LOUISIANA
Evangeline Today
By: RAYMOND PARTSCH III
Managing Editor
For the first time in its 98-year history, a native of Evangeline Parish will serve as Bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette.
Rev. J. Douglas Deshotel, a native of Basile, was appointed Wednesday morning to serve as the seventh Bishop of Diocese of Lafayette, replacing Rev. Michael Jarrell.
Deshotel was born on Jan. 6, 1952 in Basile and would go on to attend Immaculata Minor Seminary High School in Lafayette. After graduation, Deshotel would attend Holy Trinity Seminary in Texas, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and then a Masters of Divinity from the University of Dallas.
Deshotel was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Dallas on May 13, 1978 in his hometown church of St. Augustine’s in Basile. Deshotel was later ordained as Auxiliary Bishop of Dallas on April 27, 2010 in the Cathedral Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe.
Deshotel’s assignments have included serving as associate pastor and pastor of church parishes in the Diocese of Dallas, as well as serving as Vice Rector of Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving, Texas.
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