From the flood waters of New Orleans to a new life, to a new Church home
in Glenmary’s mission in Waldron, Ark.
Kathy O'Brien

A Happy Ending: Clarence and Emma Jean Barbour, evacuated from the New Orleans convention center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, have settled in Waldron, Ark. He joined the Catholic Church last year. She is joining this Easter.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come.
Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.

These words of “Amazing Grace” quite literally tell the story of the amazing journey of Clarence Barbour and his wife, Emma Jean. That journey led them as evacuees from New Orleans and the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath to a new home in Waldron, Ark. It also has led them as people of faith to a new church home: Glenmary’s St. Jude Thaddeus mission, where I serve as pastoral associate.

At 86, Clarence has indeed come through many dangers, toils and snares as a black man living through times of great difficulties and, yes, great changes in this country. And it is indeed grace that brought him, along with 79 other Katrina victims, to the relief center set up in an old nursing home in Waldron.

Clarence reminds me of Hoke Colburn, the chauffeur in the film Driving Miss Daisy, as he recounts gently and patiently the journey that culminated in his reception into the Catholic Church at the 2006 Easter Vigil at St. Jude.

He speaks positively of encounters with Catholics throughout his life. At 17, as a worker in the Civilian Conservation Corps in New York, he recalls a young French priest who often visited, helping the young men in the CCC camp and taking them out for entertainment. Clarence remembers how that priest brought him a real suitcase after noticing he had only a box tied with string for his possessions.

He remembers the Catholic sister in New Orleans whom he helped as a volunteer in the programs she ran for children and senior citizens. He proudly displays the awards she gave him for his years of service.

He also recalls the many black Catholics he met after his retirement to New Orleans who gave witness to their love for the Church. “I gotta go to Mass,” they would say as a weekend approached. It impressed him how they would not consider missing that weekly gathering of the community of faith.

But that was all before the tragedy of Katrina when he and Emma Jean were evacuated from their apartment to the New Orleans convention center. What he saw and endured there, he says, was equal to or worse than what he experienced as a soldier in the Pacific during World War II. They were eventually flown to Fort Chaffee, Ark., where he remembers being awakened in the night and asked if he and his wife would like to go to Waldron. They said yes.

As the months went by, many evacuees moved on to other locations, but the Barbours decided to stay in Waldron. This led to their involvement with St. Jude parishioner Don Frost who helped Clarence and Emma Jean move things from their apartment in New Orleans and get settled. (They had lived on the third floor, so nothing was damaged.)

Father Neil Pezzulo, the pastor of St. Jude, assured Clarence that the money needed for the move would be provided. (It came from generous donors to Glenmary as well as from our sister parish in Wisconsin and another parish in Maryland.) Clarence speaks of Don’s help and the monetary assistance with amazement and gratitude.

Not long after getting settled in Waldron, Clarence and Emma Jean were invited to attend several churches, including St. Jude. A life-long man of faith, Clarence had participated in various faith traditions—Methodist, Jehovah’s Witness and Baptist.

On a visit to St. Jude, he asked some questions about Catholic liturgy and was invited to visit an RCIA inquiry session. The night he attended the subject happened to be Mary. Before leaving, he expressed a wish to return.

He had heard many things about Catholics and Mary during his life which, he discovered that night, were not true. As a man constantly seeking to know and learn more, he wanted to see if other things he had heard about Catholics were untrue as well.

He rarely missed an inquiry session. He eventually decided to enter the catechumenate and make the journey to Easter and full membership in the Catholic Church.

His wife, Emma Jean, is now following in his footsteps. She will enter the Church this Easter.

Her roots, unlike those of Clarence who has lived in many places, are entirely in New Orleans. She knew Catholics and had visited Catholic churches throughout her life, but she was an active Baptist who had been, for a time, a Jehovah’s Witness.

But as Clarence became involved at St. Jude, she, too, gradually began to feel at home with the Catholic community. And by the time Clarence was to be received into the Church last year, she was already making plans to join the next RCIA group. Her greatest desire, she says, is to be able to receive Holy Communion.

Why did Clarence decide to become Catholic? “If a person is friend enough to move you and is not trying to sell you anything, I was impressed by that kind of generosity and care,” he says.

He also liked the fact that, in his experiences with the RCIA and our parish liturgy, he found more teaching and less preaching. For his constantly inquiring mind, that was a welcome part of our community.

As he studied Catholic belief, he says, he “could not see anything wrong with it.” In fact, “It was pretty much my conception of what church should be.”

The tradition of Catholic social teaching also moved him as a former GM worker in Detroit and as a black man. He shared the Church’s support of labor and commitment to racial justice.

And, according to Clarence, the Catholic Church he encountered in Waldron was very down to earth. He found Father Neil to be someone he could talk to and someone who really lived his faith, asking nothing for himself and living a simple lifestyle.

Clarence is now a regular lector at St. Jude. He also serves as our “handyman” doing many things like building shelves for the parish center.

“I am more comfortable with the Catholic Church than any other group I have known,” he says. He is constantly evangelizing others in his family and in this community by carefully explaining their misconceptions about Catholics. He only wishes he had found the Church when he was younger.

Clarence and Emma Jean, like almost every member of our small mission parish, have seen many dangers, toils and snares in their life journeys. But the power of the Spirit and the movement of the Kingdom of God has planted them here.

Those of us who reflect prayerfully on their journey stand in wonder and awe at the work of God incarnate in our midst.

Kathy O’Brien, a Glenmary Lay Missioner for 33 years, serves as the pastoral associate at Glenmary’s mission in Waldron, Ark.