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Bishop Duca addresses the Faithful of the Diocese of Baton Rouge about the reception of Holy Communion from the Chalice.

Bishop Duca to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation to adults in the Diocese of Baton Rouge who have not yet been confirmed and are properly prepared.  The celebration will be on the Solemnity of Pentecost, Sunday, June 5, 2022, 10:30AM Mass at St. Joseph Cathedral in Baton Rouge.

Given declining infection rates not only in the Greater Baton Rouge Area but throughout Louisiana, I am now modifying several of our practices based upon medical advice, wisdom, and recommendations from state leaders.  

Bishop Duca has officially announced the end of the dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass (on Sundays and holy days of obligation, or their vigils) for all without a sufficient reason effective June 6, 2021. The bishop also notes that masks are no longer required in church although we should be respectful of those who wish to continue to be cautious.

On April 22 Gov. John Bel Edwards presented new guidance concerning our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and these guidelines allow us the opportunity to begin opening our churches to full capacity again.  In considering these new guidelines, I want us to be aware that COVID is still spreading, even if at low and stable levels, and this should be a part of our consideration.  To pretend that the danger is completely over could sabotage all the efforts and progress we have made up to this point. Yet with this caution acknowledged, I want to offer for the first time since this pandemic began a more proactive process to bring us all back together in our churches again.

We need the power of Christ’s resurrection to lift us out of our sadness and grief.  This hope is not a panacea that will protect us from the hard work before us to heal, restore and inspire our broken world.  But it is a hope that will sustain our mission in difficult times because our hope is in Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead who is greater than any difficulties we may face.  

Weddings will now be allowed to be celebrated on Saturday evenings in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, effective upon the decree’s publication in The Catholic Commentator. 

Bishop Michael Duca has issued the Clergy and Faithful of the Diocese of Baton Rouge additional guidance as the state enters Phase III of its response to the COVID-19.

Bishop Michael G. Duca of the Diocese of Baton Rouge issued the following statement on the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

The penitential character of what we observe as church during the Lenten season has surely been magnified during the past year! Beginning in March 2020, Lent was quickly interrupted by a total lockdown.

The Southern Dominican Province announced their intent to withdraw from Holy Ghost Parish in Hammond and St. Albert the Great Catholic Student Center at Southeastern Louisiana University in 2022.

Bishop Michel G. Duca on Jan. 5 announced that the number of deaneries in the Diocese of Baton Rouge was being reduced from six to five. On Jan. 29, Bishop Duca announced the new deans: Father Michael Alello, Dean of the Baton Rouge Deanery; Father Matt Dupre Dean of the South Deanery; Father Reuben Dykes, Dean of the Northeast Deanery; Father Eric Gyan, Dean of the East Central Deanery; and Father Todd Lloyd, Dean of the Northwest Deanery.

Bishop Duca has released a letter with a renewed call to observe safe procedures in this time of pandemic. It will be presented at all Masses the weekend of the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time.

On 05 January 2021, Bishop Duca issued a decree establishing new deaneries in the Diocese of Baton Rouge. The last organization of the deaneries was decreed by Bishop Ott in 1985.