‘Bless more area in a shorter amount of time’: Church uses crop duster to sprinkle town with holy water

A church in Louisiana used a crop duster to bless the town of Cow Island with 100 gallons of holy water ahead of the Christmas holiday. On Saturday, parishioners of St. Anne Church in Cow Island, Louisiana, headed to the local airstrip to fill a small plane with holy water that would rain down as a blessing to those in the community. Reverend Matthew Barzare told NPR it was the most economical way to bless the most people, saying, “We can bless more area in a shorter amount of time.” Barzare admitted that the crop duster was the most water he had blessed, adding, “I've blessed some buckets for people and such, but never that much water.” The reverend noted that the mass blessing caught a lot of attention. He explained, '"They heard the plane coming first, and so they had enough time to step out of their house and see it spraying.”'

Barzare said that the idea of using a crop duster to bless the whole area was first raised by one of his parishioners. He brushed off the idea at first, but it grew on him over time. He decided to wait until winter rolled around so that those in the community would know the plane was not dropping pesticides because it was outside of the growing season. "Most parishes have a central location, but my area that I have to cover is a good 30 minutes to the next church, and so by plane, we realized, it might be the easiest way to sprinkle people's fields, rather than me going in a car to different locations," Barzare said, adding, “It does have a history for us in our Catholic faith, that the priests would bless the fields, and of course the community, around certain times of the year, especially harvest times. We call them ember days."

The event was a hit among the churchgoers, and Barzare noted that he plans to make it an annual occurrence. He also plans to expand the blessings by filling the crop duster to its maximum capacity: 300 gallons. Cow Island, which is not actually an island, got its name for being an elevated area that tends to stay above the flood lines when Louisiana faces hurricanes. Barzare noted that he hopes the use of crop dusters for mass blessings will become a trend in other areas outside of Cow Island. "Other places saw the headline, and they are already trying to plan to do something, as well," he said.

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