Leon Cannizzaro Jr., district attorney for Orleans Parish, noted the power of prayer during his first community outreach prayer breakfast, held at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
NEW ORLEANS (BP) – Leon Cannizzaro Jr., district attorney for Orleans Parish, noted the power of prayer during his first community outreach prayer breakfast, held at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
The newly-elected official called together clergy members from across the parish to seek prayer and partnership in his efforts to combat the growing crime problem in New Orleans.
About 125 religious leaders convened to hear from Cannizaro Feb. 12 at the event sponsored by Baptist Community Ministries, a foundation launched in 1995 with proceeds from the sale of Southern Baptist Hospital in the city.
“I want to thank you for your thoughts, for your prayers and your support,” Cannizaro told the ministers. “People have asked me, ‘What can I do to help you?’ My most basic and standard answer has been, ‘Please pray for me.’ I know we are not going to solve our problems in Orleans Parish unless we go to that higher authority.”
Cannizzaro was elected at a low point in public trust in the city’s criminal justice system. He follows an unpopular district attorney who resigned in October 2007 after a tumultuous five-year stint in office. Portions of the city have experienced a dramatic spike in violent crime, especially since Hurricane Katrina.
In January, Cannizzaro’s office received its first high-profile murder case: the armed robbery and shooting death of a French Quarter resident. The crime garnered much attention because the suspects in the case are in their early teens.
“Let’s be very honest. We have a city in crisis,” Cannizzaro said.
Cannizzaro mentioned the deep distrust of the entire criminal justice system among many of the city’s residents, noting that the prosecution of violent crimes often is short-circuited by the reluctance of witnesses to testify. Victims and witnesses often fear retribution, and some even fear the police.
Religious leaders could help encourage witnesses to participate in the justice process, he said.
“I’m going to ask you to go into your congregations and go into your communities, and I’m going to ask you to encourage people that see things to get involved,” he said. “We want to make a difference with regards to the violent criminal conduct that is going on.”
Cannizzaro also pledged his support for the many mentoring and crime prevention programs sponsored by area houses of worship. One of his goals is to keep low-level offenders from becoming career criminals. He closed the two-hour meeting with a question-and-answer session.
Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Seminary, voicing appreciation for Cannizzaro’s initiative, told Baptist Press, “Problems as complex as crime in New Orleans will not be resolved without the deployment of both public and private resources at the neighborhood level.”
Kelley said New Orleans churches “have been the backbone of neighborhood physical recovery [following Katrina]. They must also play an active role in the moral recovery we so desperately need,” he said.
As President Barack Obama took the oath of office, students, faculty and staff at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary gathered around the altar during the first chapel service of the new semester and prayed for the nation and its 44th president.
Chuck Kelley, the seminary’s president, asked the campus community to pray that God’s wisdom would be made known to the nation’s new leaders.
“We celebrate the fact, Father, that an African American man was able to be elected president of this nation, a nation that has stood in the world proclaiming its openness to people of all races and all backgrounds and all creeds,” Kelley prayed. “And we thank You, Father, that that has been demonstrated for the first time in the life of this nation with the election of an African American to the office of president of the United States.”
Kelley also acknowledged the need for repentance for the nation’s many sins and pleaded for God’s mercy.
“The list of our sins is great and far too long,” Kelley said. “The list of our iniquity is shameful as we look at … our moral behavior as a nation, the lack of justice for people within this nation, and the problems that we have accepted and tolerated and simply looked at as just part of the landscape.
“There are so many ways that we as a nation have disappointed You … and have not been emblematic … of You as a God of righteousness and a God of holiness, a God of justice and a God of love,” Kelley added.
“We pray for the leadership of Barack Obama, and we ask, Father, that You would give him supernatural wisdom and direction and that You would turn his heart and his head in the right direction, that he might be the kind of leader who would embody the things that You hold dear and precious.”
Kelley prayed for the president’s safety and decision-making and that his family would be nurtured. He also prayed for the national character.