By Paula Day

When Father Cayet Mangiaracina, O.P., is not the celebrant for the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass at Holy Cross parish in northeast Atlanta, he is playing the guitar and singing with the adult folk group at the liturgy.

The New Orleans, La. Native celebrated the 25^th anniversary of his ordination, April 18, and at the parish celebration, April 14, there was a lot of music from the 50s. “He’s big on music, especially rock and roll from that era,” explained Lynn Crutchfield, parishioner and friend.

Father Mangiaracina was ordained April 18, 1964, in Dubuque, Iowa, by Archbishop James J. Byrne. The only child of Nicholas and Josephine Mangiaracina, he had grown up in St. Anthony of Padua parish in New Orleans. Dominican priests were pastors and Dominican sisters taught in the school. As early as the eighth grade he remembers saying to himself, “I think I’d like to try this (the priesthood),” and he recalls his second grade teacher, Sister Mary Berchman, pointing to him and saying, “You’re going to be a priest sometime.”

He switched allegiance briefly from this Dominican connection when he went to a Jesuit high school and then to Jesuit-run Loyola University of the South in New Orleans for two years. He chose Loyola over the Dominican’s Loras College in Dubuque because he wanted to “stay down South. I wanted to have a good time.”

When he did go north to complete his studies at Loras, he saw snow for the first time. “I was 21 before I ever saw snow,” he recalled with incredulity in his voice. “The Jesuits must have wondered ‘Where did we go wrong?’ when I became a Dominican,” he added.

Father Cayet, who bears his mother’s family name, has been parochial vicar for nine years in Holy Cross parish where parishioners speak of his warmth and availability.

“He’s a very loving, affectionate person,” commented Lynn Crutchfield. “He can’t go in the grocery store without someone knowing him.”

According to Thea Jarvis, another Holy Cross parishioner, “He’s a very warm, outgoing, friendly person, who is also considerably talented musically.”

“The added dimension of his voice and music really enhance the liturgies,” she said.

Commenting on Father Cayet’s gift for counseling, she said, “A lot of parishioners seek spiritual counseling from him. He’s very compassionate, caring and effective. He takes the time and makes himself available to do that.”

“I’ve seen a real growth on both sides,” Mrs. Jarvis added. “A priest giving to a parish and a parish giving to a priest.”

Father Cayet’s ministries do not stop at the parish boundaries. Three or four weekends a year he is part of the archdiocese’s Engaged Encounter Weekend, an involvement he had already begun in New Orleans before coming to Atlanta.

Two years ago he spend four months in Cuernavaca, Mexico, immersing himself in an intensive Spanish language course so he could minister to Hispanics in the parish. He celebrates a 1:30 p.m. Mass in Spanish each Sunday for the 200 to 250 Hispanic families who live and work in the area.

“He’s pretty much the main pastor to the Spanish,” said Father Stephen Smith, O.P. who also serves at Holy Cross.

It takes some effort for Father Cayet to prepare homilies in Spanish for these liturgies. He writes out his homilies first in English and then, using a bilingual dictionary, translates them into Spanish. He gives a copy to a Cuban woman in the parish and she makes corrections. Two permanent deacons assigned to Holy Cross, Enrique Galvis and Jose Narvaez, also preach at the Spanish Masses.

Father Cayet’s love for music goes back to his childhood. The family had an upright piano and he took a few lessons, but when he didn’t practice the lessons ended. However, he was a fan of country-western music and by listening to it on the radio he taught himself the chords through imitation.

“I just developed a love for music,” he said. “Guess I have a knack for it. I hear the harmony.”

When Father Cayet came to the parish he helped the adult choir and it has evolved into a folk group of 30 to 35 members. He has composed 12 liturgical pieces, three or four of which the folk group performs regularly.

At weekday Masses, Father Cayet will lead the entrance and closing hymns, singing and playing with is guitar slung around his shoulder over his vestments.

His music hasn’t always been religious. Before he entered the Dominican novitiate he played one summer with The Sparks, a rock and roll bank in New Orleans made up of college age musicians. He wrote a song, “Merry Mary Lou,” for the group, which they later recorded under the Decca label. The recording session was a prize for winning a local band contest.

The song was picked up by a New York group, according to Father Cayet, and became popular in the New Orleans area.

In the late 50s, Bill Haley and The Comets also recorded “Merry Mary Lou.”

In the early 60s, “Hello Mary Lou, Goodbye Heart,” first recorded by Ricky Nelson, hit the charts. Because of its similarity to “Merry Mary Lou,” Decca sued and won. The Dominican Fathers now share in the royalties. With its re-release on an album by the Statler Brothers, Father Cayet has a published hit. “Hello Mary Lou, Goodbye Heart” won an award as the best rock and roll piece of its style for 1987.

“I even had to pay income taxes on it last year,” said Father Cayet, who shares authorship with Gene Pitney.

Father Smith, who has been at Holy Cross for more than three years, said his fellow Dominican is “easy to live with. He’s very present and prayerful and generous.”

“More and more he is growing and stretching as a person and as a priest,” Thea Jarvis commented.