Is there a still catholic culture left in Louisiana? If so where???? Is it worth visiting/moving to??
Well, only if you look for it in hidden places. It is mostly maintained by the old-timers; the younger generations (and I include Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers here) are the products of mass culture. In the country here, there are still many streets and roads occupied by one giant extended family that keeps its ancestral land. There are a few traiteurs* still around, too, but as far as I can tell they are Novus-Ordoised and I wouldn't be surprised if they were influenced by charismaticism; the old traiteurs before the Council would have been completely different, that's for sure. As for Traditional Catholics, there are only a few home-schooling families and some elderly folk, not to mention myself; at least, that is the case as far as sedevacantists go. There is an SSPX chapel in Baton Rouge that is attended mostly by Cadiens who drive in every weekend.
The great benefit of Louisiana, however, is that all of the resources for an integral Catholic folk culture are here. All of the institutions are well-docuмented, all of the terminology, the language, etc. There are many non-profit groups and researchers from LSU and UL in Lafayette who are devoted to preserving the old knowledge. There are also many farmers and gardeners, etc. If somebody were to come down here and was willing to become Acadianised, he could likely find a wife and raise his family without many difficulties in a real, mediaeval Catholic way. In the US, on the other hand (by which I mean all places that are predominately Anglo-American instead of French, Indian, or Mexican), none of that framework exists. Besides, there are two growing seasons, a very low cost of living, warm weather, and the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest extant wetlands in North America, so self-sufficiency is not quite as ambitious a goal down here are it would be in other places.
Many people over in the bayou, over in Saint Martin Parish, will go out for three or four days a week and check their traps, hunt, or fish, bringing some of their excess to meat-producers for cash. They keep hogs and a few cows, some chickens, ducks, and geese, and grow a lot of their own food, being able to make a pretty nice quiet life for themselves. If not for industrialisation and the competition that comes with it, many more people would be able to do this and survive completely off the land this way, as we used to do in the old days. But, it just goes to show, that most of the best remnants of Acadien culture are obscure and not in the public eye (well, before the TV show Swamp People came out on National Geographic). A lot of those people over in Saint Martin Parish, a little north in the rolling hills, and west on the prairies still have the privilege of speaking French at home, too. If you count the blacks, which lower the average, I would say that in those parishes (counties, as they are known elsewhere) about 25-40% still speak French at home. For instance, at the library, a man walked right behind me just now speaking our dialect of French on his cell phone. Anyway, I personally believe that down here is the place to be for those who want to rebuild; it has a shorter distance to go to health.
So, I am optimistic about the renewal of the Acadien people, since we have held on for almost 400 years. But the past one hundred fifty years have been a relentless onslaught of persecution from the Anglo-American government. That being said, the people down here are not very metropolitan in their manners and are pretty simple and good-hearted in general. If a chastisement and a new influx of francophone immigrants were to come, we would have everything necessary to hop back on the thin and narrow path very quickly -- and we would be able to make a good time of it, too. Now, the importation of more of the culture of les Americains would not help. Anybody who comes down here or is from here who wants to do the work of restoring the Kingship of Our Lord needs to embrace the local culture; at least, that is my firm belief, but Cadiens are known for hospitality, so nobody should be scared of making a move or going to the sedevacantist chapel here. After all, the US government and Louisiana state government have been so effective, that hardly any of us know how to speak French anyway. But our culture is bound up in our language, and unless we restore its knowledge and use, our culture will go extinct with it, and we will have the same lot as les Americains.
As a side not, in case Graham reads this thread, perhaps this could give a bit of insight into my relentless hostility to "everything Anglo," since, as far as I am concerned, we are currently under siege from those who would destroy us. I try not to preach or become overly polemical, though.
*A traiteur is an old medicinal healer, who prescribes herbal remedies, sets broken bones, and uses a generous amount of novenas, invocations of patron saints, and Rosaries; this derives from our old isolation -- that is, from necessity, -- as well as being an institution inherited from mediaeval France and, further, from the old Gallo-Romans. It has been influenced by the knowledge of the Indian tribes down here and in old Acadie, which is now divided between Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, the Gaspe Peninusla, etc.
Topic: culture of the US South (Read 2138 times)