About Our Parish

OUR PASTOR:

Reverend V. Wayne LeBleu

Fr. Wayne LeBleu, ordained to the Presbyterate on June 3, 1995. He had six moves in eight years of Priesthood after serving as Associate Pastor at St. Theodores in Moss Bluff and Our Lady Queen of Heaven in Lake Charles. As his first pastorate, he served at St. John Vianney in Bell City, LA for less than two years before being named as Administrator and later pastor of Immaculate Conception, Jennings. He had been asked to be pastor of one of the newly established Parishes: Christ the King in Lake Charles. Fr. Wayne joined the Knights of Columbus in 1986 and became a 4th degree member in 1996. He is also the Diocesan Director for the Propagation of the Faith, Holy Childhood Association and Catholic Relief Services. He serves on the Presbyteral Council for the Diocese, Board of Directors for Abraham’s Tent, and Core for Youth Ministry for the Diocese. Fr. Wayne has participated in many mission projects and experiences including Embajadores de Cristo’ (Ambassadors of Christ); a missionary experience for young adults in the diocese where they live, work and pray with the Mayan people of the Yucatan in Mexico. In January 2000, he led a group of adults to the Yucatan town of Sotuta for the first adult group that the Diocese sponsored. On September 27, 2002 Bishop Braxton announced the establishment of one of two new Parishes. Fr. Wayne LeBleu was asked to be founding pastor of Christ the King Parish. This was not unknown territory to Fr. LeBleu since it was the area where he was raised. At that time he has led the community at Christ the King to grow to over 400 families in the first two years of its existence. Ministries and organizations for the Parish continue to grow. He has been very blessed to begin this venture in his Ministerial life. After a Sabbatical year in 2013, Fr. LeBleu became Pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Lake Charles in 2014 where he presently serves. He loves celebrating the sacraments and especially getting to know those he serves. He introduces the ACTS Mission Retreats to his parish being the first African-American Catholic Parish to host this Retreat in the country. He enjoys cooking, being with friends and working with his hands with woodwork and growing plants and vegetables in his garden. On Sunday, May 31^st 2020 he celebrate his 25^th anniversary of Ordination to the Presbyterate with a drive through parade due to COVID at Immaculate Heart of Mary. Following Hurricanes Laura and Delta, with volunteers from across the State helped to clean up and provide supplies and food for parishioners in and around IHM Parish. He has been appointed by The Most Reverend Bishop Glen John Provost to serve here at St. Joseph Catholic Church as of July 1, 2022.

St. Joseph Parish Trustees

John Burch ~ Rane Sills

St. Joseph Finance Committee

Paul Roussel, Linda Cryer, Bill Frost, David Lestage, Butch Scarbrough, Robie Touchette

St. Joseph Pastoral Council

Sandy Kyle, Bea Fontenot, Matt Lee, Suzanne Lestage, Tim Kyle

Pastors Serving St Joseph

1938-Present

1938 Rev. James Shahrigian, M.S.
1941 Rev. George Hoylen, M.S.
1943 Rev. Bernard Really, M.S.
1944 Rev. Leo Marsh, M.S.
1946 Rev. Thomas Rush, M.S.
1947 Rev. Eugene Lynch, M.S.
1949 Rev. James Shahrigian, M.S.
1960 Rev. William P. Hanafin, M.S.
1969 Rev. Alverez Gilbert, M.S.
1972 Rev. Robert Chagnon, M.S.
1978 Rev. Henry Durand, M.S.
1985 Rev. Egidio Vecchio, M.S.
1987 Rev. Roland Bernier, M.S.
2000 Rev. Daniel A. Torres
2007 Rev. Kingsley Nonis
2008 Rev. Jude P. Brunnert, M.S.
2022 Rev. V. Wayne LeBleu

Humble Beginnings

St Joseph Parish is the Northernmost parish in the Diocese of Lake Charles. About 645 families are incorporated into the canonical parish and are ministered to by Rev. Jude Brunnert, M.S.

The fact of geography has meant that St Joseph Parish, throughout it 75 year history, has been on the periphery of the state's Catholic centers.

Protestant families from the southeast first settled the northern part of the Imperial Calcasieu. It was not until the development of the timber industry that a Catholic Population arrived. These were Italian, Lebanese, Albanian and Syrian immigrants, who were brought in or who came on their own, to work in the many sawmills located around DeRidder at the turn of the 20th century. Since the nearest priests were in Lake Charles or Alexandria, these Catholic families, following their age-old practices, would gather in different homes on Sunday to pray the Rosary and read the Catechism.

The first priest to visit came by horseback or buggy, usually arriving in the evening, and staying overnight in one of the homes of the families they were ministering to. They celebrated Mass in one of the homes the next morning, and then spent the remainder of the day baptizing infants, validating marriages, and administering the other sacraments as needed.

The Rev. Hubert Cramers, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Lake Charles, was one of those who made periodic trips to DeRidder. It was through his influence that the Rev. Vincent Ciolino was sent by the Archdiocese of New Orleans for the spiritual care of Italian and Albanian Catholics, while a Father Joseph (other name uncertain) who was visiting from Lebanono, agreed to assist with the Lebanese and Syrian Catholics.

In 1917 the famous Chapel Car visited DeRidder. This was a Pullman sleeper car, furnished by the Catholic Church Extension Society, in which the seats or beds had been removed and replaced by pews. One sleeping compartment was reserved for a priest, who usually travelled with the car. The railroad, for a nominal fee, would attach the car to a regular train and take it to some distant place and leave it on a side rail for a few days or weeks. There it would serve as a rectory and a church until it was time to move it to another location.

The visit of the Chapel Car persuaded some of the community leaders to begin a building fund. A plot of land on South Royal Street was purchased, but this was traded for land on North Pine Street. In 1922 a chapel was constructed with funds provided by the building committee and the Extension Society. The first Mass was celebrated on June 13, 1922. The chapel was heated by a large pot-bellied stove, and cooled in the summer by four overhead fans purchased from Ideal Drug Store. In November of 1926 the Most Reverend Jules B. Jeanmard, Bishop of Lafayette, visited DeRidder, dedicating the chapel and conferring the Sacarament of Confirmation. He placed the chapel under the protection of St. Joseph.

Growing Through Change

A Ladies Altar Society as organized, and the ladies began to prepare for the day when DeRidder would have a resident priest. By begging donations, holding many pie and cake sales, they bought a small house on a lot contiguous to the chapel and were able to pay for it. This was to be the rectory, if, and when, they had a priest.

On June 13, 1938, their hopes were realized when Bishop Jeanmard established St. Joseph of DeRidder as a canonical parish and entrusted it the the care of the Missionaries of LaSalette. The Rev. James J. Shahrigian, M.S., was the founding pastor and in July of 1938 took up residence in the rectory the Altar Society had prepared for him.

Thereafter progress was swift. In 1948 a six acre plot was purchased on Merryville Highway, west of DeRidder, for a future school. Later, however, the Most Rev Maureice Scheznayder, who had succeeded Bishop Jeanmard in Lafayette, suggested that the site and funds collected for a school be used for a new church building and rectory. The new rectory was completed in 1957, and construction on the present church was begun in 1966.