Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana


The Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana is an ecclesiastical division of the Catholic Church in the United States. The oldest church in the diocese is the parish church of St. Martinville, dating back to 1765. The diocese was created on January 11, 1918 from the western part of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The size of the diocese was nearly halved by the creation of the Diocese of Lake Charles on January 29, 1980. The diocese includes the heart of Cajun Louisiana.

Geographic Summary

The diocese consists of four deaneries containing eight civil parishes:
The list of bishops of the diocese and their years of service:

Bishops of Lafayette in Louisiana

  1. Jules Jeanmard
  2. Maurice Schexnayder
  3. Gerard Louis Frey
  4. Harry Joseph Flynn, appointed Coadjutor Archbishop and later Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
  5. Edward Joseph O'Donnell
  6. Charles Michael Jarrell
  7. J. Douglas Deshotel

    Auxiliary Bishops

The following served as priests in Lafayette before being appointed bishops elsewhere:

Sex Abuse

In 1974, Bishop Gerard Frey assigned Rev. Gilbert Gauthe as a Boy Scout chaplain despite the fact that Gauthe had previously come to Frey's attention for having molested altar boys. Gauthe was stripped of his priestly duties after more allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced in 1983. Bishop Frey was criticized for his handling of Gauthe's case, and in 1985 expressed his regret, saying, "I ask for the prayers and understanding of all our people and of all people of good will of every faith and belief. I deeply regret and am distressed by the suffering that has taken place because of the tragic events in the diocese over the past several years."
In total, the diocese settled for more than $20 million in lawsuits involving Gauthe. Gauthe was later jailed for violating the Texas sex offender registration law and released in April 2010.
In 1986, Diocese priest Robert Lane Fontenot was convicted of sexually abusing three children and received a sentence of one year in prison and two years of probation and forced residence at Jemez Springs, New Mexico.
In 2008, the Diocese agreed to pay a financial settlement to a former altar boy who claimed Diocese priest Valerie Pullman had sexually abused him in 1972. Pullman later died in 2017 after being accused as early as 1966 of sexually abusing children at different parishes in the Diocese.
In October 2018, former Acadiana priest Felix David Broussard received a five year prison sentence after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.
On March 29, 2019, former Morrow priest Michael Guirdy plead to committing acts of child molestation while served in the Diocese of Lafayette. He had surrendered to police in June 2018 after he was charged and began serving time in prison. On April 30, 2019, Guidry received a seven-year prison sentence.
In April 2019, the Diocese of Lafayette released a list of 33 clergy who were "credibly accused" of committing acts of sex abuse while serving in the Diocese.