St. Patrick’s Church, New Orleans. Photo Anne O’Connor

New Orleans is a place apart from the dingy cities of the northeast. It’s not just the climate or the raucous street life in the tourist section; something in the built environment is fundamentally different. The architecture is full of flourish and the most iconic building is a Catholic church. Another hint? Governmental areas are organized into parishes, not wards or counties. The city’s origins are based in Catholicism, not the puritanical English Protestants who abhorred the excess they saw in the Catholic religion. Food and luxury-loving Catholic French first colonized the region. Spain, again Catholic, took it over in the mid-1700s and went on a building spree that included the fire-ravaged French Quarter. They also solved the problem of bodies washing away in floods by building above-ground cemeteries. Interestingly, the Cajuns, so much a part of the lore of Louisiana, were relative newcomers. During le Grande Derangement starting in 1755 in maritime Canada, the Catholic French-speakers called Acadians were expelled after refusing to pledge loyalty to Great Britain. Some landed in Louisiana, among other places.