WASHINGTON, DC -- His Excellency, The Most Reverend Leonard J. Olivier, SVD, 91, retired Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, DC and a native of Lake Charles, died on Wednesday, Nov. 19. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, will celebrate a Funeral Mass for Bishop Olivier at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, November 24, in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. Bishop Olivier will be returned to Lake Charles afterward and Bishop Glen John Provost will be the celebrant of a Mass of Christian Burial at noon on Saturday, November 29, in Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, Bishop Olivier's home parish. Interment will following immediately in Sacred Heart Cemetery.
Bishop Olivier, at left, was born in Lake Charles in 1923, the fifth of eight children. He attended Sacred Heart of Jesus grade school then, St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and St. Mary's Seminary in Techny, Illinois and was ordained a Divine Word Missionary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi in 1951.
From 1952 to 1973, he was successively Assistant Dean and Dean of Seminarians, and rector of the Religious Community. From 1974 to 1982, he was Secretary of Studies for all USA Divine Word Seminaries and Rector of the Religious Community of Divine Word Seminary, Epworth, Iowa.
St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Lafayette was his first pastorate. In the last two years of that assignment, he also served as part time Vicar for Black Catholics in the Diocese of Lafayette, becoming full time Vicar in 1986. Two years later, on November 7, 1988, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington by Pope John Paul II. Ordained a bishop on December 20 1988, he served the Archdiocese of Washington as Regional Bishop of Northeast, Southeast, and East Northwest Deaneries of the District of Columbia, and Deaneries of North and Middle Prince George's Counties, and beginning in 1995, the Deaneries of Northeast and Southeast of the District of Columbia, of Lower Prince George County, and Counties of Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary's.
Bishop Olivier was a Fourth Degree Knight of St. Peter Claver, a Fourth Degree Knight of St. John and Columbus. He served as the Convener of the African American Catholic Bishops Subcommittee on Youth, the Ad Hoc Steering Committee for the National Strategy on Vocations, and the Task Force Group for American Adaptations to the Order of Christian Marriage, and the Liturgy Committee of USCC/NCCB. He was also a member of NCCB Committee on Bishops Life and Ministry, Board Member of Covenant House Washington, Member of the Inter-Faith Conference, Member of Maryland Catholic Conference, Board Member of The National Black Catholic Congress, Member of National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, and Episcopal Moderator of the Pan African Roman Catholic Clergy Conference.
He retired on May 18, 2004, after 18 years of episcopal service as Auxiliary Bishop of Washington. Bishop Olivier is survived by his sister, Theresa Olivier, his brother Edward, and other extended family.
In 2011, Bishop Olivier celebrated the 60th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood being honored at a number of jubilee celebrations, including at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Lake Charles, at St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis, Miss., at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and at St. Patrick Catholic Church in downtown Washington.
