reflexiones podría darnos algunos minutos de reflexión profunda de la obra de Dios en el mundo.

Las oraciones repetidas del rosario, el Padre Nuestro, el Ave María y el Gloria, mantiene la meditación en movimiento y provee un ambiente para nuestra reflexión sobre el misterio del rosario.

Estas oraciones proveen una pausa mental importante que nos permite sumergirnos más profundamente en el misterio. El rosario refrena la mente para bajar el ritmo de nuestro usual paso acelerado antes de movernos a la siguiente actividad. Además del propósito del rosario, en otras ocasiones estas oraciones pueden dar voz a nuestras dificultades, o simplemente nos dan palabras para cosas que de otra manera no podríamos expresar.

Algunas veces en nuestros momentos

10 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

“

Aunque el rosario no promete quitar todas las dificultades de la oración, este puede alivianar algunas de ellas. El secreto del rosario es su sencillez.

“

Desde que se inició la Fiesta de Nuestra Señora del Rosario el 7 de octubre, el mes de octubre es dedicado a María, la Madre de Dios, y se enfoca particularmente en el rezo del rosario. El propósito del rosario no es principalmente la repetición de oraciones. La repetición de oraciones, particularmente, el Ave María, está al servicio de una meditación más profunda sobre el misterio. Dios habla a la humanidad a través de varios signos y símbolos. Dios nos ha hablado a nosotros a través de los profetas y maestros, definitivamente él nos ha hablado a través de su Hijo Jesús.

Dios es tan creativo que incluso en los acontecimientos históricos comunica su revelación. Los acontecimientos marcados en la Biblia son fuentes de oración poderosa. El rosario ayuda a enfocar nuestra atención en una cantidad de estos acontecimientos a los que podemos recurrir con frecuencia.

El Evangelio de Lucas proclama que María encuentra a Dios a lo largo de su vida, se pregunta en su corazón sobre estos acontecimientos. En este preguntarse y discernir de María, la Iglesia encuentra su modelo de oración.

Los encuentros misteriosos de la oración donde Dios interactúa con nosotros tienen dos grandes obstáculos.

Primero, encontrar un lugar para empezar es difícil. Hay muchas maneras de orar. Ninguna manera es fácil, mejor o infalible. Ningún estilo funciona para cada persona. Segundo, la oración puede ser difícil aún cuando tenemos una dirección. Quizá un día la oración es buena y sentimos a Dios cerca. Al siguiente día, repetimos exactamente el mismo proceso y la oración no es tan buena, y no sentimos tan cerca a Dios. Todos muchas veces nos encontramos buscando el camino, o hay una distracción imprevista. Se siente que lo que debería ser simple, resulta difícil.

Aunque el rosario no promete quitar todas las dificultades de la oración, este puede alivianar algunas de ellas. El secreto del rosario es su sencillez. Una vez que esta práctica se hace habitual, esta se vuelve flexible

más difíciles, no sabemos qué decir a Dios o cómo escucharlo. Las tres oraciones de la iglesia pueden darnos las palabras confiables y llenas de significado para usarlas cuando todo lo demás parece inadecuado.

Rezar el rosario puede ayudarnos a crecer en nuestra cercanía y seguimiento a Jesús. Esta es una esencia del cristianismo para conocer y seguir a Jesús. Hay muchos caminos para la oración y meditación. Sin embargo, el rosario es flexible, más fácil y el más profundo de todos.

Es de alguna manera el resumen de todo el Evangelio. Imagina cuan diferentes podrían ser nuestras vidas si sólo dedicáramos 15 minutos al día reflexionando en la vida de Jesús con el rezo del rosario. ¡Nuestra Señora del Rosario, ruega por nosotros y con nosotros! BC

Binh luan bang loi

Cầu nguyện kinh Mân côi có thể giúp chúng ta gần gũi với Chúa Giêsu hơn là sự đơn giản của nó. Một khi sự thực hành trở thành thói quen, nó sẽ trở nên rất linh hoạt và có thể được tiếp nhận ngay tức khắc. 20 mầu nhiệm của chuỗi Mân Côi và những ngày theo truyền thống tạo ra một giáo trình cho lời cầu nguyện hằng ngày của chúng ta. Vào ngày Chúa nhật, chúng ta suy nghĩ về sự phục sinh. Vào ngày thứ Sáu, chúng ta suy nghĩ về cái chết của Chúa Giêsu.

Suốt một tuần lễ, chúng ta suy gẫm về toàn bộ câu chuyện về cuộc đời của Chúa Giêsu theo trình tự. Kinh Mân côi rất linh hoạt. Một người có thể dành vài phút cho mỗi mầu nhiệm rồi mất nhiều thời gian để rút ra tất cả ý nghĩa của nó, trong khi người khác có thể mất ít thời gian hơn vì những đòi hỏi của cuộc sống.

Mỗi mầu nhiệm của chuỗi Mân Côi có chiều sâu vô tận. Lấy ví dụ về mầu nhiệm Truyền tin trong Luca 1:26-56.

Trong sự kiện này, chúng ta thấy Maria nhận được sứ điệp quan trọng rằng Đấng cứu thế sẽ được sinh ra, và Ngài sẽ được sinh ra bởi cô. Chúng ta có thể suy niệm về sự mặc khải của thiên thần.

Chúng ta có thể suy niệm về việc tiếp nhận thông điệp của Maria. Chúng ta có thể suy niệm về sự dịu hiền của cô và vâng phục theo ý muốn của Thiên Chúa.

Chúng ta có thể đặt bản thân trong thời điểm này. Chúng ta có thể đặt mình vào vị trí của Maria, biết rằng Chúa đang yêu cầu chúng ta làm những việc để củng cố chúng ta. Chúng ta có thể bày tỏ lòng biết ơn đối với Thiên Chúa vì đã gửi Chúa Giêsu đến. Chúng ta có thể bày tỏ lòng biết ơn của mình vì Maria đã thưa tiếng xin Vâng. Mỗi suy nghĩ này có thể cho chúng ta một vài phút suy gẫm sâu rộng về công trình của Thiên Chúa trong thế giới.

Những lời cầu nguyện lặp đi lặp lại của chuỗi Mân côi, kinh Lạy Cha, kinh Kính Mừng, và kinh Sáng Danh, giúp cho sự suy gẫm tiếp diễn và cung cấp một bối cảnh cho sự suy tư của chúng ta về mầu nhiệm của chuỗi Mân Côi.

Những lời cầu nguyện này cung cấp một sự tĩnh lặng tinh thần quan trọng để cho phép chúng ta đi sâu hơn vào mầu nhiệm.

Kinh Mân côi giữ tâm trí chậm lại từ tốc độ điên cuồng thông thường của chúng ta trước khi chuyển sang hoạt động tiếp theo. Ngoài mục đích của chúng trong

“

Mặc dù chuỗi Mân Côi không hứa sẽ cất đi tất cả những khó khăn của cầu nguyện, nhưng nó có thể cất đi phần nào trong số đó. Bí quyết của chuỗi Mân Côi là sự đơn giản của nó.

“

Lễ Đức Mẹ Mân côi kính ngày 7 tháng 10, vì thế tháng 10 được dành riêng cho Đức Maria, Mẹ Thiên Chúa, chúng ta đặc biệt chú trọng vào việc cầu nguyện với chuỗi Mân côi. Mục đích của chuỗi Mân côi không phải chủ yếu là sự lặp lại của những lời cầu nguyện, mà là là để suy gẫm về các sự kiện chính của đời sống trần thế của Chúa Giêsu được nêu trong các mầu nhiệm của chuỗi Mân côi.

Sự lặp lại của những lời cầu nguyện, đặc biệt là Kinh Kính Mừng, là để thấm nhập sâu xa hơn về các mầu nhiệm. Thiên Chúa nói với nhân loại qua các dấu hiệu và biểu tượng khác nhau. Thiên Chúa đã nói với chúng ta qua các tiên tri và giáo phụ, và sau hết Người nói với chúng ta qua Chúa Giêsu, Con của Người. Thiên Chúa sáng tạo đến mức ngay cả các sự kiện lịch sử cũng truyền đạt sự mặc khải của Người. Các sự kiện được ghi lại trong Kinh Thánh là nguồn cầu nguyện mạnh mẽ. Chuỗi Mân Côi giúp tập trung sự chú ý của chúng ta vào một số sự kiện mà chúng ta có thể gặp gỡ thường xuyên.

Tin Mừng Luca viết rằng khi Maria gặp gỡ Thiên Chúa trong suốt cuộc đời mình, cô sẽ suy gẫm về những sự kiện này trong lòng. Trong suy gẫm và phân biện về Đức Maria, Giáo hội tìm thấy một mẫu gương cho sự cầu nguyện.

Cuộc gặp gỡ mầu nhiệm của lời cầu nguyện nơi Thiên Chúa tương tác với chúng ta mang theo hai trở ngại lớn.

Trước hết, tìm một nơi để bắt đầu quả là việc khó khăn. Có rất nhiều cách để cầu nguyện. Không có cách nào là dễ dàng hơn, tốt hơn, hoặc tồi tệ hơn. Không có cách nào dành riêng cho mỗi người. Thứ hai, cầu nguyện có thể khó khăn ngay cả khi chúng ta có định hướng. Có lẽ một ngày nào đó lời cầu nguyện là tốt, và chúng ta cảm thấy gần gũi với Chúa.

Vào ngày hôm sau, chúng ta cũng lặp lại quá trình như vậy và lời cầu nguyện xem ra chưa tốt bằng, và chúng ta không cảm thấy gần gũi với Chúa. Nhiều lúc chúng ta cảm thấy mình bị cản trở, hoặc có một số phiền muộn không lường trước được.

Những gì xem ra đơn giản lại chứng tỏ có khó khăn.

Mặc dù chuỗi Mân Côi không hứa sẽ cất đi tất cả những khó khăn của cầu nguyện, nhưng nó có thể cất đi phần nào trong số đó. Bí quyết của chuỗi Mân Côi

chuỗi kinh Mân côi, vào những dịp khác, những lời cầu nguyện này có thể nói lên những khó khăn của chúng ta, hoặc đơn giản là cho chúng ta những lời mà chúng ta không thể diễn tả. Đôi khi trong những thời khắc khó khăn nhất của chúng ta, chúng ta không biết phải nói gì với Chúa hoặc làm thế nào để nghe tiếng Ngài. Ba lời kinh nguyện của Giáo hội có thể đưa ra những lời đáng tin cậy và có ý nghĩa để sử dụng khi mọi thứ khác cảm thấy như không thỏa đáng.

Cầu nguyện chuỗi Mân côi có thể giúp chúng ta gần gũi Chúa Giêsu hơn và theo Chúa Giêsu sát hơn. Đây là cốt lõi của Kitô giáo để hiểu biết Chúa Giêsu và bước đi theo Ngài. Có nhiều con đường để cầu nguyện và suy gẫm. Tuy nhiên, chuỗi Mân Côi là linh hoạt, dễ dàng và sâu xa hơn hết. Đó là một cách tóm tắt toàn bộ Tin Mừng. Hãy tưởng tượng cuộc sống của chúng ta sẽ khác nhau như thế nào nếu chúng ta dành thậm chí 15 phút mỗi ngày để suy gẫm về cuộc đời của Chúa Kitô bằng cách cầu nguyện với chuỗi Mân Côi.

Lạy Đức Mẹ Mân côi, xin cầu nguyện cho chúng con, và cầu nguyện với chúng con!

Dịch thuật do Lm. Francis Bui, SDD và Thầy Paul Vu, SDD. Tu Đoàn Tông Đồ Giáo Sĩ Nhà Chúa BC

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 11

Comment

Pope Francis: God forgets our sins after confession The Pope Speaks

Vatican City, (CNA) Pope Francis recently said that God forgets sins absolved within the confessional.

“How do you defeat evil? Accepting God’s forgiveness …

It happens every time we go to confession; there we receive the love of the Father who overcomes our sin. It is no longer there, God forgets it,” Pope Francis said in his Angelus message Sept. 15.

“God, when He forgives, loses His memory. He forgets our sins, forgets. God is so good with us,” he added in a departure from his prepared remarks.

In the sacrament of confession, God completely erases the evil confessed, making one new inside, reborn in joy, Pope Francis explained.

“Brothers and sisters, have courage. With God, no sin has the last word,” the pope said.

Pope Francis reflected upon Sunday’s Gospel from Luke in which the Pharisees complain that Jesus “welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

“Jesus ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ This is what happens to us, in every Mass, in every church: Jesus is happy to welcome us to his table, where he offers Himself for us,” Pope Francis said.

“It is a phrase that we could write on the doors of our churches: ‘Here Jesus welcomes sinners and invites them to his table,’” he added.

The pope focused on the lessons of God’s mercy and justice contained within Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son. He said that the elder brother’s rejection of the father’s mercy for the prodigal son contains an important warning.

“The eldest son, who does not accept the mercy of his father ... makes a worse mistake: he is presumed to be just … and judges everything on the basis of his thought of justice,” he said. “It is also a risk for us: to believe in a more rigorous than merciful god, a god who defeats evil with power rather than forgiveness.”

“We are also wrong when we believe ourselves to be right, when we think that the bad ones are the others. Let us not believe ourselves good because alone, without the help of God who is good, we do not know how to overcome evil,” Pope Francis said.

“Our Lady, who unties the knots of life, frees us from the pretense of believing we are righteous and makes us feel the need to go to the Lord, who is always waiting for us to embrace us, to forgive us,” he said. BC 12 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

Comment

Questions of Faith Father Wilmer Todd

Many ‘guru’s cats’ in today’s liturgies Question: I often attend different Catholic Churches and I try to sit near the altar to observe what is going on at Mass. I have noticed that different priests wear different vestments, hold their hands differently, use or not use bells, etc. Why do we have all these differences?

Before I answer your question, I want to tell you Father De Mello’s story of “The Guru’s Cat.” “Each time the guru worshiped with his students, the monastic cat would come in and distract them. So he ordered the cat to be tied at the door while the community was at prayer.

After the guru died, the cat continued to be tied while they worshiped. When the cat died, they brought into the hermitage another cat to observe the guru’s orders faithfully.

“Centuries passed and the guru’s learned disciples wrote scholarly treatises on the liturgical significance of tying up a cat while they worshiped.”

We have many “guru’s cats” in our eucharistic liturgies today. Things that had meaning and purpose in the past are rendered by some priests to be mysteriously significant today. For example, the pall (the square cardboard covered with white linen that goes on the top of the chalice) was meant to keep flies out of the wine. If a church does not have flies, it does not need a pall. If flies are present, then we should cover all the chalices.

Another “guru’s cat” is the maniple.

Originally, it was a towel worn on the priest’s left arm to wipe his hands and face. Today it serves no purpose whatsoever.

The chasuble is the outer vestment worn by a priest when celebrating Mass.

The pictures in the catacombs show the celebrants with flowing vestments. In the Middle Ages when priests had their backs to the people and recited the Eucharistic Prayer silently, “fiddleback vestments” (shaped in the front like a bass fiddle) became popular. Usually someone sewed a sacred image on the back of the vestment for adoration purposes. Today, since we face the people, fiddleback vestments are obsolete.

The bells are another historical oddity. In the Latin Mass the people had a hard time following the Eucharistic Prayer since the priest said it silently with his back to the people. So the altar server would ring the bells at four different occasions – the “Holy, holy,” the calling down of the Holy Spirit, the elevations, and the “Lord, I am not worthy.” Since we say the Eucharistic Prayer aloud, we do not need the bells to tell us where we are in the Mass.

Elevating the host began in the 14th century. Catholics at that time did not go to holy Communion. They believed that by seeing the elevated host, they would receive graces. The Bishops of Vatican II called for the “full, active, conscious participation” at Mass. We should give prayerful attention to the whole Eucharistic Prayer, not just the elevation.

The Orans (praying) position of prayer is also found on pictures and sculptures in the catacombs. The celebrant opens his arms inviting God

to come into the life of the community at prayer. Open arms symbolize the openness of the praying community to do God’s will.

I once celebrated Mass where all the people who were saying the Lord’s Prayer held their arms straight up.

Someone told me that it was a sign that we were surrendering to God. It is more a sign of openness to God’s presence than surrendering.

I recently attended two different eucharistic celebrations in two different cities. The differences had nothing to do with the locations, but in the way the celebrants conducted the Eucharist. One celebrant was just going through the rituals without any feeling or joy.

The other celebrant was inviting and joyful. This pastor realized that the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus saved him and he was celebrating that central mystery of our faith with his people. Father Teilhard de Chardin once said, “Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.” The focus of a Catholic church is the altar, not the tabernacle, not the cross or a special saint. When we gather around the Lord’s table to celebrate the mystery of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, we participate in that mystery of God’s love, not empty rituals that look mysterious. BC

Readers are encouraged to send their questions to our local Bayou Catholic columnists by email to bayoucatholic@htdiocese.org.

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 13

Reflections

Learning from the school of Jesus Readings Between the Lines Father Glenn LeCompte

Each Sunday this month the Gospel reading will contain a passage that is unique to the Gospel of Luke. Whenever an evangelist’s particular material is presented it is important to pay attention to the message, because such passages give us insight into the Gospel writer’s unique perspective. In this article I will explore the implications each of this month’s Gospel readings has for the formation of Jesus’ disciples in Luke’s Gospel.

Luke 17:5-10 (Weekend of October 5-6). In verses 5-6, which have a parallel in Matthew 17:20, Jesus’ disciples request that he “increase their faith.”

In 17:1-4 Jesus cautions the disciples about scandalizing “little ones,” and teaches them, in essence, that forgiveness must be offered whenever an offender asks for it. Perhaps feeling the weightiness of Jesus’ teaching here, they request of Jesus an increase of faith, because they do not perceive that they have the wherewithal to adhere to his challenging exhortations.

Jesus informs them that even a small amount of faith can enable them to produce great results in the spiritual life.

Immediately after addressing their concern he uses an illustration from everyday life (17:7-10). Jesus’ parable about slaves who deserve no special reward for simply doing their duty is a passage unique to Luke. In other words, when their faith enables the disciples to meet the great challenges of avoiding scandalizing the vulnerable and being perfected in forgiveness, they should not become “puffed up” to think they have done something special. If they become regularly disposed to avoid

giving scandal and to forgive when asked to do so, that is an example that they are experiencing the conversion to which Jesus calls all people. In such a case, the disciples’ perception that they are “only doing their duty” exemplifies an important virtue, humility, which disciples must possess along with faith.

Luke 17:11-19 (Weekend of October 12-13). Having been rebuked

by Jesus for wanting to summon divine retribution upon some Samaritans who reject Jesus as he passes through their territory (9:51b-56) and having heard a parable where a Samaritan surprisingly is depicted as the hero of the story (10:30-37), Jesus’ disciples, along with their Master, encounter yet another Samaritan who is cast in a favorable light. Ten lepers approach Jesus for healing. In order to demonstrate that his ministry is consistent with the Jewish Law, Jesus does not heal the lepers immediately, but tells them to do what the Law prescribed, that is, to go and be examined by the priests. The priests would then declare them either clean or unclean. Healed in route to their encounter with the priests, only one of the 10, a Samaritan, (the rest are Jews) returns to Jesus to offer thanks to God, whom the Samaritan recognizes as having worked through Jesus.

This encounter offers the disciples several lessons. First they learn from Jesus’ example of dealing with the lepers that a disciple of Jesus must

14 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

be compassionate toward outcasts.

Secondly, the fact that, among those who were healed, the least expected person (a Samaritan) is the only one to return to give thanks underscores the fact that Jesus is a medium of divine healing for anyone. The disciples are to trust in Jesus as the true source of healing, and by doing so, they will be empowered to extend Jesus’ healing ministry once he has ascended (see Acts 3:1-9). Also, they are to minister to anyone who has faith, even a Gentile.

Luke 18:1-8 (Weekend of October 19-20). This parable, unique to Luke, deals with one of Luke’s primary emphases, prayer. Jesus’ disciples in Luke are given more opportunities to learn about prayer than are the disciples in the other Gospels because Luke depicts Jesus more often at prayer and provides more of Jesus’ teaching material on prayer. The parable of the Persistent Widow provides an instruction on the importance of persistence in prayer. A widow, a very disenfranchised person in first century Palestinian society, appeals to a judge for justice against her adversary. We are not told exactly what she wants, but likely it has to do with some monetary damages she feels are rightfully hers, because widows were often dependent upon the charity of family and friends for survival. The judge, however is described as a person who neither feared God nor

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Reflections

respected any human being. Apparently he has previously given her a negative decision, perhaps on several occasions.

But the widow is persistent and keeps submitting her request. Finally, the judge gives her what she wants, not on account of justice but because he wants to rid himself of her nagging pleas.

The application to the parable then makes an argument from lesser to greater: if even a dishonest and reluctant judge would grant people’s requests for justice because of their persistence, how much more would God, who wants to help those who cry out to him, do so. It is easy to become discouraged with prayer when we perceive we are “not getting results.”

The disciples are to learn here that they must pray persistently with continual trust in God as they await the divine reply, which may sometimes not be within their time expectations.

Luke 18:9-14 (Weekend of October 26-27). The parable of the

Pharisee and the Tax Collector is a type of parable called an “Exemplary Story,” because it is meant to model a favorable behavior, and in this case also a behavior to avoid. Two people, a Pharisee, a revered figure, and a tax collector, a despised figure, go up to the Temple to pray. Jesus’ audience would expect the Pharisee to be the “good guy,” but Jesus surprises them by asserting that the tax collector’s and not the Pharisee’s prayer is acknowledged by God. Why so? The Pharisee’s locution is not so much a prayer as it is a declaration of self-praise, whereas the tax collector humbly pleads with God for forgiveness. The disciples, who would have had the same expectations as the rest of Jesus’ audience, learn here that effective prayer acknowledges the need for conversion. Astonishing as it may seem, the disciples should follow the example of the outcast tax collector and not that of the esteemed religious leader.

If in these Gospel stories Jesus’ disciples are provided with lessons which must shape their thinking and acting if they are to be true disciples of Jesus, the same goes for those who claim to be disciples of Jesus today.

They are lessons for us too! BC

Reflection Questions v In each case how can we take the lesson provided by the reading to grow as true disciples of Jesus? v How do experiences in life provide lessons for us that can help to shape our lives as disciples? v Why is the disposition of humility and the perceived need for conversion the tax collector possesses a necessary prerequisite to learn the lessons of discipleship?

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 15

Scripture Readings and a listing of Feast days and saints

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1 October

2

3

4

5 Weekday Baruch 4:5-12, 27-29 Luke 10:17-24

6 Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Hebrews 1:2-3; 2:2-4 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14 Luke 17:5-10 13 Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2 Kings 5:14-17 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Luke 17:11-19

20 Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time Exodus 17:8-13 2 Timothy 3:14— 4:2 Luke 18:1-8

7

8

Memorial of Our Weekday Lady of the Rosary Jonah 3:1-10 Jonah 1:1—2:2, 11 Luke 10:38-42 Luke 10:25-37

14 Weekday Romans 1:1-7 Luke 11:29-32

21 Weekday Romans 4:20-25 Luke 12:13-21

27

28

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Luke 18:9-14

Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, apostles Ephesians 2:19-22 Luke 6:12-16

15

9 Weekday Jonah 4:1-11 Luke 11:1-4

16

Weekday Memorial of Saint Romans 2:1-11 Teresa of Jesus, virgin and doctor of Luke 11:42-46 the church Romans 1:16-25 Luke 11:37-41

22

23

Weekday Weekday Romans 5:12, 15b, Romans 6:12-18 17-19, 20b-21 Luke 12:39-48 Luke 12:35-38

29 Weekday Romans 8:18-25 Luke 13:18-21

16 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

30 Weekday Romans 8:26-30 Luke 13:22-30

10 Weekday Malachi 3:13-20b Luke 11:5-13

11

Weekday Weekday Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2 Joel 4:12-21 Luke 11:15-26 Luke 11:27-28

17

18

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr Romans 3:21-30 Luke 11:47-54

Feast of Saint Luke, evangelist 2 Timothy 4:10-17b Luke 10:1-9

24

25

Weekday Romans 6:19-23 Luke 12:49-53

31 Weekday Romans 8:31b-39 Luke 13:31-35

12

Weekday Romans 7:18-25a Luke 12:54-59

1 November Solemnity of All Saints Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14 1 John 3:1-3 Matthew 5:1-12a

19 Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, priests, and companions, martyrs Romans 4:13, 16-18 Luke 12:8-12 26 Weekday Romans 8:1-11 Luke 13:1-9

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October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 17

Ten ways to support her when she’s unexpectedly expecting I had been brought up to believe that life is always a gift, but it certainly didn’t feel like one when I gazed in shock at a positive pregnancy test. As a mom who had my first baby in college, I know that an unexpected pregnancy can sometimes bring fear, shame and doubt.

However, I also know that an unexpected pregnancy can bring joy, excitement, awe, gratitude, and deeper love than I knew was possible—not to mention the little bundle who inspires these sentiments! About nine months after looking at that pregnancy test, I received the very best gift I have ever been given: my daughter, Maria.* An unexpected pregnancy might be confusing along the way, but life—though at times difficult—is ultimately beautiful. Perhaps one of your friends has become pregnant unexpectedly.

As someone who has been there, I encourage you to support your friend in her new journey of being a mother.

Not sure how to help or what to say? Here are 10 tips: 1. Be available. An unexpected pregnancy can send a woman into crisis mode. If your friend just found out she is pregnant, she may not be thinking clearly, and she may feel she has no control over anything at the moment.

Be aware of how she is responding to you.

Listen to her and let her know you love her and are there for her any time she needs you. Don’t pass judgment on her either interiorly or through words or body language.

2. Respond positively. When a woman experiencing challenging circumstances confides she is pregnant, the reaction of the first person she tells tends to set the tone for her decisionmaking. Avoid responding with shock or alarm, and be calm and understanding. Let her know you’re there for her and that it’s going to be okay. Pay close attention to her emotional state, and act accordingly. Depending on where she is emotionally, it may or may not be helpful to congratulate her at that time. However, 18 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

it is always important to affirm that every person’s life—including her child’s and her own—is precious and beautiful no matter the circumstances.

3. Be honest. The journey through an unexpected pregnancy is not easy, and it’s okay if you don’t know the perfect words to say. Just be honest. Let her know you are there for her, and ask her how she is feeling and how you can support her. It’s a good way to open the door to communicate, and she may be grateful for the opportunity to talk freely with someone.

She might become emotional at times, but be patient—let’s not forget hormones; the struggle is real.

4. Offer specific help. Don’t be afraid to ask her if she needs help with anything or to make specific offers to help. For example, you might offer to help with cleaning, finding a good doctor, or running to the store to pick up the one food that won’t make her feel sick. But remember to read her cues, and make sure you’re not being overbearing.

5. Set up a support system. In addition to the standard baby registry, you can help her get other kinds of support by lining up much-needed, practical help. Think outside the box. Food = love, so take advantage of websites that allow friends and family to sign up to make meals, send food deliveries, or simply donate money. Some websites can even help organize other assistance like rides to the doctor, babysitting other children she may have, or help around the house. You can also look into what programs and assistance may be sponsored by your local diocese.

6. Tell her she is beautiful. She may be feeling physically, spiritually and emotionally drained with this pregnancy. Take the time to reassure her of her beauty, both inside and out, especially when morning sickness might make her feel otherwise.

7. Help her recharge and relax. Firsttime mothers may have difficulty crossing that threshold into their new life as a mother.

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Your friend may be fearful that her life is “over,” so help her see it’s okay— good, actually—to still focus on herself sometimes. Even though she is a mother, she will still continue to be a woman, so affirm that it’s healthy and important to take care of herself—not only physically, but emotionally, as well. Help her to do things she really enjoys. Take her out for a nice meal, a movie, or a day of pampering.

8. Reassure her it’s okay (and good) to be happy. It can be hard to be happy about a pregnancy that many people see as unfortunate timing at best and totally irresponsible at worst. Even if your friend wants to be happy about her bundle of joy, she may not feel she “deserves” to show that happiness. Get excited about her pregnancy in front of her, and she may just feel comfortable enough to share her own excitement with you. Also, continue to show your interest and excitement throughout her pregnancy. Ask questions about her developing child. What is she learning at her doctor appointments?

What names is she considering? Ask her what she thinks her baby looks like. Does she think they will have her eyes?

9. Encourage her. Society tends to focus on ways that an unexpected pregnancy can be challenging. Help your friend to think of the benefits.

Remind her of the fluttering kicks, somersaults, and maybe even dance moves her son or daughter will be

An unexp ected pregnanc y might be confusing along the way, but life— though at times diffic ult— is ultimate ly beautifu l.

rocking once they grow a little more. With moms’ groups and opportunities for play dates, there’s a whole new social world to explore. And there are plenty of benefits to being a young mom— like having more energy to chase her kids around.

10. Point out some real-life role models. Many amazing young mothers and birthmothers have experienced unexpected pregnancies and still followed their dreams. Other women have discovered that, even when unable to follow their lives as planned, something beautiful and good came out of the twists in the road, bringing opportunities, growth, and joy they hadn’t imagined.

Point your friend to some of the many websites, blogs, and social media accounts dedicated to supporting young mothers. And let’s not forget Mary, whose “yes” to bearing Jesus affected the course of history. The Blessed Mother is a great person to pour her heart out to, and she’s a powerhouse of intercessory prayer.

An unexpected pregnancy can be a difficult and frightening time, and it’s important that your friend knows you are thinking of her and supporting her.

Although the tips mentioned can be helpful, don’t forget the most important thing is to pray. Even if it’s just a quick

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twosecond prayer, prayer is the most effective way we can help. Pray for her, for her child, and for guidance in how you can give her the best possible support.

Also, pay attention to how your friend feels most loved. One person might appreciate encouraging words, while another might feel more supported if you wash the dishes. Simple things— letting her know that you care and are always ready to listen, that you are available to help her, that you are praying for her—can give hope and courage when she might otherwise feel alone. Your support might be the only support she receives. Even if we never know how, the smallest things we do can change someone’s life. You can make a difference in her life. Will you?

(Reprinted (excerpted) from Respect Life Program, copyright © 2015, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved.) BC

St. Genevieve Respects the Right to Life “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.”

—Psalm 127:3

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 19

Advance medical directives: Planning for your future Rosa* knew from experience the difficulties and expenses of watching a loved one die. She was totally devoted to her husband as he suffered and died from cancer eight years earlier.

The idea of high medical bills, “tubes” and pain upset her, and even though she had not viewed her husband as a burden, she feared being one to her family.

Then, Rosa was hospitalized with a terrible urinary tract infection which made her dehydrated, weak and confused. Her daughter Teresa had been appointed as her health care agent. Teresa met with the medical staff, who helped her understand that the proposed treatments would not cause an undue burden to her mother. In fact, they would be temporary and appropriate care in Rosa’s situation. Teresa was grateful that the medications, nutrition and hydration that Rosa was given, all through “tubes,” cured her infection.

Rosa is now as active as she has ever been and realizes that there are certain situations that can’t be anticipated when illness comes. It’s best not to refuse future care that may turn out to be very welcome.

Human life is good and to be protected. All medical decisions ought to reflect this core belief. Yet blackand-white answers to our questions about end-of-life issues are not always possible, and it can be very difficult to know how to make medical decisions.

Each and every human person is distinct and unrepeatable, and each medical situation may be unique. In each set of circumstances, we need to judge whether a given treatment will provide real benefit to the patient, without causing harm or other burdens that are out of proportion to the good being done.

We should each be prepared for those difficult situations when medical decisions must be made. We can safeguard our Catholic values by appointing a responsible and trustworthy person now to make decisions for us, in the event that we are incapable of doing so, either physically or mentally. It is important to be aware of the different legal or medical documents that are available or are often used to define a patient’s care. Depending on how they are crafted, some documents can be counter to Catholic morality and more harmful

than we might realize.

The safest option is to designate a health care agent who not only understands our Catholic values but also shares them and can apply them to current situations and respond to questions as they arise. This person, usually a close family member or friend, acts as a proxy decision maker if the patient is not able to make his or her own decisions. In choosing an agent or proxy, a person can declare in writing that all treatment and care decisions made on their behalf must be consistent with and not contradict the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.

Less flexible is a living will, which simply lists treatment options or care that the patient wishes to accept or reject. No matter how well-crafted, such a document can never predict all the possible problems that may occur at a later time or anticipate all future treatment options. A living will can be misinterpreted by medical providers who might not understand the patient’s wishes.

Some states and healthcare systems have been implementing a troubling document known as a

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“Physician Order for Life- Sustaining Treatment,” also called by a confusing array of acronyms (POLST, MOST, MOLST, or POST). The POLST document is filled out by a doctor or other medical professional to define treatments to be withheld or administered in a future situation. It has been criticized for placing more power in the hands of physicians than in patients’ hands. Indeed, in some cases the patient need not even sign the document. Once signed by the physician, it becomes a doctor’s order to other medical staff, and may override the patient’s own past advance directives and even the patient’s appointment of a health care agent. It may be applied to patients who are not in a terminal situation and who might only need antibiotics, nutrition and hydration, or other proportionate care.

Yet a POLST document signed months or years before, stating that the patient should not receive antibiotics, could still be followed even if the patient, like Rosa, faced a simple urinary tract infection which is easily cleared up by antibiotics.

Of course there are times when failing health is not so easily remedied as in Rosa’s case. In some situations, procedures are appropriately refused.

One should consider the benefits and burdens of a prospective procedure and conscientiously judge whether or not to accept it. However, because of the inherent dignity of the person and our

Cutting so meone’s life short b efore their time depr ives them of unknow n opportunit ies for God’s gra ce to wor k in their life .

moral obligation to protect each human life, our church teaches that we should take reasonable steps to preserve life and should n e v e r withhold or administer treatment with the intention of ending the life of the person.

It is incredibly difficult to see someone we love suffering, and it is natural for us to want to alleviate their hardship.

Additionally, we live in a culture that places value on productivity and prefers to get rid of what is deemed useless. Some people therefore support measures that, at first, might seem like a compassionate response, but in fact are not. Advocates for legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia promote the illusion that we can “help” those in need by killing them or assisting them in killing themselves.

However, this response ignores the person’s true needs and does not respect their dignity. Each person deserves real solutions and support when facing physical, emotional and spiritual challenges. Cutting someone’s life short before their time deprives them of unknown opportunities for God’s grace to work in their life.

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God’s infinite love for each one of us helps us to grasp our identity and our worth. The recognition of this dignity leads us to respect and protect each person’s life, including our own, and ought to be at the core of whatever medical decisions we make. Let us place our trust in the Lord and ask for his continuous guidance, for these decisions and for all those we face in our lives. *The story of Rosa and Teresa (their names are changed for their privacy) is just one example of how important it is to reflect in advance on how we would want decisions made on our behalf if we cannot speak for ourselves.

(Reprinted (excerpted) from Respect Life Program, copyright © 2014, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved.) BC

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October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 21

Healing within marriage from an abortion When Susan’s* husband, Juan, told her about the abortion he was involved in when he was in college, she finally understood why he was so depressed and had trouble bonding with their children. However, she wanted him to just get over it, without seeking help from a post-abortion healing ministry.

It bothered her to think of him dealing with this in relation to another woman and child.

During Steve’s premarital preparation with his (now) wife, the topic of her past abortion never arose.

Now married and participating in a post-abortion healing ministry, Steve notes, “It is one of the questions you never think to ask during premarital preparation.”

With an estimate of over 56 million abortions in our country since the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973, there’s little doubt that countless marriages are suffering from one or both spouses’ involvement in an abortion.

Although many of the same struggles may arise when only one spouse was involved in a previous abortion, couples who aborted their own child before marriage may experience their own unique difficulties, as Tina shares: ... I

didn’t think it bothered me until after we were married for a year and our son was born. I was so resentful that my husband hadn’t protected me and our baby when I became pregnant before we were married. … I began to resent and hate him. It was like a great divide between us. I couldn’t and wouldn’t let go of the anger and resentment, because if I did, it would be like saying the abortion was ok, and it wasn’t. (Our baby died,) I was hurt, and he could just go on like nothing happened.

For cases in which one spouse is unaware of the other’s past abortion experience, some feel it is crucial for him or her to be told, while others believe it is in the past and it’s not necessary to address it. But if “the two shall become one” (Matthew 19:5), can the marital union be brought to its fullest potential with the secret of an abortion lingering in the past?

Steve doesn’t think so: “... looking back over our 29 years of marriage, it is probably the one thing from (either) of our pasts that has affected our marriage more than any other.”

It is no secret that the devastation of abortion brings with it many challenges. Many times the people who have participated in an abortion are

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not even aware of the countless ways it is affecting their lives. Often, it is not until they recognize some of the effect it is having and become involved in a healing ministry that they begin to more clearly identify their personal abortion connectors (people, places or things that trigger memories of their abortion experience).

It is not uncommon for those suffering from past abortions to overreact to present situations because of the trauma they experienced. For example, what would otherwise be a normal disagreement between spouses can seem like a very real act of abandonment to someone who was coerced into having an abortion. An abortion may also lead to infertility or difficulty conceiving later in life, which bring their own emotional strains for a couple.

Fear of intimacy is another struggle that may arise. Some women and men have kept past abortion experiences a secret and live in the fear of being exposed. They never really open themselves completely to intimacy for fear of being rejected if their spouse ever discovered their secret. Others may not be willing to practice their faith because of the guilt and

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shame they feel, which deprives them of spiritual consolation and drives a wedge between them and their spouse.

It is scary for a person to tell his fiancé or her fiancé or spouse about a past abortion. It requires great trust in that person’s love for them and trust in God. Unfortunately, sometimes that knowledge can threaten the relationship, but it can also be a means for the couple to grow closer together.

Through the help of a post-abortion healing ministry, couples can successfully work through abortionrelated challenges, and God’s grace can bring true healing in their relationships. Matt shared his own story of this experience: I had a hard time learning about the abortion and was not sure if I in fact was still going to be able to marry my fiancé. Attending the retreat helped me to recognize that she was the same person I had loved the day before I learned, and that if God had forgiven her, I needed to forgive her as well. Through counseling and direction we have been able to work through the many feelings and fears I had, and I feel confident we are now able to work on any issues that come up together, and move past them through the grace of God. I feel I am now able to love her the way God intended.

Significant growth can also result from working through the pain together as a couple. For example, the spouse that was not involved in their

Through th e help of a post-abor tion healin g ministry, couples c an succes sfully work through a bortion-re lated challenge s, and Go d’s grace can bring true healin g in their relationsh ips.

husband’s or wife’s past abortion may choose to “spiritually adopt” their spouse’s a b o r t e d child. This spiritual adoption can be a beautiful way to unite the couple as the family God intends them to be, as Steve recognized: I made the decision that this was part of what was brought to our marriage ‘in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health ... to love and honor ... all the days of my life.’ I take that vow seriously. We had to make this journey together. ... I now look upon it that I have two sons, the one (whom) she conceived before we met, and the one we conceived together. Would it be any different if the child had lived and ... [were] here present in our lives? No!!

The only real difference is that we have a child who is with God and who is working and praying for us.

Abortion affects countless marriages more than many people recognize. But there is no doubt that God will bring great healing to those who trust in his

infinite mercy. If a past abortion can be acknowledged and addressed, a married couple can make great strides in experiencing even more fully God’s design that “the two shall become one” (Matthew 19:5). * The stories of Susan, Juan, Steve, Tina and Matt (their names are changed for their privacy) are just a few examples of the many marriages touched by abortion. To find resources for post-abortion healing, visit HopeAfterAbortion.org.

(Reprinted (excerpted) from Respect Life Program, copyright © 2014, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved.) BC

“Let the children come to me, do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these”.

Mark 10:14

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October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 23

An adoption love story Editor’s Note: Adoption is a wonderful gift. Though sometimes portrayed in negative ways by the media, most experiences of adoption are beautiful love stories—such as the one Jenny* shares below.

My husband Bill and I have been married for six years. Having children and raising a family had always been our expectation. By the time we were married, most of our siblings and friends already had children, so of course we were excited and ready to be parents ourselves. We soon learned, however, that having children of our own might not be so easy.

We made a few trips to multiple cities to be treated by wonderful doctors who have helped so many couples conceive, but everything we tried was unsuccessful. We felt so hopeless at times. Words can’t even explain this experience of loss.

Fortunately, our marriage only grew stronger, because we were there for each other and continued to rely on God. This didn’t always come easily, but it helped that Bill has a great sense of humor, and we were able to laugh at some of the crazy situations and conversations that come with infertility.

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Since we knew our chances of becoming pregnant were small, it wasn’t very long before we started talking about the possibility of adoption.

However, it wasn’t an easy decision, and I wondered if my heart was big enough to love an adopted child as I would my biological child. There were also so many other variables to consider, one of which was the expense involved, and we had already spent so much money on infertility treatments. We felt we had no control, but God reminded us again that he is always in control and that we could trust in him.

So with prayerful discernment, we decided to start the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. However, after it took nearly a year to get on the waiting list, the adoption program was put on hold for reasons that were unknown to us.

We were so frustrated that we started to feel as though maybe we just weren’t called to have children. We then heard from friends who had adopted a newborn baby domestically after only a few short months. With this new encouragement, we switched gears and decided to adopt domestically, picking a nationwide agency rather than a state agency because it is usually faster.

We were so excited but also rather scared. We would be chosen by a birthmother and would be required to send pictures and letters to her frequently. Most likely, we would talk with the birthmother over the phone

and meet her at the delivery. And there was always the chance she could change her mind, even days after the birth. I didn’t know how I would feel about all this and wondered if we were setting ourselves up for more heartbreak. But all we could do was pray and try to leave it in God’s hands.

Four months later, we received a call that a birthmother in Florida had chosen us. She was seven months pregnant with a boy. We couldn’t believe it. We were finally going to have a baby.

We talked with her a couple of times over the phone, and I never realized until then how lucky I was to marry such a talker, as Bill really helped the conversations flow smoothly.

On the birthmother’s due date, we received the call that she was in labor.

Bill and I dropped everything and hit the road to Florida to meet our son.

Words can’t even describe how we felt during that drive. We were so excited at the thought that we could be driving home with our son, yet at the same time we were so scared that we may be driving home alone. I wasn’t sure we could handle that disappointment, and I wondered what she would think of us. Would she regret that she chose us? What would I say to the woman who was going to place her child with us? Along with these and all the normal fears of becoming a parent, I was also afraid that I wouldn’t bond with our new son or feel that he was ours.

After arriving, we met the

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24 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

Samart Funeral Home & Crematorium of Houma birthmother who was still in labor. She was so sweet and personable, and we sat with her to support her as best we could. A few hours later, our son Andrew was born. It was the most surreal experience.

We spent the next day and a half with Andrew and his birthmother in the hospital getting to know each other a bit. It was hard to know what to say to her, knowing she was making the hardest decision of her life, knowing the pain she must be experiencing, and feeling that I was the one causing this pain.

It was such an emotional roller coaster to hold and look at this precious baby, wondering if I would really be his mother.

Thankfully, the birthmother decided to maintain her decision to place her child with us. Later that evening, Christmas Eve, Bill and I left the hospital with Andrew. It didn’t take long before there was no doubt in our minds that he was our son, the greatest gift from God! He really is our Christmas miracle.

Andrew is two years old now, and it is so clear to Bill and me that God picked him for us. We can’t imagine loving a child whom we conceived more than we love Andrew. It is amazing how he fits our personalities so well. More and more every day we are so thankful to his birthmother for her selfless decision.

It is so hard to express in words what a unique experience adoption has been for us. It has been quite a journey facing infertility, as well as so many unknowns and acts of kindness and sacrifice—all with so many emotions—which led to the growth of our family. There were times when our faith was shaken and we weren’t sure if we could handle our cross. But adopting Andrew has made us more aware of God’s power and of his love for us. We realize that he always has a perfect plan for our lives. *Jenny and Bill (all names have been changed for privacy) would like to encourage you be open to the gift of adoption.

Is God calling you to consider adopting a child or placing your child for adoption? To learn more information, contact Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux at (985) 876-0490.

(Reprinted (excerpted) from Respect Life Program, copyright © 2014, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved.) BC

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October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 25

Heavenly Recipes

Thomas Becnel

Thomas Cooks:

WILD GAME Story and Photos by Lawrence Chatagnier

This month’s heavenly recipe comes from Thomas Becnel, a native of “Back Vacherie” and resident of Chackbay. He is sharing his recipe for old fashioned pot fried rabbit. Thomas learned to cook from many people. He remembers watching his grandmother and mother cook when he was young. Later in life his cooking was influenced by some of the older men at the Vacherie Deer Hunting Club. “Each one that I watched and learned from had their own technique. I have compiled all their cooking styles and made a style of my own always using simple ingredients, salt, pepper, red pepper and oil.” Thomas has been a member of the hunting club for the past 32 years.

Thomas lives with his wife Holly. They have two children, Erica and Hunter, who are currently serving in the U.S. Military. Thomas and Holly are parishioners of St. James Chapel in Choctaw.

Thomas is a teacher at West St. John Elementary School in Edgard, where he teaches seventh grade English and American History. His teaching career came about after years of working in the chemical plants along the Mississippi River and with a building contractor as a carpenter. “I was working at a plant one day and decided that I couldn’t do this type of work the rest of my life. My mom encouraged me to go back to college. I went to Nicholls and received a degree in psychology and history. I worked for a refrigeration and electrical contractor in the morning and went to school at night; after five years I received my teaching certification.”

Thomas loves being a teacher. He says the best part is when you see the students get what you are teaching.

He says it’s like a light bulb that goes on when they have figured out what you are trying to explain.

Thomas, 55, says through the years he has acquired much appreciation for nature. Always being an outdoorsman who enjoys hunting, fishing and gardening, he is now realizing that it is not always about the kill when hunting. “I have realized that it’s not about the kill; it’s about nature. It is great to get away and enjoy the outdoors. Sometimes I will bring a book to the deer stand and just enjoy being away from the busyness of everyday 26 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

Old Fashion Pot Fried Rabbit INGREDIENTS: 1 medium size wild swamp rabbit, cut into pieces (similar to the way you would cut a chicken for frying) 2 tbsps. olive oil 1 medium white onion, sliced 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced 1/2 tsp. of cayenne pepper, sprinkled evenly on top of the rabbit 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt sprinkled evenly on top of the rabbit Pinch of ground black peppercorn over pot, if desired 2 tbsps. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce poured on top of rabbit

DIRECTIONS: Pour olive oil in pot. Mix up all pieces of meat and coat evenly with seasonings. Turn temperature to high to get fast even heat started on the meat. Watching the pot closely, you will start to hear the meat begin to sear (sizzle). After allowing the meat to stick a little, turning medium brown in the process (but not burning), add half cup of water to the pot, flipping meat pieces over to start the searing process on that side. Repeat this process until the rabbit is as brown as you prefer. Add water in small amounts so it cooks out slowly. Once the meat is seared to the desired color, lower heat to medium, then layer the onions and garlic on top of the rabbit evenly. Keep the onions on top of the rabbit while they start to cook; slowly allow onions to fall to the bottom as they start to soften creating a caramelized brown onion gravy. This dish pairs wonderfully with fresh home cooked white beans and rice. life. I would hope that the younger people of today learn to appreciate the hunt and not how much you kill.

Thomas says that he has been blessed throughout his life. “God has blessed me in many ways. I had wonderful grandparents and parents. I have a loving wife and was blessed with two healthy children. We have been able to provide for them every day. There were hardships along the way. The Bible says there will be good times and bad times. There is no Garden of Eden on earth.” BC

Comment

Guest Columnist Father Joshua Rodrigue, S.T.L.

For many Catholics, one of the most memorable days was making our first Communion. We were dressed in our “Sunday best,” boys in slacks and a shirt and tie, and the girls in a white dress or perhaps both in white robes.

It was a much-anticipated day, making sure breakfast was over and done with an hour before Mass (just to make certain it would be an hour before receiving Communion). For others of an older generation, it was not eating or drinking anything after midnight and being careful not even to swallow any water while brushing their teeth so as not to break the fast.

On that day we would be receiving for the first time the body and blood of Christ. We had watched for so long our parents, our siblings, others at Mass receive Communion. Finally, we would be counted among the number of those who would be given spiritual nourishment, food for life’s journey, the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ.

As children we truly believed, as we were instructed, that we were receiving Jesus.

A child’s spirituality is not very theoretical; rather, it involves a certain interior communion with God. Children have a great capacity to believe whole-heartedly and have a profound spirituality, but if it is not acknowledged and fostered, it could easily die. If that first Communion day becomes our last Communion day or an occasional Communion day, that belief and that newfound union with Christ slowly dies within. Our relationship with the Lord and faith somehow become distant and unable to be believed at times.

As we grow older, sometimes we lose that childlike faith. The loss of childhood innocence, the busyness of our lives, less frequent prayer, outside

‘I do believe, help my unbelief’ secular influences, and hardships in life can dim or even extinguish that fire of belief. Our childhood friendship with Christ can turn into a long distance friendship, occasionally speaking to each other. The aspects of faith we truly believed may give way to doubt or uncertainty, especially regarding the Eucharist.

How many of us can remember being taught the Catholic theological term transubstantiation to explain the reality that during Mass, the bread and wine used for Communion change into the body and blood of Jesus Christ? We may not remember or know the term but we know and believe what happens … or do we? The Eucharist makes present Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross in an unbloody manner through this substantial change. This belief is central to our Catholic faith, and the church teaches that “the Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1324).

Do We Believe?

However the results of a new Pew Research Center survey conducted in February of 2019 find that most selfdescribed Catholics do not believe this core teaching. “In fact, nearly sevenin-10 Catholics (69 percent) say they personally believe that during Mass, the bread and wine used in Communion are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Just one-third of U.S. Catholics (31 percent) say they believe that during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.”

In saying the Eucharist is just a symbol, 69 percent of Catholics are actually professing memorialism.

It had its origins in the 1520’s under the Swiss Protestant Reformer named Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531). He taught that there existed no physical or spiritual presence of Christ in the bread and wine. Rather, the Lord’s Supper is a remembrance of Christ’s suffering and a reminder of his power to overcome sin and death. Jesus’ command to “do this in remembrance”

28 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

was seen as a reenactment of the Last Supper, like watching a play or film.

Another Protestant view derives from the teachings of the FrenchSwiss Protestant Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) who believes in receptionism. This belief taught that those who receive the bread and wine with faith can receive the actual body and blood of Christ spiritually. The Holy Spirit makes Christ present not literally in the elements but spiritually.

Calvin believed the presence of Christ was found in the gathered community rather than in the bread and wine, and Jesus could not be contained in those elements.

The German Protestant Reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) believed in Christ’s presence in the Eucharist; however, he believed in consubstantiation (with the substance). Luther believed the bread and wine coexist side by side with the substance of the body and blood of Christ but is not changed into it. Jesus was present with the Eucharist when the person received, but then after the service the bread and wine were back to being only bread and wine. It is as though Jesus would attach himself to it for reception and then leave it.

Do We Know?

For some Catholics, the question was not whether they believe in transubstantiation but whether they actually know what the church teaches.

In addition to asking Catholics what they believe about the Eucharist, the recent survey also included a question that tested whether Catholics actually know what the church teaches on the subject. The survey finds, “Most Catholics who believe that the bread and wine are symbolic do not know that the church holds that transubstantiation occurs. Overall, 43 percent of Catholics believe that the bread and wine are symbolic and also that this reflects the position of the church. Still, one-in-five Catholics (22 percent) reject the idea of transubstantiation, even though they know about the church’s teaching.”

The survey concluded, “The

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Comment

vast majority of those who believe that the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ – 28 percent of all Catholics – do know that this is what the church teaches. A small share of Catholics (three percent) profess to believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist despite not knowing the church’s teaching on transubstantiation.”

The report goes on to reveal “about six-in-10 (63 percent) of the most observant Catholics — those who attend Mass at least once a week — accept the church’s teaching about transubstantiation. Still, even among this most observant group of Catholics, roughly one-third (37 percent) don’t believe that the Communion bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ (including 23 percent who don’t know the church’s teaching and 14 percent who know the church’s teaching but don’t believe it). And among Catholics who do not attend Mass weekly, large majorities say they believe the bread and wine are symbolic and do not actually become the body and blood of Jesus.”

The survey also finds that belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is most common among older Catholics. Even still, “majorities in every age group (including 61 percent

of those age 60 and over) believe that the bread and wine are symbols, not the actual body and blood of Christ.”

What does this mean?

The troubling findings of the Pew Research Center survey show that 63 percent of Catholics attending Mass once a week have a non-Catholic understanding and belief in the Eucharist. If we would apply the results of the survey to our own parish communities, out of every 100 people attending weekend Mass, 63 of those parishioners would not believe the Eucharist becomes the body and blood of Christ. This gives us pause to reflect on our own belief and convictions in the sacramental presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Does this reflect the belief in the parishes of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux?

Unfortunately, the survey does not delve into the reasons for this trend.

Perhaps it is a lack of teaching and preaching about the Eucharist and the Real Presence; perhaps it is a lack of understanding of the Mass; and perhaps as adults we have lost our childlike awe and wonder of the great mystery of Jesus being present to us in the humble forms of bread and wine. It is a mystery that can confound our modern sensibilities in an age of explanations through science

and technology and can be a challenge to our faith. But even for those who believe this mystery, we must still cry out to the Lord just as the father who asked Jesus to heal his son, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

Catechizing both children and adults about the church’s teaching on transubstantiation, celebrating and participating at Mass with faith and reverence by both the priest and parishioners, stopping at church during the week and spending regular time before the Blessed Sacrament in prayer, and promoting eucharistic devotions are some of the ways to strengthen our Catholic belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The beginning words of Adoro Te Devote, a eucharistic hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas, express best our hearts in faith before the mystery of the Lord’s presence in the most Blessed Sacrament: I devoutly adore you, O hidden God, Truly hidden beneath these appearances.

My whole heart submits to You, And in contemplating You, it surrenders itself completely.

Sight, touch, taste are all deceived in their judgment of you, But hearing suffices firmly to believe.

BC

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 29

Special

Father Noas Kerketta, I.M.S., celebrates 25 years of priestly ministry Story by Janet Marcel Photo by Lawrence Chatagnier Father Noas Kerketta, I.M.S., who has been serving as associate pastor of St. Hilary Church parish in Mathews and the Community of St. Anthony in Gheens since July 2018, celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on May 8 of this year.

A native of Rewra Village, Jharkhand, in Eastern India, he came to the United States at the request of his superior with the Indian Missionary Society in 2008. “I never thought about coming to the USA,” says Father Kerketta.

“The Society told me they wanted to send me to the USA and I said let me think about it. I know that wherever we go we are doing the work of God and I have to obey my superiors in the Society, so I came here.” He says there are currently about 20 Indian Missionary Society priests serving in the United States.

Father Kerketta says his parents were the greatest influence on his decision to become a priest.

“The faith experience and formation my parents provided for me is why I wanted to become a priest. They were my biggest teachers. I remember when I was a young boy, we would always pray before meals. I would see my mother praying every night and she would tell all of her children to kneel down and pray. I also attended Catholic school until I was in the 11th grade.”

He went to the seminary when he was 17 years old and says that he never thought about doing anything else other than becoming a priest.

While in the seminary, he says he prayed to God, “‘Let me live in a society and if I am not called to join a society, let me go home.’ I shared that with my spiritual director and he told me, ‘Do not worry, God has called you, that is why you are here.’

Father Kerketta says he saw an advertisement in a Catholic magazine for the Indian Missionary Society. He had also corresponded with Jesuits, but ultimately was called to the I.M.S. and spent the first 14 years after he was ordained doing missionary work with the Hindus in India.

What stands out most in his mind about the day he was ordained was just surrendering himself completely to God and looking forward to becoming a priest.

Father Kerketta says what he has enjoyed most about being a priest is the missionary activity he did in India, such as meeting the Hindu people, trying to uplift the poor among them and providing income generation programs.

Sometimes they would ask him about Jesus and he would speak to them about the Gospel values. None of them really opposed Christian values, he explains.

30 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

“The most challenging aspect of being a priest,” says Father Kerketta, “has been the changing world, the changing views of the people. Some people in today’s society don’t put much priority on spreading the Gospel and following Jesus. They have much more liberal views and values. When I was growing up we were taught that only in Christ could we be saved, but in this modern world, some people think they don’t need to follow Christ to be saved.”

Father Kerketta says his ministry here in the diocese is very different from his ministry in India. “In the USA, my work is very simple; I have a lot of free time for prayer. I was very busy in India. I worked in the fields. I had to find food for the people and take it to them. I took the sick to the hospital. And, I traveled to remote villages to celebrate Mass. Here, I have more time to reflect about my life and more time to be with the Lord. My situation is completely different here. At first, I didn’t know what to do or how to reach out to people. So I started visiting the homebound and I have enjoyed that.”

Father Kerketta says when he was younger he used to play basketball, hockey, soccer and volleyball in his free time. Now he enjoys riding his bicycle and watching football.

When he first arrived in the United States, he says he didn’t know anything at all about football, but he has learned all about it. He has two brothers and two sisters who all live in India.

“I am so grateful for God’s blessings and I am enjoying my experience in the USA. The first 25 years of my priesthood went by very fast,” says Father Kerketta. BC

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Vandebilt Catholic is open to all students and does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity.

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October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 31

Youth

in action

What advice would you give friends who are struggling with their faith?

There is no need to worry our faith will always be here. Jesus will always remain in us and that is the greatest love we can ever acquire. For my friends who are struggling to keep their faith through school I suggest they surround themselves with friends and family who will have their back.

In tough situations I advise that they take a moment to sit and talk to God like he’s our best friend, the one who is never going to leave us. And if they are still struggling, I tell them to make time out of their busy day to sit in his presence, then to seek comfort in people who will put you into his arms.

Keeping my faith throughout college is going to be one of the hardest things for me, but I know with the help of my friends and family they will keep me in my chair. To stay in your chair means keeping all of your duckies in a row. It’s cool to jump up every once in a while but when times are tough striving to be in the chair is just what we need.

Jesus will take everything off our plates and solve it as long as we bring it to his table, that is step one. Step two is to pray and keep praying no matter what happens. Our prayers may not be answered right away but he hears and that’s what matters. Step three, never give up. Everyone hears this from time to time, but hearing it through prayer is more powerful than hearing it 50 times a day. These three steps plus friends and family are going to help anyone struggling to keep their faith. BC

32 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

Bailey Marie Dupre School: Nicholls State University Grade: Freshman Church parish: St. Ann, Bourg Describe your family unit: Connie, mother; Ivy Jr., father; Zack, (15), brother; Ashley, (23), sister Favorite Hobby: I love praising and worshiping the Lord as well as performing with the Pride of Nicholls State Marching Band.

Favorite Movie: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Favorite T.V. Show: NCIS Favorite Genre of Music: Classical and instrumental music

Seminarian Education Burses What is a seminarian burse/endowment fund?

A seminarian burse/endowment fund is an invested sum of money where the interest is used in perpetuity to help fund the education of men to the priesthood in the Diocese of HoumaThibodaux.

How does someone establish a seminarian burse/endowment fund?

Very simply, a burse/endowment fund may be established and

named for anyone you choose, be it family, friend, bishop, priest, deacon, religious, etc.

Who do I contact to contribute to or establish a fund?

To contribute to or establish a burse/endowment fund, send funds to the Pastoral Center, Attn: Catholic Foundation, P.O. Box 505, Schriever, LA 70395 or contact the Catholic Foundation office at 985-850-3116 or aponson@htdiocese.org for more information.

Completed Burses and CFSL Named Endowment Funds

August 2019 Burse Contributions

Note: Numbers stipulate the amount of completed burses.*

Anonymous Mr. & Mrs. C. Thomas Bienvenu Harry Booker Bishop Warren L. Boudreaux (3)* Mr. Eledier Broussard Rev. Adrian J. Caillouet Rev. James Louis Caillouet Bishop L. Abel Caillouet Judge & Mrs. L.P. Caillouet Msgr. Lucien J. Caillouet Abdon J. & Ada B. Callais Harold & Gloria Callais Family Paul A. Callais Peter W. Callais Vincent & Fannie Cannata Minor Sr. & Lou Ella Cheramie Maude & Edith Daspit Mr. & Mrs. Caliste Duplantis family (3)* Clay Sr. & Evelida Duplantis C. Remie Duplantis Marie Elise Duplantis Warren J. Harang Jr. Msgr. Raphael C. Labit Msgr. Francis J. Legendre Rev. Charles Menard Dr. & Mrs. M.V. Marmande & Family

Donald Peltier Sr. (3)* Harvey Peltier (30)* Richard Peltier The Peltier Foundation (5) Orleans & Louella Pitre Msgr. Joseph Wester Robert R. Wright Jr. Rev. Kermit Trahan St. Bernadette Men’s Club Diocesan Knights of Columbus Leighton Delahaye Mrs. Shirley Conrad Bishop Shelton J. Fabre Elizabeth Hebert Callais Family Fund Rev. Joseph Tu Tran Society of St. Joseph (2) Endowment Fund - $119,136.90 James J Buquet Jr. Julius & Marie Pauline St. Amant Elie & Dot Klingman Bishop Sam Jacobs Endowment-$32,840.43 Giardina Family Foundation Sem. Endowment-$4,337.62

James J. Buquet, Jr. Family Sem. Endowment-$27,979.95 Diocesan Seminarian Endowment-$3,502,699.11 Mary and Al Danos Foundation Sem. Endowment-$38,621.30 Msgr. Amedee Sem. Endowment-$314,838.43 The Peltier Foundation-$14,482.97 Leo & Ethel Hebert Jane and John Dean Sidney J. & Lydie C. Duplantis Msgr. Stanislaus Manikowski Leon “Ponoke” and Marlene Champagne Sem. Endowment-$2,225.00 Society of St. Joseph-$100 Father Patrick Riviere Sem. Endowment-$27,018.24 Parker Conrad Sem. Education-$15.000.00 Father Brett Lapeyrouse Sem. Education-$3,000.00

Warren J. Harang Jr. No 2......................$100.00 Rev. Gerard Hayes.......................................$300.00 Dean Joseph Chiasson.............................$100.00

Open Burses with Balance as of August 31, 2019 Donald Peltier Sr. No. 4 .........................................$13,000.00 Joseph Strada Memorial .......................................$12,642.63 Msgr. Raphael C. Labit No. 2 .............................$11,560.00 Claude & Lucy Mahler Family .............................$11,100.00 Joseph Waitz Sr. .......................................................$11,000.00 Mr. & Mrs. George C. Fakier ................................$10,900.00 Harvey Peltier No. 31 .............................................$10,486.91 Clay Sr. & Evelida Duplantis No. 2 ....................$10,000.00 C. Remie Duplantis No. 2 ......................................$10,000.00 Marie Elise Duplantis No. 2 .................................$10,000.00 Maude & Edith Daspit No. 2 ...............................$10,000.00 Msgr. George A. Landry ........................................$10,000.00 Msgr. William Koninkx ............................................. $7,900.00 Catholic Daughters .................................................... $7,080.00 Rev. Victor Toth .......................................................... $7,000.00 Msgr. Francis Amedee ............................................. $6,850.00 Brides of the Most Blessed Trinity ...................... $6,598.00 Rev. Gerard Hayes ..................................................... $6,586.00 Rev. Peter Nies ............................................................ $6,000.00 Rev. Guy Zeringue ..................................................... $6,000.00 Mr. & Mrs. Love W. Pellegrin ................................ $5,000.00 Anonymous No. 2 ...................................................... $5,000.00 Mr. & Mrs. Caliste Duplantis Family No. 4 ...... $5,000.00 Rev. William M. Fleming ......................................... $5,000.00 Mrs. Ayres A. Champagne ...................................... $5,000.00 Rev. Kasimir Chmielewski ....................................... $4,839.00 Joseph “Jay” Fertitta .................................................. $4,450.00 Rev. Henry Naquin .................................................... $4,311.00

Anawin Community .................................................. $4,200.00 Harry Booker No. 2 ................................................... $4,138.00 Msgr. James Songy ................................................... $4,075.00 Kelly Curole Frazier .................................................... $3,610.96 Mr. & Mrs. John Marmande .................................. $3,500.00 J. R. Occhipinti ............................................................. $3,400.00 Preston & Gladys Webre ........................................ $3,400.00 Mr. & Mrs. Galip Jacobs .......................................... $3,060.00 St. Jude ........................................................................... $3,000.00 Diocesan Knights of Columbus No. 2 ............... $2,894.62 Warren J. Harang Jr. No. 2 ..................................... $2,800.00 Rev. Peter H. Brewerton .......................................... $2,600.00 Willie & Emelda St. Pierre ...................................... $2,000.00 Rev. John Gallen .......................................................... $1,950.00 Rev. H.C. Paul Daigle ................................................ $1,900.00 Deacon Connely Duplantis .................................... $1,700.00 Alfrances P. Martin .................................................... $1,650.00 Msgr. Francis J. Legendre No. 2 ........................... $1,645.00 Rev. Robert J. Sevigny .............................................. $1,600.00 Jacob Marcello ............................................................ $1,600.00 Rev. Hubert C. Broussard ........................................ $1,550.00 Judge Louis & Shirley R. Watkins ....................... $1,550.00 Msgr. Emile J. Fossier ............................................... $1,545.00 Ronnie Haydel ............................................................. $1,535.00 Dr. William Barletta Sr. ............................................. $1,525.00 Deacon Robert Dusse’ ............................................. $1,450.00 Rev. Anthony Rousso ............................................... $1,300.00 Msgr. John L. Newfield ............................................ $1,200.00

Rev. Joseph Tu Tran No. 2 ...................................... $1,094.00 Msgr. John G. Keller .................................................. $1,050.00 Rev. Clemens Schneider ........................................... $1,000.00 Bishop Warren L. Boudreaux No. 4 .................... $1,000.00 Edna W. DiSalvo ......................................................... $1,000.00 Bernice Harang ........................................................... $1,000.00 Dean Joseph Chiasson ............................................. $1,000.00 Deacon Willie Orgeron ................................................$900.00 Ruby Pierce .......................................................................$800.00 Deacon Roland Dufrene .............................................$750.00 Juliette & Eugene Wallace .........................................$700.00 Deacon Edward J. Blanchard .....................................$700.00 Deacon Raymond LeBouef ........................................$550.00 Paul & Laura Duet ........................................................$550.00 Mr. & Mrs. Anthony Cannata ....................................$500.00 Robert Walsh ...................................................................$500.00 Anne Veron Aguirre ......................................................$380.00 Deacon Harold Kurtz ....................................................$300.00 Richard Peltier No. 2 .....................................................$300.00 Claude Bergeron ............................................................$250.00 Rev. Michael Finnegan .................................................$200.00 Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Naquin ..........................................$150.00 Deacon Pedro Pujals ....................................................$100.00 Rev. Warren Chassaniol ...............................................$100.00 Deacon Eldon Frazier ......................................................$50.00 Deacon Nick Messina ......................................................$50.00 Grant J. Louviere ...............................................................$50.00

Overall Seminarian Burses Total: $1,758,343.02 ~ CFSL Seminarian Endowments Total: $3,962,158.72 October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 33

October Daily Prayer for Priests, Deacons and Seminarians

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

1 October

2

3

4

5

Rev. Prentice Tipton

Very Rev. Mark Toups, V.G.

Very Rev. Mike Tran, V.F.

Rev. Joseph Tregre

Rev. Joe Varghese

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Bishop Emeritus Sam G. Jacobs

Rev. Billy Velasco

Deacon Lee Crochet

Rev. Shenan Boquet

Rev. Thomas Bouterie

Rev. Stuart King

Rev. Joshua Rodrigue

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

Rev. Michael Bergeron, retired

Seminarian Joseph Lapeyrouse

Msgr. Frederic Brunet, retired

Rev. Domingo Cruz, retired

Deacon Martin Dickerson

Rev. Wilfredo Decal, retired

Rev. Scott Dugas, retired

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

Deacon William Dunckelman

Msgr. Donald Ledet, retired

Rev. P.J. Madden, retired

Rev. Roch Naquin, retired

Seminarian Nick LeCompte

Rev. Ty Nguyen, retired

Rev. Charles Perkins, retired

27

28

29

30

31

Rev. Amang Santiago, retired

Rev. Caesar Silva, retired

Rev. Wilmer Todd, retired

Rev. Jerry Villarrubia, retired

Deacon Lloyd Duplantis

Daily Prayer for Clergy and Religious Lord Jesus, hear our prayer for the spiritual renewal of bishops, priests, deacons, brothers, sisters, lay ministers and seminarians of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux. We praise You for giving their ministry to the Church. In these days, renew them with the gifts of Your Spirit.

You once opened the Holy Scriptures to Your disciples when You walked on this earth. Now renew Your ordained and chosen ones with the truth and power of Your Word.

In Eucharist you gave Your disciples renewed life and hope. Nourish Your consecrated ones with Your own Body and Blood. Help them to imitate in their lives the death and resurrection they celebrate around Your altar.

Give them enthusiasm for the Gospel, zeal for the salvation of all people, courage in leadership and humility in service.

Give them Your love for one another and for all their brothers and sisters in You. For You love them, Lord Jesus, and we love and pray for them in Your Holy Name, today especially for _______________________. Amen.

Sponsored by:

of the Word 506 Cardinal Drive, Thibodaux, LA • (985) 447-6564

34 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

Book Reviews

Reading With Raymond Raymond Saadi

Blue Moon

Chances Are ...

By Richard Russo Knopf $26.95 Three friends, Lincoln, Mickey and Teddy, return to the scene of their last weekend together 40 years before, in the company of beautiful Jacy, with whom they were all in love.

If she returned the love of any one of them in particular, she wasn’t saying. She loved them all collectively, and therein lies the mystery that’s haunted them ever since she mysteriously disappeared on the last day they were together. Now, the “boys” in their sixties, meet again in that same house for the last time with that mystery still weighing on each of them. Whatever happened to Jacy? Is she alive or dead? Suspicions began to tear apart longtime friendships until the truth is revealed. BC

A Jack Reacher Novel

By Lee Child Delacorte Press $28.99 When Jack Reacher’s bus pulls up in a new town, he’s just in time to thwart a pickpocket from relieving an older man of considerable cash. The man with the money had paid exorbitant fees for money to pay for a hugely expensive medical procedure to save his daughter’s life. The creditor was one of two bosses who ran the town when they weren’t bumping each other off. This is of no particular interest to Reacher except as it affects the man and his wife left with nothing of value other than their house, which they will have to sell. Reacher intends to keep that from happening. Fans will love it.

BC

The Guardians

By John Grisham Doubleday $29.95 Attorney Cullen Post sits in prison with his client, Duke Russell, hoping for a last minute delay of his execution, his last meal, steak and fries growing cold.

Post is convinced of Duke’s innocence or he wouldn’t be there as he has for others wrongly convicted. When word is received of a stay, Duke is given only a few minutes to eat his meal and he gobbles it up. It’s another victory, of sorts, for Post’s small team, The Guardians, dedicated to freeing innocent persons spending years, maybe life, in prison for murders they didn’t commit. With no time to celebrate, Post rejoins his team to tackle another case, one that may actually cost him his life. BC

Enough as you are

By Peggy Weber Loyola Press $13.95 Do you ever feel smart enough?

Loved enough? Good enough? Have you now had enough?

Author Weber, utilizing pertinent quotes from St. Francis de Sales to open each chapter, offers ways to see ourselves as being enough as we are today yet striving to be better. “Be who you are and be that perfectly well,” says St. Francis. Weber also closes each chapter with ways of using St. Ignatius Loyola’s Examen prayer technique. The book is not just to read but a guide for action. BC

Humour

By Terry Eagleton Yale $24 “They laughed when I told them I wanted to be a comedian.

Well they’re not laughing now.”

Did you laugh at that? Found it funny or not? That joke

by Bob Monkhouse opens this book that isn’t a joke book at all, although several good ones are scattered throughout. Rather, it’s a book about humor of all kinds, including, of course, jokes; what makes us laugh and what doesn’t. Pretty funny at that. BC

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 35

Special

Pictured from left are Mary Lou Weimer, Dorothy (Dot) Pugh, Cora Lee Smith, Shirley Gilbert and William (Bill) Gilbert.

Five St. Joseph Manor residents will be years or older this month

100

36 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

Special

Story by Janet Marcel Photos by Lawrence Chatagnier Three residents at St. Joseph Manor in Thibodaux are over 100 years old: Cora Lee Smith (103); William Gilbert (101); Shirley Gilbert (100); and two more are turning 100 this October: Mary Lou Weimer (99); and Dorothy Pugh (99).

Ann Thibodaux, administrator of St. Joseph Manor in Thibodaux, says, “Celebrating five residents at St. Joseph Manor who will be 100 years or older this October is a first for us since we opened in 1995. We always believed living at the Manor enhances a resident’s quality of life, but this confirms it. In addition to the Manor staff ensuring a resident’s physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs are met, our residents also greatly benefit from the companionship and socialization with other residents. We are tremendously blessed and extremely grateful having these five centenarians as part of our community. They bring us such great joy. Their faith, wisdom, experience and love are beautiful gifts to all of us. We thank God for each one of them.”

Cora Lee Smith, a native of the St. Charles Community, turned 103 this year on June 21. She grew up on a farm in a family of five boys and five girls. Her father passed away at the age of 99 and her mother at the age of 92. One of her sisters lived until the age of 105.

Cora Lee and her husband Kermit Smith were married for 29 years and they have four children (one is deceased).

Cora Lee loved learning and acquiring knowledge. She was a 4th grade teacher at St. Charles Elementary School for 30 years. She received her degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

She loved to dance and travel when she was younger. She walk two miles every day for most of her life and drove until she was 94 years old.

Throughout her life Cora Lee had a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and she still prays the rosary as a group every day at the Manor.

She has been living at St. Joseph Manor for about two years and says she loves it. “There is no better place to be.

The staff is so good to us; everything here is good.”

When asked what she attributed her long life to, she responded, “Having a good education and traveling helped me more than anything.”

Napoleonville native William (Bill) Gilbert will turn 101 years old on October 6 of this year. He grew up in a family of eight boys and six girls. His father was part owner of the Cora Texas Sugar Mill in White Castle.

When he was younger, he was an avid hunter. He taught industrial arts and owned Gilbert Marine Center which was located in Thibodaux.

Bill and his wife Rea were married for almost 68 years. His wife Rea was a state demonstration agent and also worked for the federal government. He and his wife enjoyed traveling together.

One of their favorite places was Europe, which they visited six times.

When asked what he attributed his long life to, he says, “I stopped drinking liquor; now I just drink water and milk.”

He has been living at St. Joseph Manor for about 12 years and attends daily Mass there. His wife was also a resident at the Manor for two years before she died.

“The Manor is a good place to be if you have no nowhere else to go. I’d rather be at home, but I didn’t have a choice,” says Bill.

Shirley Gilbert, who is a native of Napoleonville, turned 100 this year on July 9. She and her husband James (Jim) Gilbert were married for 35 years and have three children.

Shirley says her parents spoiled her when she was growing up and she had a good time when she was young. She enjoyed playing outside a lot with her brother.

She taught P.E., history, science and driver’s education at Labadieville High School (which later became Assumption High School) where she met her future husband who was the school’s principal.

Shirley lead an active life. She went to the gym and drove until she was 93 years old.

“I’ve lived a good life. God has been good to me,” says Shirley. Her daughter says she was always very active in the church.

Shirley has been living at St. Joseph Manor for about six years and enjoys going on outings with the other residents.

She plays bingo, prays the rosary as a group and attends Mass every day. One of her favorite things to do is sit outside, which she also does every day.

(Shirley is Bill Gilbert’s sister-in-law. Her husband Jim and Bill were brothers.)

a

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 37

Special

St. Joseph Manor residents Lockport native Mary Lou Weimer will turn 100 on October 21 of this year. She grew up in a plantation home on Highway 1 with her two sisters and three brothers.

Mary Lou has been living at the Manor since 2005. Before she was diagnosed with dementia about three years ago, she loved playing bingo, participating in outings, and socializing with the other residents.

She and her husband Dr. Charles Weimer have five children, four sons (one who died at birth) and one daughter. They also have five grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Mary Lou’s daughter Catherine Weimer Sayes says Mary Lou always did things in moderation; she never overdid anything and she always put her children first. She was a 1st-12th grade teacher in Galliano in the 1940s before she had children.

After her husband retired, Mary Lou started painting.

Her husband built her an art shed in their backyard and she loved spending time there creating. Her artwork was displayed at the Manor recently for Assisted Living Week.

She once painted a picture of the Blessed Mother as a gift for her daughter, which is now hanging at the Manor.

Mary Lou’s Catholic faith means everything to her and it still plays a big part in her life. Her daughter remembers kneeling in the parlor a lot to pray the rosary when she was a child. Her parents very devout Catholics, says Catherine.

They served as eucharistic ministers and were involved with the RCIA. Mary Lou attended daily Mass at the Manor until about a year ago.

38 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

Dorothy (Dot) Pugh, who is a native of Eastern North Carolina, will turn 100 on October 27 of this year. Dot was the oldest of three siblings; she had one brother and one sister.

Her father served in World War I, where he contracted tuberculosis and died when Dot was only 11 years old.

Her mother supported the family by working as a buyer at Weil’s Department Store in

Goldsboro, NC. After graduating from high school at the age of 16, Dot got a job at the local library shelving and re-shelving books.

She then studied business at Peace College for a year and worked as a secretary to a firm of doctors until she got married.

Her husband John F. Pugh was born and raised in Napoleon. He served in World War II and was stationed in Maryland when they met. After they married, he took his new bride to Thibodaux where he resumed his worked as an attorney. They have three sons, one grandson, five granddaughters, three great granddaughters and five great grandsons. They traveled a lot as a couple with their friends and they loved going to Europe.

Dot attributes her long life to “just keeping busy.” As a parishioner of St. John the Episcopal Church in Thibodaux, she belonged to the altar society and volunteered to do whatever she was asked to do. “I was always in an area where there were a lot of religious people. It was a good life.

I helped with church’s gumbo luncheons and Christmas luncheons. I just enjoyed serving others and helping to take care of the poor,” says Dot. She was a charter member of the Bayou Lafourche chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and volunteered at the Good Samaritan Food Bank in Thibodaux. She was the second president of the TaWaSi Club in Thibodaux. She took painting lessons and says she loved to paint. One of the things she misses most is being able to drive. She got a new car when she was 95 years old and drove until she came to the Manor.

“I love to drive. I just like the feel of it. If I was cleaning up in the kitchen and wanted to get out, I’d just go get that car key and go for a drive,” says Dot. Dot has been living at the manor for almost two years and says her favorite part of living there is being able to enjoy a meal she didn’t have to go shopping for, didn’t have to cook and or clean up after, and also the companionship with the other residents. “You can always find a group of people doing something that you’d like to do,” says Dot. BC

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October

Diocesan Events

n Sunday, October 6, Respect Life Sunday, Bishop Shelton J. Fabre will celebrate Mass at the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales, Houma, at 11 a.m. n Diocesan Marriage Preparation Day, Sunday, October 6, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., diocesan Pastoral Center, Schriever. n Catholic Foundation of South Louisiana 2nd Annual Dinner, Thursday, Oct. 10, Nicholls State University ballroom,

November

n Women’s Giving Circle Kick Off Mass, Nov. 1, Christ the Redeemer Church, Thibodaux, 9:30 a.m. Presider, Bishop Shelton J. Fabre. Brunch will follow in the Family Life Center. n St. Martin de Porres Mass for AfricanAmerican Catholics, Thursday, Nov. 7, St.

Thibodaux, cocktails, 6 p.m.; dinner, 7 p.m. n Annual diocesan Red Mass, Friday, Oct. 11, Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales, Houma, 11:30 a.m.; celebrated by Bishop Shelton J. Fabre. n Catholic Charismatic Renewal Revival, “Your Faith Has Set You Free Revival 2019: Encounter God’s Transforming Power,” Saturday, Oct. 19, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., St. Hilary Community Center, Mathews.

Lucy Church, Houma, 6:30 p.m.; celebrated

by Bishop Shelton J. Fabre. n American Indian Mass of Thanksgiving, Friday, Nov. 22, St. Charles Borromeo Church, Pointe-aux-Chenes, 6:30 p.m.; celebrated by Bishop Emeritus Sam G. Jacobs.

www.bayoucatholic.com

n Annual White Mass, Oct. 12-13 or Oct. 19-20, celebrated in individual diocesan church parishes. n Annual diocesan wedding anniversary prayer service and celebration, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2 p.m., Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales, Houma, for couples celebrating 25, 40, 50, 60 and beyond years of marriage this year.

December

n #iGiveCatholic giving day, Tuesday, December 3. n A Mass honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe will be celebrated by Bishop Shelton J. Fabre, Thursday, Dec. 12, 7 p.m., at Sacred Heart Church in Cut Off.

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40 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

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October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 41

Announcement

Pope Francis invites all to celebrate October as Extraordinary Missionary Month Guest Columnist Father Robert-Joel Cruz

Peace! Pope Francis invites us to celebrate October 2019 as an Extraordinary Missionary Month “Baptized and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World.”

“Holiness is the most attractive face of the church,” Pope Francis says in his Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (9). When the members of the Body of Christ live an authentic Christian life, they help build up the kingdom of God (CCC, 2044-2045). He intends to underline that sending off to the missions is an inherent call to baptism and is for all the baptized, to motivate us to missionary conversion and renew the serious and courageous commitment to the holiness of each one and the church as a family and community. The following are a few testimonies of missionary witness to the faith to draw us ever deeper in our relationship with God and strengthen our proclamation of the Gospel.

The servant of God, Brother Felice Tantardini, a lay missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in Burma, was born on June 28, 1898, in a small village north of Malan. As a soldier in WW I, he was taken prisoner by the AustroHungarians and later escaped from a prison camp. He entered the PIME in 1921 and was sent to Burma where he remained until his death on March 23, 1991.

What is striking and arouses admiration is “the extraordinary in the ordinary: In this man, rich in humanity and overflowing with faith; someone who made his life a total gift in service to the Gospel and to his brothers and sisters.

Bishop Jean Cassaigne (18951973) was born in Grenade-sur-Adour, in the Landes region of France. He lost his mother prematurely and was sent by his father to Spain to study in a college run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools. He returned to France around age 17 to help his father in his work. But he felt attracted to the missions and expressed his desire to become a missionary. He entered the seminary of the Foreign Missions of Paris and was ordained a priest on Dec. 19, 1925. He was sent to a Christian community in Vietnam.

The young missionary quickly

began to make contact with the animist populations.

Little by little they learned to trust him. He soon discovered the misery of the people. They were forced by various circumstances to move away from their natural environment. Undernourished, without clothes, they were easy prey for any kind of disease, the sickest and unhappiest of all were the lepers, rejected by their families, abandoned in the forest, without shelter or care, waiting only for death to put an end to their suffering. It was then that he made the commitment to devote all his strength to serving them. At that time, many French plantation owners, who had obtained land concessions from the colonial government to farm the Djiring plateau, asked the mission to create a Christian community. The Paris Foreign Missions Society found the proposal interesting and worthy of being welcomed. The mission then acquired a house, which at the same time served as a residence for the missionary and as a school for the children of the mountain populations.

With the help of some men, Jean Cassaigne built for them the small village of KALA, not far from the village of Djiring. Made up of huts on stilts, as inhabitants of the country often constructed their homes, Jean called it the “City of Joy.” And

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then, little by little, he gathered the lepers around him. He considered them his own children, provided them with food and medicine, and cared spiritually for them every day. By 1938 help came from four Daughters of Charity, who personally treated the lepers.

In 1941, Jean Cassaigne was called to Rome, the Pope had appointed him bishop making him responsible for the Apostolic Vicariate of Saigon.

After completing his responsibilities, he however had one desire in his heart: to return to live with his dear mountain people. When he learned that he had also contracted leprosy, he submitted his resignation as apostolic vicar of Saigon to the Holy See in December 1955.

At the end of his life, despite his pains and bedridden by illness, he always maintained joy, a radiant and communicative joy that one day made him say to his friends, “The good Lord loves me, because he chose for me the

best prayer, which is suffering, the one he reserves for friends.”

Born in Lyon on July 22, 1799, Pauline M. Jaricot received a good Christian education. Thanks to her brother, Philéas, a student who was preparing to leave as a missionary in China, she learned of the critical situation of the missions.

At the age of 17, in private form, she took a vow of chastity and decided to work resolutely to support the activity of the missionaries. In 1817, she organized the first collections in favor of the missions and promoted a great missionary movement founded on a spirituality that soon surpassed the frontiers of France to extend to the whole world.

Her life was entirely illuminated by faith and lived in the love of God and in the commitment to help those most in need, at every latitude. She died in Lyon on Jan. 9, 1862; on Feb. 25, 1963, Pope John XXIII proclaimed Pauline Marie Jaricot Venerable.

…all of us are called to be on mission

From Pauline’s vision came the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. The very first collection of the Propagation of the Faith in 1822 supported the vast diocese of Louisiana, which then extended from the Florida Keys to Canada, as well as the missions of Kentucky and China.

The work was officially born on May 3, 1822, in Lyon, under the name of Association of the Propagation of the Faith. Exactly a century later, on May 3 , 1922, it was given the title of “Pontifical” by Pius XI; its central offices were transferred to Rome to better collaborate with the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in promoting the spirit and missionary activity.

Asking the Lord to bless you for your generous missionary spirit, I am Father Robert- Joel Cruz, diocesan director for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 1220 Aycock Street, Houma, LA 70360. All for the Greater Glory of God! BC

THE CHURCH OF CHRIST ON MISSION IN THE WORLD

Society for the Propagation of the Faith Name________________________ Address ________________________________ City, State________________________________ Phone _____________ Email _____________

Mail to: Rev. Robert-Joel Cruz Society for the Propagation of the Faith 1220 Aycock Street – Houma, La. 70360 All for the Greater Glory of God

EXTRAORDINARY MISSIONARY MONTH

October 20, 2019

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 43

Community

Mary Bird Perkins TGMC Cancer Center offers comprehensive breast cancer options The most comprehensive breast cancer program begins at Mary Bird Perkins TGMC Cancer Center (MBPTGMC). We are on the leading edge of breast cancer care and proud to be the ONLY facility in the region offering a comprehensive breast care center with everything from 3D mammography and biopsy to breast reconstruction surgery. According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women, with the exception of skin cancers.

It is projected that in just this year, about 268,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women.

MBPTGMC believes and encourages early detection as one of the single most important tools in the fight against breast cancer. The Women’s Imaging and Breast Center offers the most advanced breast imaging technology, including 3D mammography digital mammography, and Automated Breast Ultrasound Screenings (ABUS), which can detect cancers that may be missed in traditional screenings. When needed, the team at MBPTGMC can turn to more advanced techniques, such as Breast Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI), biopsy or ultrasound. BSGI is an imaging technique using radioactive pharmaceutical injections, providing the radiologist a better look at abnormal tissue, especially in women with dense breasts or scar tissue.

Once a breast cancer diagnosis is made, patients will undergo treatment at MBPTGMC which includes various new advanced treatment options such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgical procedures as well as expanded posttreatment options such as breast reconstruction services.

“Many patients who suffer from breast cancer opt for breast reconstruction after a mastectomy,” said plastic surgeon Dr.

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44 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

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Jeffrey Rau. “The process is a two-part procedure using either implants or the patient’s own tissue and can help women feel their very best.”

“With the option of the most advanced plastic surgery techniques, breast cancer patients no longer have to travel far to receive compassionate and quality healthcare,” said Dr. Jeffrey Rau. “We strongly advocate women take care of their health. They can receive comprehensive breast cancer treatment at our center. We are truly here to help them through their fight and post-treatment options for women who choose breast reconstruction.”

Dr. Rau advises there is a tool in every woman’s control which are her own hands. Self-exams can reveal the first sign of a problem and help detect a cancer early. Performing this important monthly exam can save lives.

At MBPTGMC, our team provides progressive solutions for our patients to stay close to the comforts of home. With comprehensive services such as advanced diagnostic imaging, reconstruction, recovery and survivorship, our team is here to provide you with the most innovative and compassionate care so you can make cancer a thing of your past. For more information or a consultation with Dr. Rau please call (985) 876-9045 or visit MBPTGMC.org. BC

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 45

Announcement

Women’s Giving Circle Mass and brunch Nov. 1 inaugural Women’s Giving Circle granted over $62,500 to local nonprofits directly impacting women and children in our local community.

One of the intentional purposes of the Mother Teresa Women’s Giving Circle was to put the selection of nonprofits into the hands of the women who so generously contributed to the fund. These women learned about 10 local nonprofits and then personally voted on six to receive funding. For those six nonprofits, the members were able to: n Assist in purchasing a brand new ultrasound machine for Crossroads Pregnancy Resource Center; n Be part of the development of a new program for youth aging out of the foster care system to have a positive transition into the world; n Provide additional training for teachers at the St. Lucy Child Development Center in Houma, as well

Catholic Foundation Update Amy Ponson

“Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love” (Mother Teresa). As we enter into the fall and reflect on what lies ahead, I am reminded of the great love that the 100 plus members of our inaugural Mother Teresa Women’s Giving Circle poured out on our community last year. With the generosity and support of more than 100 women, and with their input and passion, the Catholic Foundation’s

as STEM materials for their students; n Aid in helping individuals and families in need with food, rent, clothing, etc., across our diocese.

The Mother Teresa Women’s Giving Circle is kicking off again this fall and we want to welcome all women who want to be part of a direct impact on women and children in our local communities to join us in our efforts. Please join us for our fall Kick Off Mass and brunch Friday, Nov. 1 at 9:30 a.m. at Christ the Redeemer Church in Thibodaux. Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Shelton J. Fabre. RSVP’s are required. All current members and those interested in joining are welcome to attend the brunch.

For more information about the Mother Teresa Women’s Giving Circle, please visit https://www.catholicfoundationsl. org. If you are interested in joining, please contact Amy Ponson at (985) 850-3116 or e-mail aponson@htdiocese.org. BC

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Announcement

Catholic Foundation of South Louisiana annual dinner Oct. 10 Bishop Shelton J. Fabre and the Catholic Foundation of South Louisiana are hosting their second annual dinner, Thursday, Oct. 10 at the Cotillion Ballroom on the Nicholls State University Campus in Thibodaux.

The purpose of the gathering is to bring together the Catholic community for an evening of fellowship in recognition of all who have contributed to the success of the diocese and the Foundation’s mission.

Cocktails begin at 6 p.m. Dinner will be served at 7 p.m. Tickets are $100 per person; a table for eight is $800.

Tickets can be purchased online at https://www.catholicfoundationsl.org/ upcoming-events/#annual-dinner or by calling (985) 850-3116. BC

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Outreach Line In response to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux is offering an Outreach Line (formerly known as the Child Protection Contact Line). The Outreach Line is an effort to continue the diocesan commitment to support healing for people who have been hurt or sexually abused recently or in the past by clergy, religious or other employees of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.

The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux Outreach Line operates from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. A trained mental health professional responds to the line. Individuals are offered additional assistance if requested.

The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux Outreach Line Telephone number is (985) 873-0026 or (985) 850-3172

Línea de Comunicación Diocesana

Con el fin de cumplir con las Políticas de Protección de Niños y Jóvenes de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Los Estados Unidos, la Diócesis de Houma-Thibodaux ofrece una Línea de Comunicación (antes Línea de Contacto para la Protección de los Niños). La Línea de Comunicación es parte del esfuerzo diocesano de comprometerse con el mejoramiento de aquéllos que han sido lastimados o abusados sexualmente recientemente o en el pasado por miembros del clero, religiosos u otros empleados de la Diócesis de Houma-Thibodaux.

El horario de la Línea de Comunicación de la Diócesis de Houma-Thibodaux es de 8:30 a.m. a 4:30 p.m., de lunes a viernes. El encargado de esta línea es un profesional capacitado en salud mental. Se ofrece asistencia adicional al ser solicitada.

Línea de Comunicación de la Diócesis de Houma-Thibodaux Número de teléfono (985) 873-0026 o (985) 850-3172

Ñöôøng daây ñieän thoaïi Cöùu giuùp Giaùo phaän Ñeå höôûng öùng Hieán chöông Baûo veä Treû em vaø Giôùi treû töø Hoäi ñoàng Giaùm muïc Hoa kyø, Giaùo phaän Houma-Thibodaux ñang chuaån bò ñöôøng daây ñieän thoaïi Cöùu giuùp (luùc tröôùc laø ñöôøng daây lieân laïc baûo veä treû em). Ñöôøng daây ñieän thoaïi Cöùu giuùp laø moät söï coá gaéng cuûa giaùo phaän nhaèm cam keát haøn gaén naâng ñôõ nhöõng ai ñaõ bò toån thöông hoaëc bò laïm duïng tính duïc hoaëc gaàn ñaây hoaëc trong quaù khöù bôûi giaùo só, tu só hoaëc caùc coâng nhaân vieân cuûa Giaùo phaän Houma-Thibodaux. Ñöôøng daây ñieän thoaïi Cöùu giuùp Giaùo phaän hoaït ñoäng töø 8:30 saùng ñeán 4:30 chieàu, thöù hai ñeán thöù saùu. Moät nhaân vieân chuyeân nghieäp veà söùc khoûe taâm thaàn traû lôøi treân ñöôøng daây ñieän thoaïi. Nhöõng caù nhaân seõ ñöôïc trôï giuùp naâng ñôõ theâm neáu caàn.

Ñöôøng daây ñieän thoaïi Cöùu giuùp Giaùo phaän Soá ñieän thoaïi: (985) 873-0026; (985) 850-3172

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 47

Sports

Saints are getting an unexpected look into life without Brees Overtime Ed Daniels

It was a moment dripping with irony.

On the day that news leaked that Sean Payton had agreed to a five-year contract extension, the Saints head coach got an unexpected look at the future beyond Drew Brees.

It wasn’t pretty.

But, it also wasn’t exactly fair to back up quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

Last December Bridgewater started the final week of the season, a loss at home to Carolina. But, that game was akin to a preseason contest, with both teams resting many starters.

Not so Sunday, when the Rams smelled chum in the water, and attacked Drew Brees’ backup with ferocity.

As Sean Payton looks at the tape, he

can’t help but wonder. Is Bridgewater the answer to his sudden quarterback dilemma, or is it Taysom Hill, a quarterback he calls the “next Steve Young.”

Payton has never said those words publicly.

However, former NFL quarterback and TV analyst Troy Aikman quoted Payton for the network broadcast.

Then Aikman asked.

“If he (Hill) is the next Steve Young, why isn’t he starting?”

My guess is the Saints will be looking for Brees’ replacement in the draft next spring.

And, you can get great, and not have to pick in the top five, or mortgage the future of the franchise, to do so.

The Kansas City Chiefs drafted Pat Mahomes with the 10th pick in the draft.

The Baltimore Ravens selected Lamar Jackson with pick 32.

The Dallas Cowboys selected Day Prescott in the fourth round, pick 135.

In the meantime, it is interesting how what is considered one of the best young rosters in the NFL, suddenly doesn’t look so herculean when the franchise

quarterback is on the sideline, unable to grip a football.

Those incredibly accurate throws on third down just don’t seem to happen as much.

The defense is willing to gamble more, betting that Brees’ replacement can’t hurt them like he does.

Those comebacks, like the one Brees fashioned against Houston on a Monday night, don’t see so routine any more.

So, now it is up to the very well compensated Saints head coach to figure out the future, both immediate and long term.

Since 2006, the Saints have had an edge at quarterback in just about every game.

Yet, on Mondays after a Saints loss a reporter was often quizzed about Drew Brees allegedly losing his fastball, or being in the midst of some sort of inevitable decline.

This after a season where Brees threw only five interceptions, and completed 74.4 percent of his throws.

Watch what you ask for, seems like a very appropriate phrase to pen, right here. BC

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48 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

Bayou

O U T D O O R

GUIDE

F A L L 2019

Bayou Outdoor Guide Contents

On Our

COVER Some of the things that impact Louisiana duck numbers are coastal erosion, hurricanes and hunting pressure.

Louisiana’s duck hunters will get another 60-day/six bird liberal duck season.

Morgan City hunter Ricky Guidry is shown with a drake pintail he harvested during the 2018-2019 waterfowl season.

2019-2020 Deer hunting preview

51

Cover photo by John Flores

2019-2020 Waterfowl preview

2019 Fall redfish and trout outlook

58

54 2019-2020 Small game preview

66 50 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

All hunters are reminded to treat every gun as though it is loaded. This is especially important when carrying a shotgun from a pirogue to a duck blind and carrying rifles while climbing a deer stand.

Boaters are to be especially careful during the winter months when north winds and falling tides can leave you stranded in the marsh. Beware! Hypothermia is deadly.

Bayou Outdoor Guide

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

A coastal deer in the marsh prior to heavy flooding this spring

2019-2020 deer hunting preview

By John Flores I made my first deer hunt in Louisiana in 1984. I was a high-land hunter from southern Michigan, where whitetail deer stood on the black soils of rich farmland. I also spent time in New Mexico, where the earth beneath a mule deer’s hooves was rock and sand terra firma.

I didn’t know the first thing about hunting flotant marsh, where one minute you could be walking along a spongy turf and the next instant sunk up to your waste in slushy gunk. My wife’s family, who trapped the land I was trying to learn to hunt, wasn’t much help.

They just told me to find a spot along one of the canal banks, where I found some sign and take a stand – sooner or later a deer would pass. So, I did.

On that first hunt, I actually took it

a bit further and climbed a tree that happened to have a fork in it where I could see from a vantage point. I put my back to a swampy water-filled ring levee and faced the wide internal side watching what appeared to be a good deer trail.

There were tracks along that canal bank both coming and going but, it wasn’t easy to tell what was fresh or not, since the soil was so wet and muddy. After a while, toward late afternoon, I heard a weird sound that I’d never heard before.

A slow, “bloosh-bloosh-bloosh,” of something walking in the water came from behind me. I strained to see, but the fork of the tree and direction I was facing didn’t give me the ability to turn very well. That’s when I saw it.

The buck passed within 20 feet of my tree and cautiously used the water

as its escape route. I had been duped by this marsh deer’s trickery and soon learned Louisiana’s whitetails were quite comfortable in water and adapted to it through 1,000s of years of Mississippi delta development.

I came to learn how readily they swim bayous and how they will both stand and lay down in water to avoid danger. While frogging one night along the bay shore, I watched several does up to their briskets in water feeding on alligator weed, also called “water-vine” by the trappers who lived off this land for decades prior to the collapse of the industry.

I’ve also learned how deer seem to survive flooding events, whether that be the tidal surge from hurricanes or seasonal spring flooding.

From the very first days of 2019, the Mississippi and Atchafalaya

a

October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 51

Bayou Outdoor Guide

Rivers had been at flood stage, all the way into August. In fact, both river’s flood stages shattered all records for duration.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Deer Program Manager, Johnathan Bordelon, said, “The story for the 2019-2020 season will be the record setting floods in Louisiana. The quick take away is that summer flooding was most detrimental within flood impacted areas of the Mississippi River. Summer flooding correlated with lower lactation rates, which is used to index productivity in deer.

Surprisingly, winter and spring floods did not correlate with decreased deer condition in the form of antler development and body growth.”

Bordelon continued, “The lactation findings basically substantiated what we have observed in the past, both within the Atchafalaya Basin and the Mississippi River batture. We are anticipating reduced fawn numbers for the Mississippi River batture and Atchafalaya Basin. This will carry forward into the future since a cohort will be reduced.”

Essentially, this year’s deer harvest may not be impacted, but it will be subsequent years, when those reduced fawn numbers will impact herd populations.

Over the years in Terrebonne and St. Mary Parishes, tidal surge from hurricanes Lili, Ike, Rita, Gustav, and more recently Barry have pushed six to eight feet of water over the marsh below the Intercoastal Waterway.

On July 13, when the Atchafalaya River in Morgan City was already at the 8.3-foot flood stage (Note: Flood stage in Morgan City is four feet), hurricane Barry’s surge pushed the water level even higher temporarily to the 10.5-foot flood stage. The water level breached levees near Burn’s Point and inundated marshes from Houma to Franklin, prime AREA 7 deer hunting territory.

What’s interesting is where do the deer go? Essentially, to higher ground. Again, whitetail deer in the swamp and marshes are quite comfortable traversing high water seeking higher ground.

Bordelon said, “While many deer take refuge from flood waters outside of impacted areas, available food resources and deer densities are less than optimum. Increased herbivory on food resources outside of the flooded areas does have the potential to negatively affect deer condition. Density related competition and stress can also increase parasite and disease

transmission risks for deer. The full extent of this historic flood won’t be understood until the event is over.”

Bordelon says most hunters will observe deer in great condition this fall, but it’s important for hunters in flood impacted areas be vigilant of deer condition and recruitment.

He recommends landowners and hunting clubs to modify their harvest strategies in flood-stricken areas if they observe reduced recruitment.

Hurricane Barry will have localized impacts on deer. Tidal surge, excessive rainfall and flash flooding in parts of the state could have negatively impacted fawn survival. And though localized, the impacts were not widespread.

The outlook for the 2019-2020 deer season statewide appears to be pretty good outside of flood regions.

Bordelon said, “Most hunters will observe deer in great condition this fall.” BC

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JOHN FLORES PHOTO

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Bayou Outdoor Guide

2019 fall speckled trout and redfish outlook

By John Flores Water, water everywhere – it’s hard to imagine what the indigenous people of ancient Louisiana must have felt emotionally while experiencing a highwater event in the marshes and swamps of the Atchafalaya and Mississippi River systems. It’s also possible that this presupposition is wrong. They may have been perfectly fine with spring flooding, never once considering it a calamity like we do.

During their time, there was no bottled-up Mississippi River with levees stretching the full length of the Louisiana Purchase and her tributaries. Back then, water flowed unencumbered southward forming the alluvial plain.

The idea of vast levees and river control structures like the Bonnet Carré and Morganza Spillways built in 1931 and 1973 respectively, were modern man’s notions. And though these magnificent advances have created near agriculture utopia and unimaginable wealth, there are years when progress comes with angst and heartache, as people recover from flood damage to their homes and property.

Enormous amounts of freshwater also impact recreational and commercial fishing interests. Essentially, if you saltwater fished anywhere west of the Atchafalaya River this past spring and summer, chances are you didn’t catch many speckled trout or redfish. Atchafalaya Bay, East and West Cote Blanche Bays, Weeks and Vermilion Bays had so much freshwater there were few reports of decent catches of these two popular saltwater fish.

To the east, freshwater from the Mississippi River impacted the speckled trout catch in that region as well.

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Sal Fontana, owner operator of “Gotcha Hooked Guide Service” and someone who fishes Shell Beach, Biloxi Marsh, Delacroix and Hopedale told how in the Pointe à la Hache region the redfish he was catching had bellies full of softshell crabs and crawfish.

Fontana said, “They were running air boats down here all year. They were wearing out the crawfish catching 300 sacks a day less than 500 yards from where I’ve been fishing redfish.”

By contrast, Fontana says in order to find speckled trout for his clients he had to run all the way out to barrier islands like Breton and Chandeleur.

“The trout we’ve caught have been good size, but we’ve had to run a long way for them. We’ve had to go all the way out to the sound – out to the islands. I mean the trout were there, but so were the bull reds. They have more bull reds than you know what to do with. The bull reds out there are really unbelievable. They have schools and schools of them ranging anywhere from 36 to 48 inches in length,” Fontana said.

Bebe McElroy fishes almost daily out of her and her husband’s camp/home in Cocodrie. What’s more, Bebe posts her catches on Facebook that rival most of the local outfitters in the area. On one hand, she too has caught her share of redfish this past spring and summer, but on the other the trout fishing has been slow.

McElroy said, “The reds are in abundance. I mean the reds are all over the place – 16–17 inches – in the passes. You can find your bulls, too – your great big reds. You know, the ones that are fun to catch and release – take your pictures

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JOHN FLORES PHOTO

Outdoor writer and radio personality, Glynn Harris, with a good coastal redfish – show your muscles and stuff. It just hasn’t been the best speck season. The speckled trout have been very elusive.

They have been hard to find, but when you do find them, you get some pretty ones.”

The good news where trout are concerned has been the rapid drop in both the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers since mid-August, which in turn bodes well for fall fishing.

With less freshwater, the inland bays and estuaries become saltier.

Fontana said, “The way the water has dropped, and the freshwater’s been receding there’s more saltwater. This fall should be great speckled trout fishing. They’re starting to move in. They’ve been in the outer bays. By not having any pressure on them and being on the outside all

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ayeee.com 985.851.3434 October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 55

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summer, I think they’re going to be really thick. And, they’re going to be really nice specks.”

By contrast, McElroy is less optimistic where speckled trout are concerned saying, “Where? It’s hard to make a prediction of what the specks are going to do this fall. We’ve been mostly trying to figure them out in our area.”

The thing about speckled trout and the lack of them, has been the subject of serious discussions, most recently at the Sept. 7, Louisiana Wildlife Commission meeting.

In short, the commission learned from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Assessment of Spotted Seatrout in Louisiana Waters that the 2018 recreational harvest of approximately four million pounds was the lowest since 1990. The highest recreational harvest on record was observed in 2011, when over eight million pounds of trout were caught.

Additionally, the number of reproducing female speckled trout has dropped as well as the number of three-year-old trout. Louisiana’s commissioners in the coming months will be making some hard decisions where speckled trout are concerned. For now, speck anglers will just have to wait for the pending regulatory changes that will no doubt be coming.

Redfish by contrast have been the sport anglers default go to fish when trout are in short supply. Moreover, reds should

be caught in high numbers again this fall.

McElroy admits to not being a plastic fisherperson.

McElroy said, “I fished with my Daddy growing up and he was a live bait guy. I use a lot of minnows and some live shrimp. The reds have been really hitting on minnows. I also bring cracked crabs with me. I’ll put a line down with a little bit of weight on it with cracked crab, it’s usually pretty good to pull up a bull red or good drum.”

By contrast, Fontana, as fall progresses, uses more and more plastics.

Fontana said, “We’ve been using both artificial and live bait, but when fall gets here I’ll progress more and more to artificial. What we use mostly is H&H Glass Minnows and Captain Lanes Ghost minnows. The Ghost Minnows are a tough bait and hold up really well on the redfish.”

Fontana has a penchant for putting clients on fish. He’s personable and always an optimist, working hard for recreational anglers young and old.

Fontana predicts the 2019 fall to be a good one saying, “I really think it’s going to be a great fall – I really do. Since summer, with the water going down, it’s just been getting better and better and better.”

To book a trip with Fontana go to www.gotchahooked.com or call him at (504) 812-7773. BC

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2019-2020 waterfowl hunting preview

By John Flores “Wow!” is all I can say about the 2018-2019 waterfowl season. When the November 2018 coastal aerial survey was flown over southwestern Louisiana last year the 247,000 ducks estimate was the lowest on record for the survey in that region. What’s more, according to the report it was less than half the next lowest estimate of 581,000 recorded in 2013.

Due to weather related concerns there was no survey conducted in the southeast or Catahoula Lake. It wouldn’t have mattered, because things were pretty bleak all around the state by the time opening weekend rolled around. The season was that bad by most constructive measures.

When it came to individual opinions and anecdotal experiences the responses once you got past the cuss words was, “Worst ever!” “What ducks!” And, “The ducks never showed up!”

Oh sure, there were folks like Houma resident, Hunter Parra, that could be singled out. Parra happened to have an outstanding season last year. Hunting his lease off of the Anthill Canal west of the Orange Grove near Gibson, he gave the 2018-2019 season high marks.

Parra, following the duck season last year, said, “As for a grade this past season, I’d give it a triple A plus. I was extremely blessed. I killed 12 different species on my lease, eight of which are going on the wall. I’ve had this lease for three years and up until this season I killed one duck out there. The difference this season is grass and vegetation. It was the best duck season of my life.”

Hunter Andras, owner operator of DukNutz Decoy Anchors, considered the season the worst he’d seen in 25 years being in the blind, nonetheless, he still gave the season a C plus.

According to Andras, his blind killed 465 ducks on 37 hunts.

Andras, who is from Chackbay, defined his blind as wherever he hunts and the group that is with him. In spite of the average grade, Andras pointed out poor nesting conditions on the breeding grounds during the 2018 summer impacted duck numbers. He also pointed out the wet and warm weather conditions to the north that derailed the fall flight number-wise. Those factors, he says, is what led to a slow year down south, but mentioned, “It will bounce back – it always does.”

In 2018-2019 there was also plenty of conspiracy theorists clamoring how Ducks Unlimited and hunting clubs in Missouri and Illinois were planting and flooding corn up north and therefore, deliberately short stopping the ducks during the migration.

That’s not to say some Midwest hunters don’t hunt such conditions – there is some evidence that indicates some northern clubs do. Just like hunters in Arkansas and Louisiana hunt pit blinds located along harvested rice field levees that have been flooded. What some hunters have trouble with is understanding the impact of weather on the waterfowl migration.

Last year’s Breeding Population and Habitat Survey 58 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

Thibodaux resident Gabriel Connor-Flores with his limit of ducks from a 2018-2019 youth hunt

indicated there was 41.19 million ducks counted. And though down ever so slightly from 2017, ducks were still 10 percent above the long-term average (LTA).

Last year’s November, December and January aerial surveys conducted in Louisiana were some of the lowest on record. Andras’s assessment wasn’t too far off mark when he mentioned the wet and warm conditions to the north. With plenty of open water and food resources up and down the flyway and ducks being the obligate species they are, the duck migration stammered and stalled. Essentially, Louisiana’s duck numbers were left lacking during the 2018-2019 season.

In mid-August, the USF&WS released this year’s Breeding Population and Habitat Survey. The 2019 total duck

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numbers declined for the second year in a row by six percent from 2018.

With 38.90 million ducks recorded and wet conditions in the prairie pot hole region of the country, you’d think everything was wonderful up on the breeding ground this past spring. But, though the US upper Midwest had above average moisture conditions in the eastern Dakotas, Canada’s climate was much drier and therefore, will impact this year’s fall flight.

Everything where ducks are concerned, seems to be dictated by ever-changing weather conditions. But, that’s not all. Right here in coastal Louisiana there is urbanization.

There are changes in agriculture, where sugarcane is being planted further and further west toward Texas, and colder resistant strains of this crop are being studied in order to grow it further north in Louisiana.

Other things that impact Louisiana duck numbers are coastal erosion, hurricanes and hunting pressure.

Louisiana’s duck hunters will get another 60-day/six-bird liberal duck season. I’ve lived and hunted ducks in Louisiana for 36 years. I’ve seen bumper years and extremely slow years. I’ve hunted ducks in short sleeves and full winter gear.

I’ve sweated and I’ve shivered. One thing I know for sure is no matter what the weather conditions, no matter how many ducks are counted during the aerial surveys, I’ll be hunting waterfowl again this fall and winter. BC

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Rituals, superstitions and downright omens

By John Flores As a kid growing up in lower Michigan there were a few things I was passionate about. Baseball was one. Another was A&W root beer. And, a third was small game hunting.

A couple of times a year my brothers and I would get the opportunity to go to Tiger Stadium in Detroit. We’d go early and watch the players warm up and take batting practice. From the third base box seat level we were within inches of the orange dirt base paths of the infield. “If only I could touch it,” I often daydreamed.

After the game and sometimes on weekends there were frequent trips to the A&W. It was the era of muscle cars and there was never a shortage of Chevys, Fords and Pontiacs sporting throaty exhausts circling the “A.” In those days you could buy A&W root beer in one-gallon glass finger jugs.

You simply pulled up and parked with your headlights on. In moments a cute carhop would come out with a tray that hung off your window and you’d give her the bottle to fill.

I suppose for sanitary reasons and the cost of doing business that practice went by the wayside. One thing for sure, we never got sick, nor did I ever hear of anyone else becoming ill. It often occurs to me, what you don’t know won’t hurt you – at least that’s been my experience.

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of superstition is a belief or practice from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation.

What came with my passions were certain rituals and superstitions. It never failed, whenever our high school baseball team got on a winning streak I’d start going through liturgies like making sure I put my uniform on the same way I did the previous game and eating the same breakfast, lunch and dinner until the streak was over.

My buddy, who was our team’s catcher, would put money in his protection cup. Clearly, some rituals and superstitions can be profound.

Those drag racers that cruised the “A” seemed to have a superstition about the color green – something to do with accidents as I recall.

Following a stint in the Air Force, my small game affections morphed into wetland pursuits, where over the years I developed another set of rituals, superstitions, and some downright omens. What’s more, I noticed I wasn’t the only duck and goose hunter that this is true of.

I know one waterfowl hunter in southwest Louisiana, who goes through the ritual of laying his hunting clothes out in a certain way and always tests his calls before putting them in his blind bag. He dirties the logo on his hat if it’s a light color and removes the bead from any new shotgun he buys. He says when he’s shooting well, he never notices it anyway.

Another guy out there once told me years ago, if the song Hero, by Enrique Iglesias came on the radio on his way to the blind, his hunt was going to be bad one. Apparently, that song was

on the regular rotation of the station he listened to when he was younger, because he says it ruined many of his hunts.

Then I heard this one guy say it’s always a bad omen whenever he drives down the levee to his blind and sees cottontail rabbits running about. He claims his hunt is going stink.

Of course, everyone knows what happens when someone gets out of the blind to relieve themselves. Sure enough, about the time you get your waders down everyone goes to hollering at you to get back into the blind because birds are flying.

A guy named TJ Dougay told me his only superstition was making sure he only runs odd numbers of decoys and his morning ritual on the way to the blind is jamming to AC/DC’s head-banging song Thunderstruck while pounding back a Redbull.

Apparently, there’s something to the odd number superstition. A fellow named David Gaston, owner/operator of Gaston’s custom calls, in Thomasville, AL, said there was an old gentleman who hunted speckle-belly geese in southwest Louisiana back in the 1970s who never set even numbers of decoys – always odd numbers. Because of the old man, Gaston says to this day he personally always sets odd numbers of decoys out, too.

Perhaps one of the worst cases of superstition I ever felt was last season while hunting with my grandson Gabriel. For several years I’ve put him in for about every youth hunt

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60 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

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lottery the state has to offer. What’s more, when he draws out I always make a big deal of it.

He has been so lucky, he has drawn out for one of the Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge youth hunts the past three years in a row. The first year I sat in the blind with him, we saw a grand total of five gadwall that went screaming by out over the decoy spread.

Gabriel fired two shots and never touched a feather.

The next year, he drew out again.

The afternoon before the duck hunt, I knocked off at Noon and we drove three straight hours over to Cameron Prairie.

On this particular hunt, you’re allowed to set your decoys out the evening before.

Afterwards, we drove to Lake Charles, checked in to our hotel, and went out to get a bite to eat. Young teenagers have the strangest appetites and their eyes are sometimes bigger than their stomachs. About three o’clock in the morning my grandson began throwing up.

A couple of hours later we found ourselves at the local Walmart on the isle where they keep the Pepto Bismol, Alka Seltzer and Mylanta to tide him over. I still had to go pick up the decoys we left out the evening before.

In the twilight of a new day, I picked up the spread, while ducks passed over my head with impunity.

With the previous year’s hunt still fresh in my mind, this past year “I” decided to pick the restaurant. Choosing good ole Chinese I thought surely this basic food wouldn’t disrupt a tender stomach.

When the waitress set the bill holder down by me, on top were two fortune cookies. We each took one and began to read our respective fortunes as we ate the treats. Mine was ridiculously mundane and had nothing to do with anything relevant. But, my grandson’s read, “Attitude is more important than the facts.”

I told him, “I don’t think I like that fortune.”

Subsequently, my superstitious mind wrestled through the night with words from a fortune cookie. It appeared to me this was a downright omen.

We arrived just prior to legal shooting light and settled in to our blind. An hour or so later we still hadn’t fired a shot.

Teenagers require a bit of stimulation to stay awake, or else boredom sets in.

With my grandson sound asleep in the blind, I stood vigil hoping something would change.

I finally woke him up around 10:30 a.m. and grumbled how poor the hunt had been and it was time to pick up.

On this particular youth hunt, hunters are allowed to hunt through Noon. But, with no birds flying all morning, I felt what was the use.

Gabriel could tell I wasn’t happy I guess, because that’s when he said, “Pops, attitude is more important than the facts.”

Naturally, he was right. We’ve all been there with our rituals, superstitions, and even downright omens. BC

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October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 61

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2019-2020 Season Dates Waterfowl Season

Season

Coastal Zone

Ducks, Coots and Nov. 9 - Dec. 8

Mergansers Dec. 21 - Jan. 19, 2020

Daily Bag Limit

Possession Limit

Ducks 6 Coots 15 Mergansers 5

Three Times The Daily Bag Limit

Youth Only

Nov. 2 - 3

Same as regular season

Season

East Zone

Daily Bag Limit

Possession Limit

Ducks 6 Coots 15 Mergansers 5

Three Times The Daily Bag Limit

Ducks, Coots and Nov. 23 - Dec. 8

Mergansers Dec. 14 - Jan. 26, 2020

Youth Only

Nov. 16 and Feb. 1, 2020

Same as regular season

Season

Goose

Daily Bag Limit

Possession Limit

Light Geese (Snow, Blue, Ross)

Nov. 2 - Dec. 8 Dec. 21 - Feb. 9, 2020

20

No Possession Limit

White-Fronted Geese

(Specklebelly)

Nov. 2 - Dec. 8 Dec. 21 - Feb. 9, 2020

2

6 Possession Limit

Conservation Order for Light Geese (Snow, Blue, Ross)

Dec. 9 - 13 Feb. 10 - March 15, 2020

No Bag Limit

No Possesion Limit

Nov. 2 - Dec. 8 Dec. 21 - Jan. 31, 2020

1

3 Possession Limit

Canada Goose

The daily bag limit on ducks is 6 and may include no more than 4 mallards (no more than two of which may be female), 2 canvasback, 1 mottled duck, 1 black duck, 3 wood ducks, 3 scaup, 2 red heads and “1” pintail.

62 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

Bayou Outdoor Guide

2019-2020 Season Dates Small Game Season

Species

Season Dates

Daily Bag Limit

Possession Limit

Rabbit

Oct. 5 - Feb. 29, 2020

8

24

Squirrel

Oct. 5 - Feb. 29, 2020

8

24

Deer Season

Area Archery Season Primitive Weapon

7 Either Sex:

Sept. 21 - Jan. 15, 2020

Either Sex: Oct. 12 - 18 Jan. 6 - 12, 2020

9 Bucks Only: Bucks Only:

Oct. 1-15 Jan. 20 - 31, 2020

Either Sex: Either Sex:

Oct. 16 - Feb. 15, 2020 Nov. 9 - 15

Still Hunting Only No Dogs Allowed

With or Without Dogs

Either Sex: Oct. 19 - Dec. 1

Either Sex: Dec. 2 - Jan. 5, 2020

Bucks Only: Nov. 18 - 28 Dec. 2 - 6

Bucks Only: Dec. 7 - 13 and 16 - 20 Dec. 23 - Jan. 19, 2020

Either Sex: Nov. 16 - 17 Nov. 29 - Dec. 1

Either Sex: Dec. 14 - 15 Dec. 21 - 22

Have a safe time hunting and read carefully regarding limits in the 2019 Louisiana Hunting Regulations Pamphlet before heading out.

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October 2019 • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • Bayou Catholic • 63

Bayou Outdoor Guide

Cajun lessons for hunting marsh deer

By John Flores The year was 1984 and by all indications my transition to becoming a full-fledged Cajun was progressing along slowly but surely. Married less than a year to the daughter of a marsh man from Berwick, I had already caught my first redfish, crabbed behind our house on Bayou Teche, and killed my first alligators, while helping my fatherin-law with his tags.

By fall, all of the strides I made had a setback when suddenly, this Michigan transplant found himself sunk up to his chest in flotant marsh. What’s more, I was lost – or I should say my brotherin-law and I were lost – somewhere in a sea of cattails and myrtle trees on the north side of Leopard Bayou near Wax Lake while trying to hunt deer.

My father-in-law, James Duay, was few on words when it came to deer hunting. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy

hunting them or pot roasting venison now and again, he simply had a job to do. While we went down to the camp to play on weekends, he was too busy trapping nutria making a living than to participate in our sport.

His exact words were, “I ain’t got time for all that!”

A short boat ride from the camp was a dead-end canal that had a bar pit and spoil bank behind it. The spoil bank was relatively high off the marsh and full of low briars, willow and myrtle trees, with plenty of deer sign round about.

I’d already scouted the canal bank while walking up swamp rabbits a few times. I figured it was a good place to start trying to figure out the marsh deer I’d been hearing about. So, I started loading and gassing up a little bateau my father-in-law lent me and got ready to make a deer hunt.

My brother-in-law asked if I minded

64 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

him tagging along. I was mostly just going to do a little reconnoiter, so I welcomed him to join me.

I took it for granted my brother-inlaw knew where we were as we walked along that spoil bank and out into marsh. After all, he grew up in this country.

The country was so different from what I had ever hunted before. The marsh was made up of tall flag and cut grass with thick patches of myrtles. Here and there were small stands of willows and Roseau cane that mostly ran along small tributaries and bayou banks.

After a while I became disoriented.

“Kirk,” I asked, “Do you know where we’re at?”

His reply was simply, “No, I thought you did. I was following you.”

I was so turned around, it took a while for me to get my bearings. It also didn’t hurt that I could

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hear an outboard running off in the distance. We walked, or should I say slogged and sunk through the flotant marsh in the direction the sound came from. Miraculously, we came out of the marsh by my father-in-law’s camp.

It was a while before I gave deer hunting in the marsh a try again. First of all, most of my deer hunting had been done in the hard-ground uplands of the northern Michigan woods and the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico.

Secondly, though I saw deer sign on those canal banks, I didn’t believe deer could survive long this country.

Moreover, I knew nothing about what browse they ate, where they bedded up, when their rut took place, and how people hunted them.

The coastal marsh appeared to me as being the worst habitat a deer could live in. How could anything survive such a harsh environment that annually is susceptible to spring flooding, summer hurricanes, unbearable heat, and biting insects like midges that carried viruses like bluetongue disease? It occurred to me, if you could hunt whitetail deer successfully in the Louisiana coastal marsh you could hunt deer anywhere in the U.S. and it would be easy by comparison.

One evening after the trapping season, I was at my father-in-law’s house, where he and his lifelong friend were drinking coffee reminiscing about the days when there was rat trapping.

Pop’s buddy, Elmer, was in the middle of telling a story about how thick the rat hills were one cold winter and how the deer were “breaking the peas.”

Right there I stopped him and said, “Wait a minute – wait a minute. What

is breaking the peas?”

Amused, Elmer Bernadeou, who always spoke in a soft voice, said, “John, deer will walk miles to a pea patch to feed. The peas will grow thick in places and spread up the sides of Roseau cane and flag grass, too – just like a bean pole. When the peas are thick, they’ll break roads through them while feeding. There’ll be a beat down muddy path trail, where you can’t put another track in.”

“Deer are greedy, too,” he continued.

“If they see a thick bunch all vined up a few feet away, they’ll jump over the bush they’re feeding on, smashing it over to get to them. We always said, ‘breaking the peas,’ as far back as I can remember.”

This was the first solid piece of intelligence I had to work with in learning to hunt deer in the coastal marsh.

Scientifically known as Vigna luteola, the peas Elmer described are actually marsh cow peas and a perennial vine of fresh-water habitat. Cow peas are actually a legume and are an extremely important food source for deer. What’s more, they are easily identified by their yellow flowers and alternating compound leaflets.

That discussion with Elmer and my father-in-law became invaluable, because that night I also learned that marsh deer fed on alligator weed (alternanthera philoxeroides).

My father-in-law and Elmer called it water-vine. But, come to find out, alligator weed was an aquatic weed with succulent stems that deer feed on regularly and yet another important forage in the coastal marsh.

I also learned they ate the leaves of

willow trees, palmetto fruit before it matures and gets hard, and southern shield fern. Not to mention delicious water and live oak acorns typically found on canal spoil banks.

In time, I learned how to “walk the marsh” – as the old marsh men would say. It was a matter of knowing what vegetation to step on and then placing your foot down long enough on it to move the other forward. If you stopped, it better be on something solid.

Come to find out, marsh deer liked to bed down in several places. Anytime you find thickets of myrtle trees, patches of Roseau cane, briar understory, and a secluded high-bank location canal, chances are you’re looking at a bedding area that provides adequate cover and essential escape routes whitetails require.

Over the years scouting and hunting the tidal marshes of coastal Louisiana, I learned that deer will lay-up on the dirt base of myrtle trees. Quite often the bases of these trees are a couple of square feet in size; plenty for a deer to curl up on and stay high and dry when the water goes over the bank sometimes.

Over the years my transition to becoming a full-fledged card-carrying Cajun came with many lessons. I eventually learned whitetail deer really did exist in the coastal marsh and were not some aberration I conceived while waste deep in flotant.

What’s more, it sure was nice to learn how good a deer roast cooked in a black iron pot tasted. It turned out to be one of the perks of making my Cajun transition when learning how to harvest a marsh deer – the hardest of all whitetails to hunt … BC

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Bayou Outdoor Guide

2019-2020 small game hunting preview

By John Flores A number of years ago there was a United States Coast Guard Seaman stationed in Morgan City named Guy Morrow. Guy, his wife Sandra and their daughter were a precious family and roughly the same age of my wife and me.

Our families went to the same church and like many couples, we did things together, including having each other over for supper.

The thing about eating at our house it’s, “may the eater beware.” Beware, not because my wife isn’t a good cook. On the contrary, she is an excellent cook.

No, the beware part is based on the fact that you never know what wild game meat you might be sitting down to eat at our place.

We had the Morrows over for dinner one Saturday afternoon that happened to be during the first weekend in October. In Louisiana, the first Saturday in October coincides with opening day of squirrel season.

On that particular Saturday, I shot a limit of eight squirrels. Plenty to feed both of our families. And, no sooner had I cleaned them, my wife was smothering them down in a big black iron pot.

Guy had never eaten squirrel before, nor had Sandra.

I don’t recall if Sandra or her daughter ate any, but I do remember the stack of bones on Guy’s plate. He literally, I am happy to say, made a pig out of himself and cleaned the pot. Which brings me to the point of this little story. There may not be a better tasting game animal than a pot roasted squirrel.

The most recent Louisiana statistics from the 2012-2013 squirrel season indicates 50,700 small game hunters bagged 872,100 squirrels or roughly 17.2 squirrels per hunter.

Put another way, each hunter basically shot two limits of squirrels per season.

All things considered, that’s not bad. What’s more, there certainly is no shortage of squirrels and plenty to harvest and eat.

There are two species of squirrels in Louisiana. The gray squirrel (Sciurus Carolinensis), which is the most common coastal marsh hunters chase in the fall, and the fox squirrel (Sciurus Niger) found in the uplands. Both species do frequently overlap territories, so take the specifics only in general.

Both species are omnivorous. Nuts (buried and unburied) like acorns, pecans and hickories are mast that dominates their diets during the late summer and fall. However, these critters also eat buds, beetles, bulbs, tubers, roots, berries, fruit, grain and even eggs of birds. Basically, there’s no shortage of food sources that would disrupt populations.

In short, squirrels are more than abundant on the landscape and the outlook for this season remains much like last year, where there’s plenty enough fox and gray squirrels to fill black iron pots.

Rabbit season should also reflect previous seasons. The bag limit remains eight per day. And, the season, like squirrel, still runs from the first Saturday in October through the last 66 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • October 2019

JOHN FLORES PHOTO

There’s no shortage of squirrels and plenty to harvest and eat.

day of February.

The 2012-13 small game study conducted by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries reported some 20,100 hunters bagged 180,100 rabbits statewide. Unlike squirrel, those numbers break down to basically single digits.

The problem with single digits is it’s a reflection of hunting opportunity. Much of Louisiana’s prime hunting real estate is behind locked gates. General public opportunities are often limited to wildlife management areas and national wildlife refuge systems.

There are two species of rabbits in Louisiana. The eastern cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus Floridanus) is found in upland habitats. And, the swamp rabbit (Sylvilagus Aquaticus) that inhabits the marsh and bottomland hardwood swamps.

Swamp cottontails are larger than their eastern cousins and darker in basic colors.

In spite of limited public access, good opportunities can be had by the small game hunter willing to do a little homework.

Kisatchie National Forest has some 604,000 acres of some of the finest squirrel hunting available in the southeastern United States. Closer to Houma, Thibodaux and Morgan City is Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge that offers over 9,000 acres of hunting opportunities.

Other public land with good to excellent rabbit hunting opportunities include Attakapas, Atchafalaya, and Sherburne Wildlife Management Areas.

A review of WMA’s in the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Hunting Regulation Guide can be a tremendous help to hunters looking to harvest both squirrels and rabbits on public land.

Rabbit and squirrel populations remain stable across the state. Weather-wise, conditions have been good around the state, where mast crops and both emergent and succulent vegetation is excellent along with plenty of herbaceous plant growth as well.

Small game hunters should have another good season this year. BC

“Entrust your Works to The Lord, 742 your Highwayplans 182 • Houma, LA 70364 and will succeed.”

(985) 872-2413 Proverbs 16:3 www.cenac.com

Time to Reimagine Treatments for Spinal Stenosis

Michael S. Haydel, MD, FIPP, ABIPP of Haydel Spine Pain & Wellness Center is excited to offer a new state of the art minimally invasive treatment for lumbar stenosis. The procedure is Vertiflex, an indirect decompression system, FDA approved and covered by Medicare. While medication, physical therapy, injections and surgery are all potentially viable methods of treatment, sometimes another alternative is desired. The Vertiflex procedure may be ideal for patients with moderate spinal stenosis who have tried six months of conservative treatment with no relief and for whom traditional spinal surgery is too demanding. Vertiflex is a new alternate treatment for lumbar stenosis, providing patients with a minimally invasive approach, offering the only treatment on the continuum of care between conservative care and more invasive surgery.

This procedure requires only a ž-inch incision, takes about one half an hour to complete and is completed in an outpatient facility. This minimally invasive procedure implants a small titanium device through a small tube roughly the size of a dime. There is no disruption to the bone of the surrounding tissue. It does not involve any bolting, rods, screws or wires. It does not exclude more invasive options, if needed in the future. In FDA clinical trials for lumbar stenosis, Superion is proven to be durable for up to 60 months, and providing patients with a reduction in leg pain by 75% at 60 months. Nothing has this five-year data like Vertiflex.

Michael S. Haydel, MD, FIPP, ABIPP, specializes in minimally invasive spine procedures. He is certified by Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice, American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians and the American Board of Anesthesiology. He is one of only five physicians in the entire state of Louisiana who is certified in this procedure which has been designed to provide the most advanced and least invasive treatment for mild to moderate lumbar spinal stenosis.

MICHAEL S. HAYDEL, MD, FIPP, ABIPP 1022 Belanger Street, Houma, LA 70360

985-223-3132 www.painspecialty.net