About St. Catherine · Leonville, Louisiana
St. Catherine is a Roman Catholic parish in the small Cajun town of Leonville, Louisiana, located at 4390 Highway 31 and part of the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana. The parish is one of three historically Black Catholic communities in Leonville (alongside St. Leo the Great, which serves the white community, and St. Jules, which historically served the mixed-race community) and has been sharing a single pastor with those sister parishes since 2005 under the cluster ministry name "One Body, One Spirit." St. Catherine is known for its strong daily-Mass schedule, alternating Sunday Masses with St. Leo at 7:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., and a 10:00 a.m. Sunday Mass celebrated at one of the partner churches, reflecting the deeply Catholic, tight-knit character of this Atchafalaya Basin village.
- Established
- 1950
- Patron
- St. Catherine (of Alexandria, as commonly invoked in Louisiana parish naming)
- Diocese
- Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana
Why belong here
St. Catherine is a daily-Mass parish in a small, tight-knit Louisiana village where almost everyone is Catholic, and belonging here means joining one of the historic Black Catholic communities of the Atchafalaya Basin. Since 2005, the parish has shared its pastor with St. Leo the Great and St. Jules under the "One Body, One Spirit" cluster, so members experience both the intimacy of a small-town parish and the wider fellowship of three reconciled communities.
Mass times at St. Catherine
Weekly Mass schedule
About St. Catherine Parish
St. Catherine is a Catholic parish in the small village of Leonville, Louisiana, a Cajun community in St. Landry Parish near the Atchafalaya Basin. It is one of three Catholic parishes in the town and is affiliated with the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana. The parish shares a single pastor and a single website with its sister parishes St. Leo the Great and St. Jules under the cluster ministry name 'One Body, One Spirit.'
History and the Three-Parish Ministry of Leonville
St. Catherine was founded in 1950 to serve the African-American Catholics of Leonville. For much of the 20th century, Leonville's three Catholic parishes each ministered to a different racial community under segregation: St. Leo the Great to white families, St. Catherine to Black families, and St. Jules to the mixed-race (Creole) community. In 2005 the Diocese of Lafayette assigned a single priest to all three parishes, leading to a coordinated Mass schedule and greater movement between the parishes. The three communities now operate under the motto 'One Body, One Spirit,' reflecting a journey of Catholic racial reconciliation in this small Louisiana town.
- Parish founded in 1950
- Three-parish cluster assigned one priest in 2005
- Shared motto: One Body, One Spirit (Ephesians 4:4)
Cluster Ministries (St. Catherine, St. Leo the Great, St. Jules)
Since 2005 the three Leonville parishes have been served by one priest and operate as a single pastoral team under the name 'One Body, One Spirit,' sharing the website http://onebodyonespirit.org/. The cluster ministry coordinates Masses, sacramental preparation, and parish life across the three churches so that the faithful of Leonville can worship together regardless of which parish building they belong to.
- Single pastor for all three parishes
- Shared sacramental and pastoral coordination
- Cluster name: One Body, One Spirit