Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 7 — The Georgia Bulletin, April 20,1969
Ordained 25 Years
Dominican Shares Musical Gifts
With Holy Cross
MUSIC MAKER — Father Cayet
Mangiaracina, O.P., is shown at a favorite
pastime, singing and strumming his guitar.
Jamaica —
(Continued from page 6)
tried with married couples and there are “signs of hope"
that patterns are changing.
Many were made jobless by Gilbert, he says. With help
from the states, including Food for the Poor, the arch
diocese was able to help people get zinc to replace roofs,
and give out food and bedding
The archdiocesan social development commission, using
the strategy of the U.S. bishops' Campaign for Human
Development, the archbishop says, is aiding in the
rehabilitation of families hurt by the hurricane.
Food for the Poor’s helping role, he says, goes back
several years, when rising oil prices harshly affected an
already failing economy and food shortages were acute. Its
ministry now is crucial to many priests whose parishes
can’t support them, the archbishop adds.
Archbishop Carter, who has led the archdiocese since
1970, says his greatest challenge is to make the people
realize that the church is theirs, that it doesn’t belong to the
mission societies who have been a needed presence on the
island for such a long time.
The archbishop, who prepared for his priesthood in
Boston, believes Third World countries have much to offer
the Church. “Our liturgies are alive.” About 10 percent of
the Jamaican population of over two million is Catholic.
The island’s two dioceses are Kingston and Montego Bay.
One way the archbishop is hoping to bring a new model of
church in his archdiocese is through a 10-year pastoral plan
implemented in 1982 after a task force spent two years
developing it. It calls for consultation and participation
among priests, Religious and laity working together as the
people of God to build up Christian community.
He is hopeful for the pastoral plan. “You look at what you
have and then dream,” the articulate archbishop com
ments as the meeting ends.
Our last visit of the day is to the Golden Age Home, a
government facility in the Vineyardtown area. Mavis Com
stock is the nurse who supervises the care of 56 indigent
senior citizens and mentally retarded men and women in
this complex sponsored by Food for the Poor.
She leads us through the buildings around the square
commons area. Inmates lie on cots and in cribs in the small
rooms. She has a personal word for most but lingers at one
crib to coax a radiant smile from a small girl with
matchstick arms and legs and an overly large head. We can
only gaze in wonder at this unmistakable expression of love
between nurse and the young woman in the child’s body.
A second article about the pilgrimage to Jamica will ap
pear next week. Anyone interested can contact Food for the
Poor, Inc., at Department 1372, 1301 W. Copans Road,
Pomano Beach, Fla., 33064.
BY PAULA DAY
When Father Cayet Mangiaracina, O.P., is not the
celebrant for the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass at Holy Cross parish
in northeast Atlanta, he is playing the guitar and singing
with the adult folk group at the liturgy.
The New Orleans, La. native celebrated the 25th anniver
sary of his ordination. April 18, and at the parish celebra
tion, April 14, there was a lot of music from the 50s. “He’s
big on music, especially rock and roll from that era,” ex
plained Lynn Crutchfield, parishioner and friend.
Father Mangiaracina was ordained April 18, 1964, in
Dubuque, Iowa, by Archbishop James J. Byrne. The only
child of Nicholas and Josephine Mangiaracina, he had
grown up in St. Anthony of Padua parish in New Orleans.
Although the parish was named for a Franciscan saint,
Dominican priests were pastors and Dominican sisters
taught in the school. As early as the eighth grade he
remembers saying to himself. “I think I’d like to try this
(the priesthood),” and he recalls his second grade teacher,
Sister Mary Berchman, pointing to him and saying,
“You're going to be a priest sometime.”
He switched allegiance briefly from this Dominican con
nection when he went to a Jesuit high school and then to the
Jesuit-run Loyola University of the South in New Orleans
for two years. He chose Loyola over the Dominican’s Loras
College in Dubuque because he wanted to “stay down
South. I wanted to have a good time.”
When he did go north to complete his studies at Loras, he
saw snow for the first time. “I was 21 before I ever saw
snow,” he recalled with incredulity in his voice. “The
Jesuits must have wondered ‘Where did we go wrong?’
when I became a Dominican,” he added.
Father Cayet, who bears his mother’s family name, has
been parochial vicar for nine years in Holy Cross parish
where parishioners speak of his warmth and availability.
“He’s a very loving, affectionate person,” commented
Lynn Crutchfield. “He can’t go in the grocery store without
someone knowing him.”
According to Thea Jarvis, another Holy Cross
parishioner, “He’s a very warm, outgoing, friendly person,
who is also considerably talented musically.”
“The added dimension of his voice and music really
enhance the liturgies,” she said.
Commenting on Father Cayet’s gift for counseling, she
said, “A lot of parishioners seek spiritual counseling from
him. He’s very compassionate, caring and effective. He
takes the time and makes himself available to do that.”
“I’ve seen a real growth on both sides,” Mrs. Jarvis add
ed. “A priest giving to a parish and a parish giving to a
priest.”
Father Cayet’s ministries do not stop at the parish boun
daries. Three or four weekends a year he is part of the
archdiocese’s Engaged Encounter Weekend, an involve
ment he had already begun in New Orleans before coming
to Atlanta.
Two years ago he spent four months in Cuernavaca, Mex
ico, immersing himself in an intensive Spanish language
course so he could minister to Hispanics in the parish. He
celebrates a 1:30 p.m. Mass in Spanish each Sunday for the
200 to 250 Hispanic families who live and work in the area.
“He’s pretty much the main pastor to the Spanish,” said
Father Stephen Smith, O.P. who also serves at Holy Cross.
It takes some effort for Father Cayet to prepare homilies
in Spanish for these liturgies. He writes out his homilies
first in English and then, using a bilingual dictionary,
translates them into Spanish. He gives a copy to a Cuban
woman in the parish and she makes corrections. Two per
manent deacons assigned to Holy Cross, Enrique Galvis
and Jose Narvaez, also preach at the Spanish Masses.
Father Cayet’s love for music goes back to his childhood.
The family had an upright piano and he took a few lessons,
but when he didn’t practice the lessons ended. However, he
was a fan of country-western music and by listening to it on
the radio he taught himself the chords through imitation.
“I just developed a love for music,” he said. “Guess I
have a knack for it. I hear the harmony.”
When Father Cayet came to the parish he helped the
adult choir and it has evolved into a folk group of 30 to 35
members. He has composed 12 liturgical pieces, three or
four of which the folk group performs regularly
At weekday Masses, Father Cayet will lead the entrance
and closing hymns, singing and playing with his guitar
slung around his shoulders over his vestments.
His music hasn’t always been religious. Before he
entered the Dominican novitiate he played one summer
with The Sparks, a rock and roll band in New Orleans made
up of college age musicians. He wrote a song, “Merry Mary
Lou.” for the group, which they later recorded under the
Decca label. The recording session was a prize for winning
a local band contest.
The song was picked up by a New York group, according
to Father Cayet, and became popular in the New Orleans
area.
In the late 50s Bill Haley and The Comets also recorded
“Merry Mary Lou.”
In the early 60s. “Hello Mary Lou, Goodbye Heart." first
recorded by Ricky Nelson, hit the charts. Because of its
similarity to “Merry Mary Lou,” Decca sued and won. The
Dominican Fathers now share in the royalties. With its re-
release on an album by the Statler Brothers, Father Cayet
has a published hit. “Hello Mary Lou, Goodbye Heart” won
an award as the best rock and roll piece of its style for 1987.
“I even had to pay income taxes on it last year,” said
Father Cayet, who shares authorship with Gene Pitney.
Father Smith, who has been at Holy Cross for more than
three years, said his fellow Dominican is “easy to live with.
He’s very present and prayerful and generous.”
“More and more he is growing and stretching as a person
and as a priest,” Thea Jarvis commented.
TRA
INEES
Young women stitch
garments at Our
Lady of the Angels
training school. The
course prepares them
for jobs in factories
and small co-ops.