Rebuilding New Orleans with Hands, Hope, and Healing
A Resource Handbook for Immersion & Service Groups

SECTION TWO: PRE-KATRINA SOCIETAL REALITY

2.1 A WORD ON THE PASTORAL CIRCLE: TAKING SERVICE TO THE NEXT LEVEL 

To understand the roots of a problem, it takes a combination of things—eyes to see the reality of a city stricken by institutionalized poverty and separated by race; ears to hear the stories of those living in the city who have been displaced or remained; hands to reach out to help rebuild, rethink, renew a city that is in need of justice. 

In the Ignatian spirituality and solidarity, we talk about faith that does justice, or simply “faithjustice”.  This is not a linear approach, but a cyclical approach to living.  We are always experiencing, reflecting, and doing—by acting we experience new things.  Then by reflecting on what the Good News of the Word of God tells us, we are called to act again, perhaps in new, deeper ways that will bring about a more just society—working to eliminate sinful social structures, respecting human dignity for all, and spreading the Gospel message of hope and solidarity with the poor.

This cycle—often called the Pastoral Circle or the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm—calls us to live more fully by accompanying the poor and marginalized in our society.  When we saw pictures and news footage of many people waiting to be rescued, sitting atop roofs or wading through dangerously filthy floodwater, our hearts were filled with compassion.  Many of us donated money, food, clothes, or toys.  Now we are planning to go to New Orleans to actually see the chaos and devastation firsthand, and to continue to serve.  But this compassion is nothing without justice.  What is justice?  We find justice rooted in the Bible, calling us to a radical departure from the individualism and consumerism of American culture that can close us off from our responsibilities as God’s people.

In the Old Testament, God commands the Israelites:

• to care for the orphan, widow, and foreigner (Dt. 10: 16-19);
• to forgive debts and give loans to the poor (Dt. 15:1-10);
• to not harvest the entire crop, but leave some grain in the field for the poor and the hungry (Dt. 24:19-21); and
• to not defraud a poor worker, whether immigrant or citizen (Dt. 24:14-15).
• In Isaiah 42:1-8, God has formed us for the victory of justice as a light to all.

In the New Testament, Jesus brings a renewed message of justice for the poor:

• The Story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk. 16:19-31)
• The Beatitudes, lifting up the poor as blessed (Mt. 5:3-11)
• The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:25-37)

In Opting for the Poor: The Challenge for the 21st Century, Peter J. Henriot, SJ says:

Television has brought vivid images of domestic and global poverty into homes throughout North America.  But the television coverage of famine in Ethiopia or homelessness in [New Orleans] can be interrupted by pet food commercials or simply turned off by the dulled and frustrated viewer.  The reality of poverty goes relentlessly on, however.  And the response of the option for the poor becomes increasingly urgent.  The church is challenged severely by this option for the poor, in its identity and its mission.  The US bishops acknowledged this in a particularly strong statement in the Economic Pastoral: “A Christian cannot accept hunger, injustice, homelessness and insecurity in this country or anywhere in the world.  Christians must work to end them” (#27).Whichever way we may feel about the proper personal or political response to the problems of poverty, it is clear that the preferential option for the poor is central to the future of our church.  

So, we can see that we cannot just come to New Orleans without educating ourselves:

• What do God and the church say about where our priorities should lay in helping to rebuild New Orleans?
• Who actually are the poor?  What do they look like?  Where do they live?
• Where are socio-economic, political, and community structures of injustice occurring? 
• What historical trends have been occurring before Katrina made landfall?
• Why did different groups, institutions, and individuals respond as they did to the disaster?
• How did I contribute to the problems and the solutions?

Some other good resources about the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm:

• Mark Starkey. “Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm.”  Canisius College—Pymble, New South Wales, Australia.  Accessed at: http://loyola.jesuit.org.au/opif/ipp.html

• Hans Kolvenbach, SJ.  “Jesuit Education and Ignatian Pedagogy.”  Jesuit Distance Education Network of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities—Washington, DC.  Accessed at: http://www.ajcunet.edu/distanceeducation.aspx?bid=526  

2.2 REPORTS, PAPERS, AND ARTICLES ABOUT PRE-KATRINA NEW ORLEANS

The Brookings Institute—Metropolitan Policy Program:

Stunning Progress, Hidden Problems: The Dramatic Decline of Concentrated Poverty in the 1990s
By Paul A. Jargowsky; May 2003
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/publications/jargowskypoverty.htm 
There has been a large decrease in the population of high-poverty concentration areas in New Orleans.  In 1990 the average population in these areas was 165,751 and in 2000 only 108,419—a decrease of 57,332. This represents an 11.6% decrease in the concentrated poverty rate.

Back to Work in New Orleans
By Harry J. Holzer; October 2005
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/200510_backtowork.pdf
This article shows the difficulty the US Department of Labor was having getting young blacks into the workforce.  “Among young, black men in New Orleans aged 16-24 who were not enrolled in school, fully 40% were not even in the labor force in the year 2000—one of the worst rates of non-participation in the nation.”  

The Shape of the Curve: Household Income Distributions in U.S. Cities, 1979-1999
By Alan Berube and Thacher Tiffany; August 2004
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20040803_income.htm
New Orleans ranked sixth in cities with the largest low-income shares in 1999 with 34.6% of households in this quintile.  New Orleans is a stressed city meaning that it has “at least twice as many households in the bottom two categories combined (lower-middle and middle-income) as in the top two categories combined (upper-middle and high-income).” 

The New Great Migration: Black Americans’ Return to the South, 1965-2000
By William H. Frey; May 2004
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/publications/20040524_frey.htm
Since 1965, blacks have continued to migrate out of Louisiana, despite a new trend of high black migration out of northern states and back into the southern states.  In the 1995-2000 period, Louisiana net loss of blacks due to migration was 18, 074 people.

Key Indicators of Entrenched Poverty (Pre-Katrina New Orleans Area)
Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program 2005
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/20050920_povertynumbers.pdf

Access to Cars in New Orleans
By Alan Berube (Brookings Institution) and Steven Raphael (UC-Berkeley)
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/20050915_katrinacarstables.pdf

Other Sources:

Crime and Economic Disparity in Pre-Katrina New Orleans
By Carson W. Maxwell; December 30, 2005
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/12/6695.php
Some disturbing statistics here, including “the Orleans Parish Prison graduated more people with a General Equivalency Diploma (GED) than any other provider in the city.”

Google Earth’s Hurricane Katrina Imagery
http://earth.google.com/katrina.html
Some amazing before and after pictures of the New Orleans area to get a better idea of the
impact of the levee breaks.

Greater New Orleans Community Data Center—Pre-Katrina Information
http://www.gnocdc.org/
“We’ve got easy-to-use Census 2000 data for each neighborhood—including homeownership rate, poverty, occupations, and other demographics—as well as historical snapshots for each neighborhood, and Lower Ninth Ward residents’ explanations about the data for their neighborhood.”