New Orleans Catholic Archbishop Gregory Aymond used Sunday mass to reassure residents questioning why god would send another destructive hurricane to Southeast Louisiana.
"God does not have this Heavenly weather station where he sits... in heaven and says, 'This one will be named Ida, and it is for Louisiana,' and he presses a button and there it goes."
Aymond says God does show compassion and Jesus suffers with others.
"God allows the forces of nature to take their course," he stressed. "God does not send storms."
The Archbishop says the Lord has heard everything hurricane victims have said.
"It is through our suffering that we experience God's care and he calls us to be the person he has mastered us to be."
Aymond says some are angry or feel hopeless with the reopening of the wounds that Katrina caused.
"Where was Jesus in the storm?" he says people may ask. "The Lord Jesus didn't abandon us."
The Archbishop says Jesus was with the people in the flood waters, trapped in the attics, in evacuation shelters and otherwise suffering through the storm.
Watch Sunday's mass:
