The powerful story of Hurricane Katrina and Touchdown Jesus

Aimee Boudreaux MacIver
Aug 24
4 min read

Touchdown Jesus: A New Orleans icon

Every visitor to New Orleans already has St Louis Cathedral on the itinerary. It’s the oldest continuously operating cathedral in the United States, has hosted kings and saints, and holds unique historic significance in the American Catholic Church, including direct family connections to Pope Leo XIV.

Related: A one-day pilgrimage itinerary to St Louis Cathedral

Yet many visitors never circle behind the cathedral where a lush garden holds one of the city’s most beloved treasures: a marble statue of Jesus’ Sacred Heart. For as long as my family has been here (paleolithic era, maybe?), locals have called the statue “Touchdown Jesus.” That’s because against the nighttime lights of the French Quarter, His outstretched arms throw shadows that look like a ref signaling six points.

The statue came originally as a gift from the Merilh family in 1926. But on August 29, 2005, Touchdown Jesus became a visible sign of a God who never denies our agony even as He administers healing.

Related: A Catholic New Orleans bucket list

Hurrican Katrina, broken hearts, broken fingers

That day, Hurricane Katrina exploded across the city with death and destruction. Even twenty years later, the scars remain tender. My daughter, who did not witness the storm but has witnessed us recount countless tear-streaked stories about it, once called Katrina “the storm when everyone lost everything.”

Not just a house or the stuff inside. Everything. The streets we walked. The regular routes home. The favorite neighborhood with brightly colored shotguns. The dive bars where we grabbed a bite with friends. The churches where we prayed. The balconies where we kissed. The way someone we loved used to be there, and then was never there again.

Touchdown Jesus emerged from Hurricane Katrina surrounded by broken oaks, but upright and mostly intact—except for His fingers. As wind ripped limbs from the trees, three fingers of His outstretched left hand broke off. Together with a heartbroken city, Jesus stood wounded amid loss that seemed like it could never be healed.

Then Archbishop Alfred Hughes made a promise: the statue would not be repaired until New Orleans herself was rebuilt. Touchdown Jesus would stand over the broken city sharing her wounds as His own. In his homily at the first post-Katrina homecoming Mass at the cathedral, Archbishop Hughes said: “Those lost fingers could remind us to turn to the Lord in a time of need. And those lost fingers can remind us that we must supply our fingers for his fingers in order to rebuild.”

"Do not lose hope"

One year passed, then two, five, ten. First the toxic floodwaters drained away, then the people started digging out from the sludge. Funerals and weddings took place in dark, hot churches. Entire neighborhoods were razed into enormous debris piles. Then the lights came back on. Grass began to grow again. People built new houses. Through it all for a decade, Touchdown Jesus held His wounds openly and visibly, so the rest of us didn’t have to rush or pretend about our own.

In 2015, Archbishop Gregory Aymond announced that Touchdown Jesus’ hand would be repaired as a symbol of gratitude for all that had been healed and a sign of hope for everything that remained to be done. In his homily at the statue’s blessing, he said: “We are replacing those fingers and blessing the statue because it is a sign of our hands and the hands of so many people—literally thousands of people—who have come to rebuild the city and to touch the hearts and the lives of those who have broken hearts and broken dreams. Why would we restore the hand of Jesus? What would it say to them? It would say that the Lord Jesus has not forgotten you, the Lord Jesus has not abandoned you, and he will continue to use the hands and the hearts of others to continue your journey of rebuilding, your journey of faith. So that hand of Jesus would say to you, who are not completed in the rebuilding: Do not lose hope.”

Love that never goes dark

Touchdown Jesus remains a sign of hope, not only from the storms hurled by nature but also by life itself. If you walk all the way down Bourbon Street, past the neon and fluorescent cocktails (and a lot of other stuff y’all can imagine), you’ll come upon the dark, quiet garden behind the cathedral. Jesus’ outstretched arms are not far from the places where humans fall their lowest and hardest. He’s still right there, not scowling or shaming or punishing, but present and reaching for us just as we are.

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