A bishop from Basile

The selection of a native of the small town of Basile as the next bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette is not as unprecedented as you might think. The first bishop of the diocese called south Louisiana home and there is a rich history of native priests rising to the episcopacy and serving in other dioceses.
Church officials have announced that John Douglas Deshotel, the third of the eight children of Welfoot and Luna Deshotel of Basile, will take office as the seventh bishop of the Lafayette diocese later this year. Deshotel was ordained to the priesthood in 1978 and was made auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Dallas in 2010. He succeeds Michael Jarrell, an Opelousas native, who became the second bishop of the Houma-Thibodaux diocese in 1993 and came to Lafayette in 2002.
Jules Jeanmard, the first Bishop of Lafayette was a native of Breaux Bridge and was serving as chancellor and administrator of the Archdiocese of New Orleans when, much to his surprise, he was named its first bishop when the Lafayette diocese was created in 1918.
The next two Lafayette bishops also had Louisiana roots. Maurice Schexnayder, who succeeded Jeanmard, was a native of the Mississippi River community of Wallace, and the third Lafayette bishop, Gerard Frey, was reared in New Orleans.
As for other native sons, Warren Boudreaux, whom Jarrell succeeded as bishop of Houma-Thibodaux, came from Berwick. He was made bishop of the Beaumont diocese in 1971 and moved back to south Louisiana in 1977. Jude Speyrer, who grew up in Leonville, served as chancellor of the Diocese of Lafayette before he was named the first bishop of Lake Charles in 1980.
And, given the large numbers of Black Catholics in south Louisiana, it is not surprising that the area has produced six native born African American bishops.
I’m not sure if it is still true, but for many years the Diocese of Lafayette ranked first in the per capita number of Black Catholics in the nation and Holy Ghost Parish in Opelousas was the nation’s largest predominantly Black Catholic congregation.
Harold Perry, a Lake Charles native, was appointed auxiliary bishop of New Orleans in 1966, becoming the first Black bishop appointed in the United States in the 20th century. He died in 1991, serving more than 20 years in New Orleans.
Joseph Francis of Lafayette was auxiliary bishop of Newark, N.J., from 1976 to 1995. He was the brother of Norman Francis, who was president of Xavier University in New Orleans from 1968 to 2015.
Eunice native Raymond Caesar traveled farthest to find his episcopal chair. He went to New Guinea as a missionary in 1963 and became bishop of the Diocese of Papua in 1980, serving until his death in 1988.
Curtis Guillory of the St. Landry community of Mallet was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Galveston-Houston diocese in 1988 and became the first African American bishop of the Beaumont diocese in 2000.
Another Lake Charles native, Leonard Olivier, was made auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., in 1988, and served in the nation’s capital until his death in 2014.
And Dominic Carmon, a native of the Opelousas area, was auxiliary bishop in New Orleans from 1993 to 2006.
When Deshotel’s appointment was announced, he said he was happy to be returning “to the very rich Catholic culture of south Louisiana.” As the list of native bishops will attest, it is a culture also rich in its diversity.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.