The following is a Holy New Orleans is made possible by the WUIS Producers Circle.

A group of generous contributors dedicated to the support of Channel Twelves local productions I learned several years ago that I cannot be the rabbi of an ugly synagogue I just can't.

It's not in me.

I have to be proud of the building One of the reasons I think these big, beautiful churches are so important is Dorothy Day says it is because a poor person who doesn't even have a home can come in here and find peace and find beauty And I take pride in this building every time I drive up and down the avenue, as I do, incidentally, with the great churches and houses of worship that line, this avenue, and that adopt our community And so whatever we can do to create an atmosphere.

Well, yes, we love you to come in here.

We want you to come in here.

I'm Peggy Scott Laborde.

Our sacred places in the New Orleans area there are almost 1000 places of worship.

These structures stand out as symbols of our history.

We'll visit some of them.

But first, who was responsible for that spiritual and artistic tapestry that is holy New Orleans established by the French in 17, 18.

New Orleans had colonists, but what it really needed was a labor force, something crucial to its survival.

In France, all of the people that were eligible for emigration had already left to the West Indies or to Canada.

Louisiana was not a place where the French wanted to come as immigrants Scottish businessman John Lau thought he had the solution, enticed German and Swiss emigrants to farm the area around present day.

Edgard, Louisiana.

Of course, the immigrants brought their religion with them, and that religion was primarily Roman Catholic.

Law painted a very rosy picture of some very swampy land.

We have a recruiting poster that shows in which law depicts Louisiana as just wonderful, a city filled with rich people and brocades and and Indians with jewels and mountains and a walled city.

And and I can't imagine what those poor Germans felt when they got off the boat and got you know, in this middle of this flat, swampy area and got hit by the mosquitoes.

When the original Germans came, there were 330 of them, and half of those died within the first year.

But at that time, there were only 100 structures in New Orleans.

So that gives you an idea of how significant this colony was as the government in France deteriorated, the supply ships arrived sporadically.

It was the German immigrants who fed New Orleans first citizens by 1724.

There were only 169 of them.

But one of the first things that they did was to build a stone church.

Now, as far as we know, this was in the plans that because of the hurricane, we have only been able to discover the foundations of the church.

The first permanent church to be built within the city limits of New Orleans was the Church of Saint Louis.

Its first home was a small warehouse facing what would become known as Jackson Square.

A hurricane destroyed the first church structure only five years after it was built.

The next church was destroyed by fire on Good Friday.

1788.

The present cathedral was built in the 1790s and has been remodeled over the years.

But the most striking change being the shape of its towers named in honor of Saint Louis, King of France and its one of the city's most recognizable and beloved places of worship.

Early parishioners consisted of white families, free persons of color and slaves.

There were seating areas designated for each group.

It's the homey ist cathedral in the United States.

It absolutely has the best location of any cathedral the United States do.

And so to me you feel at one with the history and the tradition of the church, as well as the history and tradition of New Orleans and of Louisiana.

So to me it's always a thrill.

I don't care if I'm down there five times a week being in the cathedral, it's always a thrill to meet.

Saint Louis Cathedral status stems from its designation as a bishop's church the bishop's chair is called the cathedral.

As much as early 19th century parishioners love the cathedral, they were even more attracted to its pastor a caption priest named Antonio De Sadia, better known as parent Juan.

He came here originally under Spanish domination, supposedly with orders to establish the order of the Inquisition in New Orleans.

But then Governor really chased them out.

He didn't want to have anything to do with it.

He came back later, became known as Bear Antoine, one of the most beloved figures in the French Quarter.

Yellow fever epidemics have occurred sporadically throughout New Orleans past.

Before people knew what caused it, they thought that they could catch the disease from the dead.

Funerals regardless of the cause of death, were forbidden in all Catholic churches.

They don't want to bring them into the churches for what are regarded as health reasons.

So essentially what happens is they establish a mortuary chapel at base and street near county as a as a place to conduct the business of burying the dead into into the cemeteries nearby.

The cemeteries themselves are just outside the the original walled cities.

They're trying to deal with this with this fearsome disease and keep it from infecting the rest of the population.

This created a problem for the church when the beloved parent, Juan, who wasn't a yellow fever victim, died.

These rules have to change when parent Juan dies because he was so popular and because he was his pastor from the cathedral.

So they want to bury him from the cathedral and they have to bend, bend or change the rules.

In order to to allow parent Antoine to be buried from Saint Louis Cathedral rather than from the mortuary Chapel Parish.

Antoine also must have been quite a character.

I learned the other day that he had following his funeral mass and Masonic funeral.

Can you imagine in that day what in the 18th century that he would have had a Masonic funeral following his Roman Catholic funeral?

He clearly was a person who befriended all aspects of the interfaith community of New Orleans.

Of his day as a tribute to parent Juan, the mortuary chapel would later be named for his patron saint, Saint Anthony.

Today, it's called Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.

Inside one of the windows contains a rather unusual depiction of the Battle of New Orleans.

Soldiers from the wrong era fighting on the rolling hills of Chalmette.

In reality, a flat area, a burning cathedral in the background the British didn't get that close to the city.

Just because it's in stained glass doesn't mean it's necessarily accurate from colonial times into the early 1830s, Saint Louis was a New Orleans only Roman Catholic Church.

But the city was growing beyond the French Quarter to a suburb called Faubourg Saint Marie all this time this whole area was building an empire all kinds of Catholic people had to go to the French Quarter.

They had a cross Canal Street, go down to Saint Louis Cathedral, the priest read the gospel in French.

They sat in and understanding.

The priest preached the sermon in French.

So they were fighting.

Oh, they were just struggling to get their own church in what was called the American section.

And because people spoke French over there, they spoke English here.

So this section was called the American Section.

So finally, 1833 Parish of Saint Patrick's was dedicated and I don't know any better way to say it.

On that day, God crossed Canal Street and spoke English originally designed by James and Charles Deacon, the church was completed by noted architect James Gaylor, built in the English Gothic style, one of its most notable features is a stained glass dome above the main altar that depicts a variety of angels another early Catholic Church in Saint Augustine, located outside the French Quarter.

It was established in 1841 at the request of free blacks living in the area.

They requested of Archbishop Blown that they have their own church for a number of reasons.

They were being discriminated against in the other churches and secondly, for reasons of simple convenience right here where they lived is where they wanted to worship.

Technically, it was built as a black church, mostly free blacks occupied the center aisles.

The two big aisles with a few Caucasians and others sprinkled around.

The two side aisles were populated exclusively by slaves so it was a black church.

The people got along fine.

Everything was in French while much of the church's original decoration remains intact, Father Ledoux has changed the positions of the pews.

And for his altar uses a tree stump.

We wanted a tree stump for the altar because the first altar of the New Testament was a tree and they hanged him on a tree on Good Friday on Golgotha, and the tree was fashioned by a wood artisan from Bay Saint Louis, Ellsworth Collins.

And Mr. Collins went down with a couple of his coworkers into the swamps of Delisle, Mississippi, near Bay Saint Louis, and found the stump you see there as the main altar.

And after we had put this one in, it looked so good.

I said, Mr. Collins, we need a lector.

And he said, Well, we'll go and look for one for a stump.

And we went and found the other log, which you see there as the lectern in colonial New Orleans, Roman Catholicism was the only religion allowed to be openly practiced.

A special law, the code noir or black code, did more than say how slaves should be treated.

It also made the public practice of Judaism or Protestant religions illegal.

The religious part of it was very specific.

Jews were not permitted in the city at that time, and by then almost anyone who had been Protestant had either married into a Catholic family and become Catholic or was forced to become Catholic upon arrival.

And many converted before they ever got on the ships when they were still in the ports of France.

After the Louisiana Purchase, when the Cold War was abolished, non-Catholics began to worship openly.

They found a friend and Jewish businessman, Judah Toro.

During the battle of New Orleans, Torah was wounded.

An Episcopal Church official nursed him back to health.

Touro never forgot this man's kindness due to Turo rented a pew at Christchurch Cathedral thereby giving money for the upkeep of the building and the hiring of the priest as a token of his friendship.

Well, Judah Toro was was described by a man who was associated with him in his latter years I think, as a crab who moved very slowly and kept his comments to himself but he was very instrumental in his early years of helping some of the Christian churches to get established.

He gave land for churches and he helped to support the activities in the building of churches.

He took a former church and had it redesigned and made into one of the early synagogues of our community.

As the city grew and attracted businessmen and their families from other parts of the United States, they discussed their need and they acted on it.

And basically they took a vote as the as to the kind of minister that they wanted to lead them lead, the first non Roman Catholic congregation here in the city.

And they voted to call an Episcopal priest, Philander Chase, from the state of New York.

He arrived in 18 five and led them in the first worship service from the Book of Common Prayer on November 17th 18 five in the Capitol.

Though in the Crescent City, both the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches began on Jackson Square as the city grew, Spires began to define the skyline by the 1820s.

New Orleans had a reputation for being a rough and tumble place in serious need of religion.

Sylvester Learned was the first pastor of the Presbyterian congregation.

Very young man came here full of vision and missionary zeal from a congregation in this church up in the East.

He was also here during the time of great, very great suffering.

The yellow fever epidemics were raging through the city.

And of course, the short time after he got here, well, he refused to segregate himself from the people who had yellow fever.

Would visit them in their home, would bury many of them.

And as a result, he ended up with yellow fever himself and died at a very young age.

One of the most colorful clergymen in New Orleans history was Dr. Loren, its classmate and successor, parson Theodore Clapp.

He was a loyal Presbyterian, was a free thinker.

And as he moved along in his ministry, some of his ideas about theology changed.

And there came a point when he could no longer stay within this denomination and began and started another another congregation out of this one.

It started off being a Presbyterian church.

But Reverend Clapp decided that he wasn't Presbyterian, but he was Unitarian and sort of split with the Presbyterians the church got into financial trouble to purchase the church, but allowed Reverend Clapp to continue to use the church.

And on the floor of the church, basically all the pews or rented in by local people.

But as visitors came into town, they all sat in the gallery above because it was a free gallery.

You didn't have to rent the pews.

And it became known as the strangest church because of all the strangers looking down on the people which had paid for their pews down below.

Dr. Clapp sermons were popular events, attracting listeners from throughout the community and across religious boundaries.

In Collapse autobiography, he mentioned that tourist to New Orleans would often ask to see three things the American theater, the French Opera House and his church, always a controversial figure in the 1840s, Parson Clapp once publicly denied the existence of hell, something that broke loose when the news reached the local press around this time, a group of free persons of color formed St James African Methodist Episcopal Church, located in Mid City.

It is one of New Orleans oldest surviving church buildings.

Saint James A.M.E. was sort of one of the elite free black churches in town.

Some of the best educated, free black Protestants in town belong to it.

And after the Civil War, it became a real hotbed of political interest and activity.

Also, this became one of the churches that the black politicians during Reconstruction some white politicians to the Republicans were eager to be seen as attending, even if they didn't join that church.

Many prominent politicians at the time, PBS Pinchback, the second black lieutenant governor of Louisiana, attended.

This is the first A.M.E. Church or African Methodist Episcopal Church on this side of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Also, it is the oldest we call it the Mother Church of the Deep South.

Before and after the Civil War, Saint James faced the problem of segregation within its congregation within the body of the church.

It was built for the purposes of, as I said, those free slaves and what have you are free men of color to worship freely.

However, it was far the more mulatto fair complected blacks the balcony of St James is this edifice was built for the darker complected blacks.

There was a large window there's a glass stain, one, two.

Now in the back in the area, that was the lookout window for the slave waggon.

It would come along because slaves were not allowed to worship or congregate, but they would look out and whenever the wagon would come out, some of the trustees, officers of the church ushered them out of the back area.

Yes, they were by the 1840s.

New Orleans was the country's second largest seaport.

Thousands of Irish and more Germans started to arrive in this rapidly growing city.

Many of the Irish were fleeing famine, but the Germans came here for another reason from 18 5048, especially when the revolution started.

Then many of the educated German people left, and some of them settled right here in New Orleans from that period of time on to 1870, 1880 you had a tremendous German migration, and many of them stayed right here in the city of New Orleans.

And so there's a, there's a building boom going on in the, in the Catholic churches as places of worship are being constructed to, to meet the needs and religious needs of this, of this huge immigrant population that's bringing yet another layer of diversity to this wonderful city.

Churches were popping up all over town.

The Germans had Saint Mary's assumption and Holy Trinity for their Roman Catholic church goers.

Lutheran and evangelical Germans attended such churches as St Paul's, the Zion Lutheran Church and the Jackson Avenue Evangelical Congregation.

At this church, the windows were created by American and German artisans.

This scene of Jesus knocking at a door is a popular theme in Protestant churches, symbolizing inviting Christ into one's life of such search of a canton.

This could indicate Ireland.

The ascending half sleep avoided when years of Christian glow but would unify the Germans into a congregation was their language however they were Lutherans or evangelicals or combination.

And so you had a lot of fighting and doctrinal problems going on that led to conflicts despite fighting among themselves, the newcomers to New Orleans still managed to find time to erect new churches along what was the New Basin Canal.

And today, the site of the Pontchartrain Expressway is Saint John, the Baptist Catholic Church.

The Gold Steeple landmark was modeled after a church in Dresden, Germany.

It's Familiar Dome was originally covered in Red Lead when the bridge came through there.

The bridge just took it took the old school and the old convent and everything, which was all on the downtown side of the church.

And so obviously they had to try to pay for that.

So Saint John's Parish had had this large sum of money at that time.

And once in the screen, he he was in all the discussions about highway plans.

So he saw Saint John's as being the church where everything would kind of cross, where you could see it from all over town when people would come on various expressways and cross bridges.

And he decided, I think, that the church ought to stand out by by by taking in gold, leafing this thing.

I know he worked hard to get that go staple and I remember this controversy about it.

But in later years, he told me was very important to me to have that dome goal and to keep it gold and he was very proud of it.

When you you know, when the expressway became a symbol to him that not only the statue standing there looking at you as you drove along, but the great goal, it reminded you of heaven and the magnificence of God.

And this bit of Byzantium in the city's central business district is Immaculate Conception, Catholic Church better known as Jesuits.

It was designed by its first pastor, Father John Cambio.

So he designed it, of course, and the Moorish architecture because he loved Spain and he loved the churches there.

He loved the concept that at one time everybody lived in peace, that Islam and Judaism and Christianity.

And then this church, you not only see the beautiful Moorish architecture, but all through the church you see the star of David and of course, all the Christian symbols intermingled to reflect that reality that happened in Spain.

Construction in the 1920s for the office building next door severely damaged the 70 year old church.

The new church is almost identical it is adorned with art that has special meaning.

Well of course I really see an emphasis on two things.

I see an emphasis on women because I'm not sure, but they're certainly equal.

Number of wooden windows of women might be more.

There's also a great stress on poverty of people who took care of the poor.

There are several queens who took care of the poor.

Of course they are founders of religious orders up here directly above the altar is a statue with quite a history.

That beautiful statue of Immaculate Conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary was made for the Queen the Queen Mary O'Malley of France, whose husband was Louis Phillipe in 1844 by a man named Fournier.

They of course never saw it.

It was made for her private chapel, but it never got into the private chapel because they were dethroned and exiled.

It wound up, I think, first in Canada, then in Philadelphia, and finally here in New Orleans.

And the Jesuits purchased it for this church for 1500 dollars Immaculate Conception was not built to serve a particular parish or ethnic group in Uptown New Orleans, though it was a different story.

Protestants and the Catholics, the French, the Germans, the Irish, they didn't get along very well and they established their separate churches and their own separate modes of worship.

And there was a social a class part of it where some people would choose one church, other another over another and look down on a third, which was of the same denomination.

This whole mélange resulted in an area called Ecclesiastical Square, where there was a German church and a French church and an Irish church.

And there was very little mixing today.

Of the three churches in the Redeemed Trust Parish, only one remains active.

The French church, Notre Dame, to soccer damaged by hurricanes was torn down in the 1920s and the Irish church Saint Alphonsus was de consecrated, removed from religious service the third place of worship.

Saint Mary's assumption, with its magnificent German baroque brickwork alone, serves the parish across town.

A similar grouping of churches may be found.

Saint Peter and Paul Catholic Church served the Irish nearby, serving the French with St Vincent de Paul not far away.

Holy Trinity served German Catholics around the time the present Holy Trinity was built in the 1850s, the city's newest immigrants began to compete with natives for jobs.

Groups such as the Know-nothings began to openly threaten the immigrants, many of whom were Roman Catholic.

Defending the newcomers was one father, James Ignatius Mullan, Irish born pastor of Saint Patrick's.

I mean, they had groups that came down and threatened to burn the church down, and Father Mullen met them out there with groups of people from they threatened to take over the Saint Louis Cathedral and Father Mullen notified the officials of Saint Louis Cathedral that he'd bring his men down and defend the cathedral, too, even though they spoke French.

And it was a must have been a better time Tempers flared, but a conflict of a more far reaching nature would soon break out the civil war.

And Father Mullen, as well as many other New Orleans religious leaders, would find himself right in the thick of it.

The it was a clergyman, First Presbyterian Church Minister Benjamin Palmer, who is credited with having helped inspire Louisiana's secession from the union he was largely influential in causing Louisiana's to secede from the union by a very famous speech that he gave at that time, the Thanksgiving Day address, Louisiana's first Episcopal bishop, Leonidas Polk, would give his life as a Confederate officer it was a military man, and having been in the military, I don't usually think of that as a background training for great the kind of great spirituality that he had.

But he was a man of many talents, great convictions, but a very spiritual quality and his West Point training must have come in good stead when he was personally asked by Jefferson Davis to join the Confederate Army, which I think he did with some torn feelings about what he was doing previous to that.

But he was bonded to the call, and three years later he was killed from a cannon shot.

New Orleans fell early in the Civil War, commanding the union forces in New Orleans during occupation was the irascible union general, Benjamin Butler, a few of the Yankee generals particularly, but did not treat the defeated people with respect, and this through a tremendous bitterness.

So the general then start making laws and rules he was going to confiscate the bills of the churches and take those bells and melt them down for cannon fodder.

Butler had his eye on the bells of St Patrick's church.

Its pastor was none too pleased and they came with troops out by the front door and says, No way, you're not going to take the bells of this church.

This is a religious house.

It's just to call people to prayer and you're not going to take these bills.

So that started the bitterness but Butler wasn't always trying to take things away.

When federal troops seized the candelabra from Immaculate Conception Church, it was Butler who demanded they be returned to their rightful owner.

Even so, Father Mullen wasn't above taking a verbal swipe at the general.

One day, General Butler summoned Father Mullen and he said, Now we've got to get to the bottom of this.

It's been reported to me that you refuse to bury Yankee soldiers what do you say to that?

He said, It's all wrong, General.

I'd be happy and proud to bury you and your whole army.

In a time of of of civil war and virtual occupation.

Religious leaders are immensely important for the kind of symbolic acts if you will, symbolic acts of resistance from refusing to to include the president in in the prayer of the church.

Or refusing blessings or or statements that are regarded as by the occupying authority, as being seditious and are regarded by the population as being wonderful.

And so we had cases in New Orleans of of religious leaders, of several denominations who who ran afoul of the union authorities and and were shipped out after the Civil War.

First Presbyterian Church leader Benjamin Palmer continued to be outspoken.

Only this time it was against the lottery.

He was adamantly opposed to a lottery and was very influential in getting it squashed many of the prohibitions in the Constitution against gambling came out of that era because there was much corruption going on when Louisiana had a lottery Reverend Palmer was killed by a streetcar.

Ironically, the accident took place at the corner of Saint Charles and Palmer Avenues, a street that had been named after him.

There were many thousands of dignitaries who attended his funeral, people from all faiths.

A Jewish rabbi spoke at the funeral there were outpourings of sympathy and great acclaim.

Palmer must have been a great leader of the of the religious community.

He was very close to Rabbi Heller, who was the second rabbi of Temple Sinai and also was renowned as a fine preacher in his day.

Max Heller was a leader in the anti lottery group back in the days when he served as rabbi here.

Rabbi Heller was loved and respected, even if his congregation didn't always share his views.

He was a great Zionist.

He believed in creating a Jewish homeland, and in so doing he was at odds with virtually 99% of the membership of Temple Sinai in that day.

And yet they loved the man and trusted him as a great friend as well as religious advisor.

New Orleans has seen its share of larger than life characters.

It also has a larger than life church, St Joseph's Catholic Church on Tulane Avenue.

As huge as St Joseph's is, it was a popular commercial jingle for a furniture store across the street that helped at least one person find the church when I worked in the office and people would say, I'm calling from memory or the airline highway and I'm coming to a wedding Saturday night or something like that, how do you get there?

I said, Well, you can.

Right down Tulane Avenue is the largest church on the right hand side before we hit Claiborne Avenue, I said, Wait, you remember this?

1825.

Tulane.

Oh, that's a building across the street from the.

Yeah, the new 1824 Tulane.

What do they know.

We're a big Saint Joseph church.

I thought that was very funny.

Was involved but I thank God to name it today is the largest church in the south, but still is not as big as it was originally planned to be.

When it was originally planned, the original staples were never executed on the church nor the rear of the church.

But it is a quite impressive Romanesque revival style church gargantuan St Joseph's Church looks able to weather just about any storm.

Over the years.

Many of our places of worship have suffered terribly at the hands of a very angry Mother Nature in 1950, one of the worst hurricanes in New Orleans history struck more powerful than Hurricane Betsy.

This storm radically changed the skyline, damaging or destroying almost every steeple my grandfather told me about.

He was down in the quarter when it hit and all and he said You just watch lots of the car just come down in that hurricane there, which he said was quite devastating.

And he went through Betsy.

He said it was worse than Betsy.

Dr. Palmer's church, First Presbyterian for years, a popular landmark on Lafayette Square, partially collapsed.

Others lost their steeples and their exteriors were radically altered.

Churches such as Coliseum, Square, Baptist Church, Jackson Avenue, Evangelical Congregation and Felicity Methodist.

Like many places of worship, Saint Teresa of Avila, Catholic Church in the Lower Garden District, lost much of its stained glass in the hurricane.

One of its replacement windows commemorates the disaster and its victims in 1965 New Orleans churches as did so many structures, felt the fury of Hurricane Betsy.

You see we lost completely at least three churches then down in the bayou we had a number of them so badly damaged and there was not one church or one Catholic institution that was not damaged.

All of them were damaged and one of them wholly redeemed a church which doesn't exist anymore, apparently of a tornado within the hurricane actually blew it apart and just wiped it out.

We had a number of churches were just wiped out for St Paul's Episcopal Church, located in the Lakeview section of the city.

It took lots of money and some international travel to fix the damage that Betsy did.

The great window at St Paul's the ascension of Christ was made by the Meyer Company and Germany in I think 19 three.

But Hurricane Betsy broke it.

However, they were able to France Minor Company was still in existence and the company called out of retirement men who'd been apprentices working on the window when it was first made and they restored it.

And so it's back in place and it's the largest stained glass window in the city in St Paul's near the main door.

There's an unusual detail to be seen in another window from the Myers studio.

If you look carefully at Jesus's feet, you'll see that one of them has six toes whimsical or otherwise.

It is the objects of ornamentation inside New Orleans churches that are among the city's most treasured works of art.

Also in the Lakeview area along Bayou Saint John is the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity.

In the 1860s, the congregation's first structure, located in what is now called the Esplanade Ridge neighborhood, was the first Greek Orthodox place of worship in the Western Hemisphere.

In the new building erected in the mid 1980s, the names of the saints are given in Greek on these American made stained glass windows.

Well, I think that a spiritual house of God has its own special feelings to it, its own special artistic flair it's a long it's a lovely fall afternoon.

But people are crowding indoors to see some of New Orleans hidden treasures.

It's stained glass inspired by the success of the Vatican Pavilion during the 1984 Louisiana World's Fair, a group of pavilion volunteers decided to offer a tour of stained glass in sacred places.

I think that as you walked in one of the stops on this day's tour, is Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Uptown New Orleans.

It was built right before World War One in the Tudor Gothic style note.

The angels with pageboy haircuts in that window there are several angels depicted who are members were children in the Dennis Show family and the one that you're talking about is alive and well today and is an attorney for the among other things, the Catholic Church here for lovers of church windows some of the city's most spectacular three dimensional stained glass may be found at Salem United Church of Christ, also in uptown New Orleans.

It's called Drapery Glass.

These windows were created by artisans from the Jacoby studio of Saint Louis, Missouri.

At the time, the windows were being manufactured the pastor took a special trip to Saint Louis to supervise the making of the face of Jesus to make sure that he approved of it and he did OK. Back home and the window was finished and installed.

Of course, Drapery Glass owes its inspiration to Louis Comfort Tiffany, who was the first glass maker to use drapery glass in that manner.

And that's not to say they're Tiffany windows by any, but it's an inspiration that comes from Tiffany.

While religious stained glass tends to depict traditional spiritual themes and symbols.

Our lady star of the C Catholic Church in the Saint Roch neighborhood has a surprise here is Pope Pius The 11th Blessing The Little Children and the other one, which I really am very fond of, is Pope Pius The 11th, making his first radio broadcast from the Vatican.

In 1932 I think and he's shown speaking into a hand-held microphone with William Marconi, the inventor of the radio on one side and Cardinal Pacelli, his secretary of state standing above him and Cardinal Pacelli was to go on to become Pius the 12th who was pope during World War two and it's a this is a real real picture of real people doing real things which is interesting.

A number of noted local artists have been commissioned to create religious art.

The work of sculptor and Rikki Al Ferris can be found in the Chapel of Christ Church Cathedral located in uptown New Orleans on Saint Charles Avenue.

In his carving of decorations for the residence of the chapel, he used Mexican and black faces and features for the angels and the saints that he put on the railroads.

He also and carving St George defeating the dragon right at night in 1941 is when he did it, inscribed swastikas on the flank of the dragon to make his own statement about what was happening in Europe at that time.

England, symbolized by St George, defeating Nazi Germany, symbolized by the dragon.

While New Orleans cartoonist John Chase is best known for drawing political cartoons for local newspapers and television, one of his most enduring but lesser known works is in the medium of stained glass at St Dominic's Catholic Church in Lakeview.

Chase depicted Jesus beardless and with short hair, a rendering harkening back to early Christianity known nationally for her expression in style.

Artist Ida Cole Meyer designed stained glass windows for the chapel, a Touro synagogue The main window is diamond shaped, depicting a menorah.

The Ten Commandments and other symbols of the Jewish faith Some lesser known local artists have also given us some remarkable religious art.

For instance, Milton Pound's stained glass windows at congregation have read to him in keeping with traditional Jewish practice.

Human figures aren't depicted.

These windows made in LB Covington, Louisiana, studio are unusually thick, created from a specially faceted material known as Doll Glass For more than a century, members of the Lips family have been making windows for New Orleans churches.

Some examples of this New Orleans studios early work can be found in Zion Lutheran Church.

The only wooden church on Saint Charles Avenue.

Stained glass and sacred places is often made possible by families wishing to memorialize a loved one.

A touching example can be found at Trinity Episcopal Church in uptown New Orleans, A member of the McGuinness family was struck by lightning and killed at a July 4th picnic on Mississippi's Gulf Coast.

Standing next to the young man, a rector from Trinity Church was unharmed.

This memorial window has as its title, Jesus calming the waves.

And it carries the theme Be not afraid People can sit regardless of what they are afraid.

And look at the fear in the faces of the disciples in the boat.

As it looks as if it is sinking.

And look at the calm demeanor on Jesus face.

And I must admit, I, on more than one occasion have put myself in the boat and have wanted to hear Jesus say to me, be not afraid.

Not all ecclesiastical art is made of glass.

At Saint Mary's Assumption Church and the Irish Channel, there's just what may be the most populated altar around.

What it does have is a spectacular carved wooden altar that is like five tiers tall with wonderful wooden statues, starting small at the bottom and getting bigger in sizes they go up.

We have the Old Testament prophets, the New Testament saints, the evangelists, the archangels, and then Mary being crowned with Jesus on one side and God on the other, and more angels.

And then the stained glass window, the first stained glass window above that, and then the great seal of the redemptive order above that.

And it's a breathtaking across the street from Saint Mary's in Saint Alphonsus, or frescoes found in only a few local churches.

One of the best known fresco artists was Dominique Canova.

He was the nephew of Antonio Canova, who had been Napoleon's favorite sculptor.

He came to New Orleans and had a very successful career not just doing churches, but secular buildings of the opera house and hotels and private residences.

And he did the first ceiling frescoes at Saint Francis, which are spectacular they all show Ascension scenes with Jesus Christ closest to the altar, adapted from a painting by Raphael and then the apotheosis of Saint Francis in the middle, and then towards the front door of the party, The Ascension of the Virgin, taken from a painting by Maria but they're beautifully done, and they did just the right thing to have on the ceiling of a church looking up.

Everything's going up Artist Dashiell Peretti gives us many reasons to look up inside St Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in the Bywater neighborhood.

On the side aisles there are paintings of the life of Saint Vincent.

In the ads of the church is a mural on the Last Judgment, which would be more appropriate for the wall at the other end of the church where you go out as a child, I always would say the people on the on left side, the right, your right as you face the mural, which would be the ones condemned, not the saved ones.

And there was so despondent a number of our historic places of worship and the artwork they contain also face a final judgment or at best, an uncertain future.

We really have at this point in time, almost too many church buildings in the city proper.

You know, because so many people have moved to the you know, to the suburbs and to the to the north shore.

But I believe we just have a marvelous inventory of of church buildings one such building that is a victim of shifting populations is Holy Trinity Catholic Church in the Marigny neighborhood.

They have spectacular windows there and there.

Their windows are French.

They're among the very few French windows in our French city.

Beautiful windows, but with few parishioners left to admire them.

You know, most of my congregation was very elderly and had spent their whole lives in that neighborhood.

Holy Trinity was founded by German immigrants.

And so there are strong roots, not only with the people still living in the neighborhood, but, you know, families throughout the New Orleans area.

It was difficult because in the 11 years that I was there, I think I probably did the funerals of about half of the congregation.

One good thing that did happen is that Holy Trinity became the location where we founded a project Lazarus.

The neighborhood has a heavy gay population, and so the Archbishop gave permission for the convent to be used, and eventually the rectory to be converted into Project Lazarus, which is a residential care program for people who are living with HIV.

And so Holy Trinity Church and another meaning in the lives of many people, especially people who were preparing to die of the Lord Jesus be with you.

The future of the church building is uncertain.

Besides population shifts.

Holy Trinity is also a victim of Formosan termites.

Like many other older buildings in New Orleans, time and collect are also powerful, destructive forces.

Right before World War One, even Saint Louis Cathedral was seriously threatened with demolition during the World War One era mid teens in in the French Quarter, Saint Louis Cathedral was even closed because it was in such bad shape.

They constructed a rustic chapel in Saint Anthony's garden behind the cathedral and and worship there, rather, because they were unable to use the building, because it was in such bad shape.

The thing is, you can't afford, you know, in size and scale to build what people call, you know, real churches anymore.

Some of our historic churches have been saved from demolition by being adapted for secular uses.

Saint Alphonsus is one of the resounding successes, but it was very nearly lost well, we toured it on our second tour and there was no electricity, but there were pigeons alive and dead.

And you walk in this dark church and you looked up.

There were these incredible windows, absolutely incredible windows, and the effect of it was, we've got to do something to save this church.

And so a group of us got together and organized the Friends of Saint Alphonsus the Friends of Saint Alphonsus began by repairing the roof.

They continue to improve the structure which in 1996 received national historic landmark status but it is an art and cultural center and being used actively for all kinds of art and cultural functions, concerts and the like in New Orleans, food like religion, contributes a great deal to the local culture.

One mid city restaurant even claims to be the place where dining is a spiritual experience.

This is Christians formally Grace Lutheran Church as many parishes struggle for survival, some are winning the battle.

Once threatened with demolition, St Joseph's Church is making a comeback.

Even though many of its parishioners are gone.

One thing that happened was that a lot of the people who lived around here moved to the suburbs and during the eighties we were challenged to kind of figure out how we could basically keep the building open.

I think the people rose to the challenge and a number of committees were started and the church right now is in great shape.

In the spirit of holiness to be found in a beautiful setting.

Often we can elevate our souls and actually have a feeling that indeed, as Jacob said, God is in this place now full of all it is.

I mean, if you come into a club, a dirty church, you're going to say, Oh, something wrong?

Is Father spirituality cluttered and dusty?

Does he care?

Now you say Well, that's not a legitimate assumption.

Of course it isn't.

But if you come into a clean, magnificent, beautiful church, you can get a jump that Barry, you know, so.

Oh, look at this church.

Somebody cares.

And that's that's the great message of God that God cares.

Jesus cast like those who worship in them, churches of whom joy, life changes and sadness.

Yet through it all, the spirit remains.

There will always be houses of worship standing proudly, as long as there are people in them who still have a prayer don't you let nobody stop you from prayer?

Don't you let your bodies stop you from paying off everything's going to be all right.

Sharon.

Let me hear myself talk about the shame on you're not you got to keep on believing don't let nobody stop you from hope and keep on believing Keep on receiving my friends free on radio.

It's all right to have a real good time.

Great play all around.

Everybody holy.

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