News and Press

LAKE CHARLES – The Catholic schools in the Diocese of Lake Charles, located in Calcasieu Parish – the five elementary schools as well as St. Louis Catholic High School, will begin the 2017-2018 school term on Wednesday, August 16, 2017 and end on Friday May 25, 2018.

A training video for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion in the parishes of the Diocese of Lake Charles can now be accessed on the website of the Diocese of Lake Charles under “Special Videos” in the Resources Menu above or by purchasing a two-DVD set through the Office of Communications of the Diocese – 337-439-7400 - or by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The cost for the set is $25.00.

ROME – Diocese of Lake Charles seminarian Michael Caraway was one of 63 men studying at the Pontifical North American College conferred the Ministry of Acolyte in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at the College by His Excellency, The Most Reverend David Kagan, Bishop of Bismarck, North Dakota.

I, The Most Reverend Glen John Provost, Bishop of Lake Charles, hereby announce the following pastoral assignments for the Diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana:

ROME – Three seminarians of the Diocese of Lake Charles, studying at the Pontifical North American College, were among 50 instituted into the ministry of Lector recently by His Excellency Bishop Paul Tighe, Adjunct-Secretary to the Pontifical Council for Culture, in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception of the College.

On September 1, 2015, His Holiness, Pope Francis announced that all priests during the Year of Mercy would have the faculty to forgive the sin of abortion. At the conclusion of the Year of Mercy on the Feast of Christ the King, November 20, 2016, Pope Francis announced that all of the priests of the world would retain this faculty indefinitely. The Diocese of Lake Charles wants to assure the Christian faithful that all priests serving in the Diocese of Lake Charles have had for many years the faculty to forgive the sin of abortion and to lift the canonical penalty if incurred. It is common practice in the United States for Ordinaries to grant this faculty.

LAKE CHARLES – The Diocese of Lake Charles Return to the Lord Capital Campaign, which began in October 2015, reported that on December 31, 2016, a total pledged amount for the campaign of $21,269,855.00 – more than $5,000,000 above the original goal of the campaign.

By Bishop Glen John Provost

 LAKE CHARLES – Mrs. Kimberlee Gazzolo, superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Lake Charles, has been appointed as the nonpublic representative on the Accountability Commission of the Louisiana Board of Secondary Education (BESE).


WASHINGTON—Pope Francis has named Bishop David P. Talley, up until now Auxiliary Bishop of Atlanta, as Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana.