USCCB Unanimously Votes to Support the Advancement of the Cause of the Shreveport Martyrs

Chieko Noguchi

At Their Annual Spring Plenary

ASSEMBLY, the bishops of the United States held a canonical consultation on the cause of beatification and canonization of the Servants of God Jean Pierre, Isidore Quémerais, Jean Marie Biler, Louis Gergaud, and François LeVézouët, five French-born priests who came to Louisiana during the yellow fever epidemic of 1873. They served in the area in what is today the Diocese of Shreveport. The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which oversees the steps and process for canonization, granted that the five causes be considered together as one cause; the priests are referred to locally in the diocese as the “Shreveport Martyrs.”

Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, and Bishop Francis I. Malone of Shreveport, facilitated the discussion by the bishops. By a voice vote on June 15, the bishops affirmed their support for the advancement of the cause of beatification and canonization on the diocesan level.

The five French-born priests left their homeland to minister to the people in what was then a newly erected diocese which was in the frontier wilderness of northern Louisiana. As yellow fever hit the community in 1873, they ministered to the locals, assisted at the bedsides of the sick, and anointed the dying. A New Orleans newspaper described the outbreak in Shreveport as “fourfold worse” than anything seen in decades, yet the five priests chose to remain in the community and continue to serve despite the dire conditions, and each succumbed to yellow fever.

In his request to open the diocesan phase of investigation into the lives of the five priests, Bishop Malone cited the benefit to the faithful that the lives and virtues of the priests have to the Church in the United States in light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

August 21

10:00 a.m. Press Conference Spring Street Museum: First Yellow Fever Deaths

August 21 - November 18

Shreveport Yellow Fever Exhibit - LSUS Spring Street Museum

Special Curriculum Available for School Groups

September 15: Father Isidore Quémerais

5:30 p.m. Mass at Calvary Mound, St. Joseph Cemetery

September 16: Father Jean Pierre

4:00 p.m. Mass at Holy Trinity Church

5:00 p.m. Holy Trinity Symphony by Johnum Palado

All-night Vigil at Shrine

September 26: Father Jean-Marie Biler & Daughters of the Cross

12:00 p.m. Mass at Holy Trinity Church

October 1 : Father Louis Gergaud

10:30 a.m. Mass at St. Matthew's Church - Monroe

1:00 p.m. Gathering at St. Matthew's Cemetery

October 7: Shreveport Remembers

9:00 a.m. Public Symposium at LSU Shreveport

1:00 p.m. Dedication of Memorial Monument at Oakland Cemetery

October 8 : Father Francois Le Vézouët

10:30 a.m. Mass at Holy Trinity Church

12:00 Prayer Gathering St. Joseph Cemetery - Reception Following

5:00 p.m. The Angels Gathered Symphony by Kermit Poling - Holy Trinity Church

November 12: Commemorative Tours

National Tour Association: Yellow Fever Shreveport Public Tours

November 19: Marking the End of the Epidemic

6:00 p.m. "The Merciful Frost" Celebratory Dinner: The Noble Savage

Downtown Development Authority

“MY NAME IS AUSTIN. ACTUALLY, MY NAME IS JOHN AUSTIN YOUNG, BUT I GO BY AUSTIN.” This was how our conversation started when Austin was asked how he would introduce himself to the Diocese of Shreveport. If you attended Fr. Kelby and Fr. Gabriel’s ordination you may have noticed a new face among the young men serving at the altar, Austin Young, the newest diocesan seminarian. The Catholic Connection recently had the opportunity to meet Austin and get to know him a little better! We hope you’ll join us in welcoming him to our diocese with open arms.

CATHOLIC CONNECTION: Welcome! Please introduce yourself to our diocese.

AUSTIN YOUNG: Hey, my name is Austin. Actually, my name is John Austin Young, but I go by Austin. My family lives in St. Francisville, Louisiana. I graduated from Louisiana Tech in 2014 with a degree in Industrial Engineering. I like to spend time with friends. I love going on long walks and I love praying. I like to talk and spend time with God. I love fishing, maybe God will help me out and make me a fisher of men.

CC: Can you share your discernment journey so far?

AY: So, it starts when I was about eight years old. To get us out of my mom’s hair she would send us to the backyard to look for fossils in the gravel. So, I did, and it was peaceful. One day she came back there and said, “you should pray, why don’t you just pray?” I wasn’t sure how to pray so she said, “just talk to God like you’re talking to a friend.” So, I tried it out, and it worked.

The next major step was in eighth grade when we had a retreat. It really hit me then that God actually loves me. I still have the bookmark they gave us with a prayer for teens. That’s when I realized God wasn’t passive, but active, and really listening to what I was saying in prayer, that He was anxious to hear what I had to say, and that He loved me.

In high school we had a career day and we had to bubble in what we wanted to be when we grew up. I bubbled in chemical engineer, because my dad and my grandfather were engineers, and then I bubbled in priest, and brother of the Sacred Heart. I didn’t know why, and I didn’t know people would look at it. I knew from there that God had a calling for me.

I went through high school and college without a whole lot of thought to it. When I was up here in Shreveport, Fr. Pike was the first priest I told that I was considering the priesthood. Later I got a job in Baton Rouge, and there I mentioned to my parish priest that I was thinking about priesthood, and he really took me under his wing. From there I entered the seminary for the Diocese of Baton Rouge in 2017. I was in Covington at St. Ben’s for two years, and after that I went to the Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF) in Omaha, NE for a summer. I started at Notre Dame in New Orleans, and then after the second year there I took a break. During that time, I was trying to figure out what to do and I ended up being with a good friend of mine, a little boy named Charles. He’s in a wheelchair, so his parents asked me to help him at school for kindergarten and then first grade. It was amazing, we still keep in touch, they’re a wonderful family. During that time, I was still discerning the priesthood. I went to visit the Franciscans, the Mercedarians, and the Community of Jesus Crucified. I learned so much and met so many great people. Eventually the doors were opened in Shreveport. I knew Fr. Raney and Fr. Kelby from seminary, and Fr. Peter was very instrumental in just talking with me. I told him once that if I could be a priest, it would be like winning the lottery. He said, well, Shreveport might be winning the lottery too. The open arms and encouragement from Shreveport is how I ended up here.

After that I should be serving as a priest in Shreveport, forever I hope!

CC: For those of us that attended Fr. Kelby and Fr. Gabriel’s ordination, we had the opportunity to see you serving at the altar. What’s your favorite memory from the ordination?

AY: One of my favorite memories is when Fr. Gabriel and Fr. Kelby hugged each other – that was the most touching moment.

CC: So, what’s next in your formation journey?

AY: The plan moving forward is mid-August Tristan and I will go to St. Meinrad in Indiana for seminary. For me it should be one year until I’m ordained a deacon, and then another year after that I’ll be ordained a priest.

The most joyful moment for me was when it was all said and done, and the mariachi band came out. I enjoyed that. I had a very thoughtful friend tell me, the beautiful organ ended, and it reminded him of how our life is short, so make it beautiful, make it for God. Then my dad said, “and then came the mariachi band.” Which is kind of like heaven. With God we have a beautiful future ahead, and when we think it’s over, the mariachi band comes.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Youth from across the diocese attended Steubenville Youth Conferences this summer. These Catholic conferences bring high school students into a lifechanging encounter with Jesus Christ. The following parishes had groups go to the conference – Jesus the Good Shepherd, Mary, Queen of Peace, St. Ann (Stonewall), St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph (Zwolle), St. Jude, St. Matthew, and St. Paschal.