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Bishop Duca makes the following Personnel Appointments effective 13 February 2023.

The upcoming annual Continuing Formation Days for our priests are scheduled for February 6-9, 2023. Due to the location of the retreat, weekday and funeral masses for your parish might be impacted or adjusted. Please pray for our priests and their on-going formation.

Congratulations to Bishop Mario Dorsonville on his appointment as Bishop of Houma-Thibodaux.  He will find in the Diocese a rich deposit of the Catholic faith, a people united by a strong sense of family and community, a vibrant and diverse culture, and exquisite cuisine! I know the faithful of Houma-Thibodaux will embrace their new shepherd as quickly as he is certain to embrace them.

In a homily, Father Karl Rahner SJ once commented that in the beatitudes in St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus makes a rather stunning statement. He says, “Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you shall laugh.”

The Eucharist is the sacred meal that Jesus wished to share with his disciples the night before he died.  He charged them to celebrate this Eucharistic meal and sacrifice in the future “in remembrance of him.”

The Eucharist and teaching the true meaning of the body and blood of Christ will be the mission of the Men of the Immaculata Conference for the next three years.

On Jan. 8, we celebrated The Epiphany of the Lord.  In the Gospel for that day, St. Matthew tells us that Magi from the east visited Jesus after his birth.  Who were these “Magi” and how did they know about Jesus?

When Kathleen Lee Higgins, the new director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, has faced major decisions in her faith journey and professional life, she said God guided her along the way with the prompting, “Now is the time.”

Father Josh Johnson, pastor at Sacred Heart  Church in Baton Rouge, said he has seen progress in terms of Catholics being willing to listen to the experiences of those who have experienced racism and an openness among many Catholics to acknowledge racism as a sin and as a continued problem in U.S. society.

We continue the celebration of Ordinary Time as we gather on the Fourth and Fifth Sundays of this season.

Leading schools in the Diocese of Baton Rouge and the nation into Catholic Schools Week on Jan. 29 – Feb. 4 is St. Thomas Aquinas, the “intellectual and prayerful “giant” of the Catholic Church, whose feast day is Jan. 28.

The words from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of his “I have a dream” speech echoed through the generations at St. Gerard Majella Church in Baton Rouge on Jan. 16, the national holiday dedicated to honor King.

There are signs of liturgical life returning back to its pre-COVID-19 form in the Diocese of Baton Rouge as church parishes and their congregations proceed as they are ready to do so since the lifting of the restriction of the distribution of the precious blood of Christ from the chalice.

After centuries of connectedness to each other and the needs of those they serve, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart and the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Baton Rouge LA have agreed to share community and residential space.

Since June 2022, the demand for reliable care and easily accessible resources has never been stronger, and the Diocese of Baton Rouge has set out to expand ministries and social services for an even greater population of women in unplanned pregnancies who may need accompaniment and encouragement.  

The Knights of Columbus Bishop Stanley J. Ott Assembly 2441 at St. Joseph Cathedral in Baton Rouge presented awards to its Patriotic Essay Contest for Catholic Schools students. There were 85 students who participated and their essays went through three rigorous grounds of grading. This year’s theme was “What does the Idea of Our Nation’s Citizen’s Right to Vote Mean to Me?” Participating in the presentation of the awards are back row, from left, KC member Jon Reise, Father Tat Hoang, pastor of St. Gerard Church in Baton Rouge, Paulette Hamilton, social studies teacher and KC member Tommy Murphy.  Students receiving awards were, in no order, Lidia Alvarez, Steven Canales, Alexeya Castillo, Amarya Davis, Mia King, Mahogany Lemora and Karlee Atkins. Photo provided by Jon Reise