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Msgr. Doug Doussan is 90 now, but his 20-year-old memory of the second collection at St. Lawrence of Brindisi Church in the Watts section of Los Angeles a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 is proof of the presence of God through the work of human hands.

Thanks to Jari Honora – a 2009 graduate of St. Augustine High School and a family historian in the Williams Research Center of the Historic New Orleans Collection – it might not be a leap of faith to suggest that New Orleans played a mysterious but fundamentally savory role in a papal election, whose white smoke 5,500 miles away gave the world Pope Leo XIV.

Little did Father Ekisa realize when Pope Francis was elected to succeed Pope Benedict XVI in 2013, he was about to receive an unexpected crash course not just in the law but also in mercy and forgiveness.

Just before Christmas in 2021, Marianite of Holy Cross Sister Suellen Tennyson was stationed at her congregation’s medical mission in Yalgo, Burkina Faso, West Africa, when she received via Facebook Messenger one of the most profound images of her life: A sonogram of the baby growing in the womb of her 46-year-old niece, Kim Downing.

On the heels of previous multiscreen exhibits that brought to life the art of Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet, a new exhibition – “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage – Through the Eyes of the Passengers” – calls to mind the heroism and spiritual fortitude displayed by three Catholic priests who perished while providing spiritual solace in the midst of chaos.

Since that day 14 years ago when a thin, masked gunman invaded his home in New Orleans East and with one, panicked pull of the trigger robbed Walter Bonam of his mobility – and then vanished without grabbing so much as a penny – the former Josephite seminarian, all 6-foot-4 of him, has personified Paul Bunyan, Thomas Merton and Job.

There are four of them now, but the Poor Clares who have prayed up a storm behind the 10-foot brick walls of their sprawling Henry Clay monastery for more than a century are as sure today of their contemplative mission as they were when their sacred space resonated with the prayer of 27 sisters.

New Orleanians suffer from a rare but accurately diagnosed disease of hypercritical self-analysis, so much so that when an actual grand slam disappears deep into the Mississippi River, we often have the urge to doubt what we have just witnessed.

On Dec. 7, 1961, 15-year-old Eduardo Aguirre took a Pan Am Constellation prop plane from Havana to Miami as an “unaccompanied minor.” He had a dime in his pocket.

As we face so many challenges as a city, may we draw on Sister Maeve’s compassionate, moral lens of “see, judge, act.”

In honor of my dad, who wrote his whimsical New Year’s Eve column for The States-Item and The Times-Picayune beginning in the 1960s, here’s a sneak peek at the next 12 months in sports.

Dr. J.W. Carmichael, the founder and former director of Xavier University of Louisiana’s pre-medical programs, was a pivotal force in transforming the university into a national leader in producing Black medical professionals.

Dominican Sister of Peace Sister Ruth Angelette, who served for 42 years as principal of St. Anthony of Padua School on Canal Street, died Sept. 9 at the Metairie home of her niece, Geral Anne Farmer.

Redemptorist Father Gerard “Gerry” LaPorte, who served in ministry for over five decades, died May 17 at Mercy Hospital South in St. Louis, Missouri. He was 85.

Congregation of St. Joseph Sister Anne died April 8 at Mount St. Mary Convent in Wichita, Kansas. Her Funeral Mass was celebrated April 13.

School Sister of Notre Dame Damian Tucker spent 30 years in the parochial schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans as a teacher and principal who loved and appreciated her students.