Mentors needed to enflesh Abp. Aymond’s vision

    As a French Quarter hotel executive, Deacon Steve Ferran walked a delicate tightrope whenever he had to assess for out-of-town guests how “safe” the city was.
    While violent crime is an unfortunate fact of life in most major U.S. cities, New Orleans’ reputation as the below-sea-level version of the Wild Wild West went viral after Katrina.
    YouTube and CNN had 24/7 videos of chaos, guns and bodies. After the initial shock, there was a brief period of calm in which New Orleans, absent half its population, seemed as placid and unconcerned about locking its doors as Mayberry, N.C., where Sheriff Andy Taylor didn’t bother carrying a gun because there were no criminals and Deputy Barney Fife was more dangerous to himself because he had a gun in his holster.
    Oh, how times have changed.
    Actually, the saddest conclusion to be drawn from the 2011 spike in the New Orleans murder rate – what Mayor Mitch Landrieu has described as “unnatural” levels of violence – is that absolutely nothing can be done to reverse the bloody trend.
    Deacon Ferran, who joined Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans last summer in the newly created position of vice president of Catholic Identity and Mission, said the epidemic of violence and murder points to fundamental failures in the family, which is why Catholic Charities is launching a parenting and mentoring initiative in three areas of the archdiocese that he hopes will chip away at the problem.
    Deacon Ferran worked for 26 years in the New Orleans hotel business, including the last four as general manager of the Omni Royal Orleans. In his line of work, violence and murder could equate to empty hotel rooms.
    “In the hotel industry, it’s like walking a tightrope because you’re dealing with two facts,” Deacon Ferran said. “You are taking care of the guests and visitors you have in town, and the other component is you’re always trying to attract new visitors and new conventions to the city. So you really aren’t going to be too keen on highlighting a violent crime problem. The flip side is you want to make sure the guests and visitors in town are safe.”
    So, where does the Catholic Church start? There is a daily “family prayer” that Archbishop Gregory Aymond has asked local Catholics to pray for an end to violence, murder and racism.
    But since faith without works is dead, the archbishop insisted that Catholic Charities marshal its forces to help nurture children and strengthen families. Catholic Charities launched the Isaiah 43 program in three parishes – St. Peter Claver in New Orleans, St. Joseph the Worker in Marrero and Holy Family in Franklinton.
    The two-tiered program will provide trained mentors for at-risk children – a structured program using proven methods is critical, Deacon Ferran says – and also offer parenting classes for adults. While the program is being piloted in three deaneries, the goal is to have committed individuals step up and volunteer their time and their hearts for one year as mentors.
    It’s a one-on-one approach, but it is a Catholic response to Mayor Landrieu’s call for the faith community to do something about the problem.
    And that’s where Catholics in the pew who may not have been touched personally by violence need to step up. They can’t simply fold their arms and insist this is someone else’s problem.
    “The way we got some of the mentors was that they saw with their own eyes how life in their community was beginning to change,” Deacon Ferran said. “The problems they used to be able to point to as happening ‘over there’ were now happening close to home. Some of the pastors have been very passionate and spoken about this from the pulpit – ‘You have a responsibility for your fellow man.’”
    “We are our brother’s keeper,” Deacon Ferran added. “We can help shape the world we live in or we can be subjected to the world we live in. I would much rather shape it.”
    Deacon Ferran has seen what the prospect of a hotel job has meant to the graduates of the Café Reconcile hospitality-training program. It’s that kind of church-business partnership – mentoring, nurturing, providing stable jobs – that can turn this unnatural tragedy around.
    “We hired two people at the Omni Royal Orleans who came from backgrounds that were almost indescribable,” Deacon Ferran said. “But they found their way to Café Reconcile. When we saw the quality and caliber of some of these young people, we were eager to hire them. This wasn’t a charity case. We wanted them because they were good. Now these kids are saving to buy a house, and four years ago, that was nowhere on their horizon. It wasn’t that somebody did it for them. They made it happen. We provided the opportunity, but they secured it.”
    Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at [email protected].