Standing-room-only Masses a sign of shifting New Orleans population

Published: 2006-02-27

NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- In a post-Katrina world marked by massive population shifts in the New Orleans area, the term "television Mass" has a new meaning. Unlike the TV ministry provided to shut-ins who cannot attend Mass, St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Slidell offers a closed-circuit video feed to bring Mass to about 100 people in a community adjacent to the main church who cannot fit inside its 550-seat worship space. The community room is set up with folding chairs and has glass doors that people can use to enter to receive Communion. A sound system and television set provide the liturgy live "so that the people are participating in the Mass and hearing and seeing everything that goes on," said Father Rodney Bourg, St. Luke pastor. Slidell is north of New Orleans and near the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. And like most other north shore parishes, St. Luke has experienced a 22 percent increase in Mass attendance in the last several months as displaced residents from various parts of New Orleans have migrated north to find temporary or permanent homes.

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