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• Priest prepares for French Mass at Southdown
• Bienvenue, y'all: CMA under way
• Acadians honor enduring culture
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Priest prepares for French Mass at Southdown  By MATT CRAFT, Houma Courier, 7/30/99

Photo: The Rev. Roch Naquin prays during Mass  at a private home in Isle de Jean Charles on  Thursday night. Naquin will be one of two priests  celebrating Mass in French as part of the Congrès  Mondial Acadien festivities. Photo by CINDY SKOP/THE COURIER.

                For the Rev. Roch Naquin, celebrating Mass in French is nothing new. 

                "My mother didn't speak English," said the Catholic priest who lives in 
                Isle de Jean Charles, "so whenever I gave Mass at home I spoke in
                French."

                Naquin plans to do the same Sunday at the French Mass in front of
                the Southdown Plantation House, part of this weekend's Congrès
                Mondial Acadien celebrations in Terrebonne Parish. 

                Mass is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. It is open to the public, and
                organizers are asking everyone to bring their own lawn chairs.
                Breakfast will be sold before and after Mass.

                Although, Naquin admits, the whole sermon is not "completely
                developed yet," the essential theme is how Christianity has helped
                Acadians. 

                "Generally, I'm going to be talking about how God has cared for his
                people as we see from the Scripture," Naquin said. "And I'm relating
                that to how he's cared for his people over time."

                The Acadians may have separated throughout Canada and the
                United States, Naquin said, but during that time God always cared
                for them. 

                Naquin also plans to read a fitting verse he found in Romans, a
                book of the Bible's New Testament - "who can separate us from the
                love of God?"

                Canada's central broadcasting network, the Canadian Broadcasting
                Co., or CBC, will tape the Mass and broadcast it on Aug. 8. The
                CBC plans to call it "Le Jour du Seigneur," or the "Day of the Lord."
                According to Naquin, Radio Canada, which broadcasts around the
                world, will covering the Mass, as well.

                Naquin and Edward Arceneaux, who is a priest from Nova Scotia,
                will preside over Mass together. 

                Naquin, 66, recently retired as pastor of Holy Family Catholic
                Church in Dulac. Among his other pastimes, he gives a Mass for
                the Isle de Jean Charles neighborhood a few times a week and
                works for Native American causes. Although he's both French and
                Native American, Naquin said he doesn't feel he has to choose
                between the two identities. Naquin said he'll be right at home in the
                middle of the Congrès Mondial Acadien festivities. 

                "Very much so," he said. "French is the tongue I grew up speaking.
                I have Indian, but I also have French."

                For those who want to attend the Mass, but either don't speak
                French or are too rusty to follow along, Naquin offered a primer:

                -- If you want to respond to "Le Seigneur soit avec vous" ("God be
                with you"), say "Et avec votre espirit" ("And also with you").

                -- "Lift up your heart" translates to "Elevons notre coeur." The
                response, "We lift them up to the Lord," becomes "Nous le
                tournons vers le Seigneur."

                -- "The word of the Lord" is "Le parole de Seigneur." The return,
                "Thanks be to God," is "Nous rendons gloire à Dieu."

                If all that's too difficult, Naquin said, "amen" works both ways.

                Matt Craft is a staff writer at The Courier. He can be reached at
                850-1149 or by e-mail at hdcnews@nytimes.com.