| U.S. News

The order came March 27, the day after sign-waving protesters repeatedly interrupted a priest trying to celebrate Mass in the church, causing the liturgy to be terminated.

St. Augustine Parish, in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans next to the French Quarter, was founded in 1841 as a multicultural parish attended by free African-Americans, slaves and whites. It calls itself the nation's oldest predominantly African-American parish and was the birthplace of the Sisters of the Holy Family, the second-oldest congregation of African-American women religious.

Following the recommendations of an archdiocesan pastoral plan in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Archbishop Hughes had earlier decided to close the small parish, merging it with neighboring St. Peter Claver Parish, but to keep the church building open for one Mass each Sunday.

Under the plan, announced in February, seven parishes in the archdiocese were closed and 23 others have been put on hold until enough people return to warrant their reopening.

After the disruption of Mass March 26, the archbishop announced that St. Augustine Church had been "desecrated" and would be closed.

He also called on individuals who had occupied the parish rectory for more than a week to "vacate the premises immediately" and he asked that church property "be secured."

"Once a church is desecrated, it cannot be reused until it is reconsecrated," he said.

"I am very open to the reopening of the church once safety can be guaranteed and once we can have it reconsecrated," he said.

Calling the disruption of Mass a "very serious desecration," he added, "What we as Catholics call a sacrilege was committed there."

Edmundite Father Michael Jacques, pastor of St. Peter Claver Parish, which is also predominantly African-American, was the celebrant of the March 26 Mass. It was intended to mark a welcoming of St. Augustine parishioners into the new faith community, but it never got that far.

St. Augustine Parish was officially closed March 15 when the post-hurricane pastoral plan took effect, and its pastor, Divine Word Father Jerome LeDoux, celebrated his final Mass there March 19.

The archdiocese said the small number of baptisms, first Communions, confessions and confirmations in the parish was a factor in the decision to close it.

Shortly after Father Jacques began Mass March 26 several demonstrators marched up the aisles with protest signs, stopping in front of the altar and turning to face the congregation.

During the homily a man stood up from his pew and denounced the priest and the archdiocese. He then left, but others interrupted the homily with catcalls and a woman knelt in front of Father Jacques and urged him to get the archdiocese to change its decision.

Because of the rising tension, Father William F. Maestri, archdiocesan communications director, consulted with plainclothes police officers who were in the church. He approached Father Jacques after the homily and asked him to end the Mass.

Father Jacques said it was the first time in his 26 years as a priest that he had ever been forced to stop a Mass.

"I can understand some of their feelings," he said later. "They are hurt and they want their church. Some people even approached me and said, 'Father, this is not about you. This is bigger than you.'"

Archbishop Hughes said he had taken many steps to avert a confrontation, including a private meeting March 24 with lay leaders from the parish. The archbishop offered to allow a lay association to enter into a lease and develop a historical and cultural museum in the church.

"This is a very painful, painful decision to have to make and to have to implement," he said. "I don't take any joy in this. I wish that St. Augustine was a flourishing parish. It's not."