Exhibit shows effect of Louisiana Purchase on church, state

Published: 2003-10-31

NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- A New Orleans exhibit titled "One Nation Under God: The Church, the State and the Louisiana Purchase" brings a unique slant to the historic land transaction of 200 years ago. Alecia Long, historian at the Cabildo museum, which is housing the exhibit, said that while she wanted to focus on something different from other exhibits and shows in conjunction with the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase she also wanted to show the effect of the purchase on the church and state. "In New Orleans," she pointed out, "Catholicism was, in effect, the official religion. It was illegal to profess any other religion." The king of Spain was the patron of the Catholic Church in Louisiana and provided a stipend to pay the priests and religious. "The idea of separation of church and state was a curiosity here," Long said in an interview with the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the New Orleans Archdiocese. The exhibit, she said, focuses on the church-state relationship prior to and after the Louisiana Purchase, when religious diversity came to Louisiana.

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