A modern parable: the woman from Watts and her wedding ring

‘This was all she had, and she gave it with all her heart.’

Msgr. Douglas Doussan, pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Church in New Orleans, holds up a wedding ring that was left in a donor envelope at St. Lawrence of Brindisi Church in the Watts section of Los Angeles. CNS photo

BATON ROUGE, La.
By Peter Finney Jr.
The second collection taken up at St. Lawrence of Brindisi Church in the Watts section of Los Angeles, earmarked for Hurricane Katrina victims, was not much different from the thousands of other collections at Catholic churches across the country.

St. Lawrence is an inner-city church of 3,000 families, about 80 percent Hispanic and 20 percent African-American. They are people of "very modest means," said Capuchin Franciscan Father Peter Banks, St. Lawrence pastor.

The normal parish collection is about $6,000, but on this weekend, the second collection amounted to $7,000 -- plus one stunning gift left by an anonymous donor: a woman's wedding ring that eventually was sent by Father Banks to a New Orleans church that was hit by floodwater 8 feet deep after Katrina.

When the money-counting team came to Father Banks on the Monday following the weekend Masses, they showed him a church donation envelope with a message hand-printed in Spanish: "Para las v­ctimas del huracan, no traia dinero pero esto debe de tener algun valor. Es de todo corazon." ("For the victims of the hurricane. I did not bring any money. But this should be of some value. It is with all of my heart.")

When Father Banks opened the envelope, he saw a gold wedding ring with small notches on the outside.

"It just touched my heart," said Father Banks. "My immediate reaction was, what incredible kindness and charity this woman had. This woman had nothing and she reached down on her hand and took off her ring. ... This was all she had, and she gave it with all her heart."

For several days, Father Banks carried the ring with him in his shirt pocket -- close to his heart -- to remind him of the woman's generosity. But he knew the ring and its story had to be shared.

"I didn't want to part with it, but it was not mine -- it belonged to New Orleans," Father Banks said.

The following weekend the priest shared the astonishing story with his parishioners, many of whom have Louisiana relatives.

"I wanted people to know what happened," Father Banks said. "Watts has this bad image of violence, but Watts is full of goodness. There are saints living within our midst. Our parishioners do relate to tragedy and suffering."

An anonymous donor inserted her wedding ring into this church envelope at St. Lawrence of Brindisi Church in the Watts section of Los Angeles for the victims of the hurricane in New Orleans. CNS photo

Father Banks then began searching on the Internet for a parish in the Archdiocese of New Orleans that might need direct help recovering from the devastating storm. He came across Msgr. Douglas Doussan's name and made contact with the pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Church in Pontchartrain Park. The church had been flooded by water 8 feet deep.
Msgr. Doussan said he was flabbergasted by the story.

"It's incredible that people are willing to make such a sacrifice to help those who are traumatized," he said. "She obviously was not giving out of her surplus but out of her want."
The story of the Hispanic woman from Watts and her wedding ring will be fresh in everyone's mind.

"It is very humbling to realize I am living among the poorest of the poor, but they are the wealthiest in so many ways," Father Banks said.

Catholic News Service