ONLINE EXCLUSIVE - St. Philip Neri’s Altar Serves the Poor and More

For the past six years, St. Philip Neri in Metairie has hosted a St. Joseph’s Altar on March 19 for the school, parish and community. In addition to being a traditional St. Joseph’s altar, it is also used as a teaching altar for the school students and the entire community, from the 6-week-olds to seventh graders, to the baking days that end up having four generations of family members gathered together teaching this beautiful tradition while helping those in need. 

“We started the altar at St. Philip during Covid when all of the altars where closed,” said Crystal Vaccaro, St. Philip Neri business manager. “We decided to do a drive through altar for the community in conjunction with a spaghetti dinner and outdoor altar and the community loved it.”

“Forward to today and we have countless volunteers involved in this endeavor,” she said. “It most definitely takes a village to put the St. Joseph Altar together. Everyone in the parish wants to help in some way.”

All of the St. Philip school children touch the altar at some point whether it is creating an artifact for the altar, acting as a tour guide, joining volunteers during baking days, participating in the living rosary, performing in the choir performance or collecting food every student does their part.

“We are so blessed to have 20-30 people volunteer for each baking day and to help put together altar,” Vaccaro said. “Also, parishioners and parents have been extremely generous with food donations as well. Today we will receive monetary donations that will be donated to the St. Anthony Society along with the food we received during the huge food drive (fresh and canned food) held on St. Patrick’s Day weekend for food banks to help restock their shelves.”

“In addition to our children making all the "artifacts" for the altar, our community also comes together to invite those in need to our annual community dinner during the altar from 5–7 p.m.,” she added. “We publicize this to neighboring communities in need and families who come and share a meal with us. We will also have a pop-up pantry to invite those community members in need to come and take items home with them from our altar from 7–8 p.m.” 

The day began with an altar blessing by parish priest Father Andrew Rudmann at 10 a.m., followed by St. Joseph story time at 4 p.m., a Living Rosary led by the seventh graders lighting a candle rosary at 4:30 p.m., a meal blessing and children’s choir performance at 5 p.m., community dinner from 5–7 p.m. and pop-up pantry for those in need from 7–8 p.m.

“In New Orleans devotion to St. Joseph is beautiful it’s a feast of thanksgiving for the poor and those in need set up every year,” said Father Rudmann. “What I love about the altar at St. Philip Neri is that is truly keeps the heart of that tradition, and the food drive in addition to altar to feed the poor with every single food item going to feed the poor is what it is all about.

“We do a bunch of different activities with the altar to further teach the St. Joseph Altar history to the school children and community,” he said. “It is so moving to see those that visit the altar receive the providence of God. We also get to connect those in need with resources and meet people in the community and the children get to see that the altar is for the poor and helping their neighbor. God helps those in need and we are his instruments to share what we have – that is at the core of our faith, our students are taught this message and involved with the altar from beginning to end.”