New Orleans – After the rectory at the Incarnate Word Catholic Church was badly damaged by the floods, the Rev. Francis Ferrie was assigned to a temporary post at Saint Rita of Cascia Catholic Church, up the river in Harahan. Since the move, he has listened to dozens of impromptu confessions.
Listen, Father, the penitents begin, I hate to tell you, but I really did all right.
Their only sin is being one of the souls Hurricane Katrina basically left alone.
“They have this great relief that they are alive, but then they start to wonder about the others,” Ferrie said. “They have everything, and they don’t sense that they participated in something that occurred right around them. They have no real connection to a huge tragedy. That’s what turns into guilt.”
More than a month after the hurricane, thousands of residents have begun to settle back into the New Orleans area. They are the lucky ones, their homes and lives largely intact. But as they go about rebuilding, some are racked with that stubborn sense of guilt.
Some are turning their homes over to unlucky friends and relatives. Some are considering giving back their federal grants.
For some, the opportunity for penance presents itself.
Jerry Harris, 39, offered his apartment to his sister and his niece after their home in the Lakeview neighborhood was wiped out.
He is staying with a friend in Austin, Texas, while they move in.