School holds Halloween party to prove it isn?t haunted
By AARON NELSEN
The Brownsville Herald
November 1, 2006 ? When the Rev. Michael Amesse picked up The Brownsville Herald a few weeks ago, an article about paranormal investigators angered him.
The ghost hunters claimed the Immaculate Conception School was one of the most haunted places in Brownsville.
Students, seemingly unconcerned about any possible ghosts, dressed as saints and angels during a Halloween party at the school Tuesday night.
?We?ve gotten a lot of positive responses to the Halloween party,? Amesse said.
After the ghost story, the priest wrote a letter to the editor to help put out the fire it had created and to dispel any notion that ghosts were haunting the school.
?This is a threat to our young who attend religious education classes on Sunday morning,? Amesse wrote in the letter.
Indeed, Amesse received many parishioners? concerns over the subject and that something more needed to be done.
With Halloween on the horizon and All Saints? Day to follow, Carmen Lopez, a teacher at the Immaculate Conception School, offered an idea to the reeling clergy.
The church would show the tour group that nothing haunted the school and prove it by throwing a Halloween celebration with a religious bent.
?I said ?Why don?t we do an alternative to Halloween and get the kids involved in our religion a little bit more??? Lopez said.
On Halloween night in the gymnasium of the Immaculate Conception School, a group of mostly parents and a few children in costume showed up.
The crowd was first treated to a short play of Saint Michel, the archangel, defeating the devil as he tried leading a young girl away from the church.
Later, the group took part in games, including bobbing for apples, and a costume contest.
Amesse maintains that the church is not on a crusade against the ghost hunters, though he refers to them as frauds. He claims that he wants Brownsville to know that the church and the school are forces of goodness in Brownsville.
?One person did say that maybe we should lighten up, but we feel that this is important,? he said.
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