Jerome Gaston LeDoux

Jerome LeDoux, S.V.D. (February 26, 1930 – January 7, 2019) was a Black Catholic priest best known for his ministry at St. Augustine Church in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was noted for his Afrocentric Masses, his ebullient style and his writing.

LeDoux was featured in a documentary film about St. Augustine Church in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Although well known nationally, he was active primarily in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi.

Biography

Early life and education

LeDoux was born on February 26, 1930, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Following the path of his older brother COL Louis Verlin LeDoux, he attended high school at the Society of the Divine Word's all-Black St. Augustine's Seminary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, graduating in 1947. (At the time, US Catholic seminaries did not admit African Americans, and St. Augustine's Seminary had been created in 1920 to train African-American men for the priesthood in a segregated setting. ) In 1952, Louis became the first Black diocesan priest to serve in the South. His cousin, Harold Perry, became the first African-American Catholic bishop in modern history in 1966.

At St Augustine's, LeDoux's education consisted of music and the classics such as Greek, Latin, and French, in addition to religious instruction. LeDoux was known colloquially as "the people's priest" in the New Orleans region.

Katrina and aftermath On August 29, 2005, as Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, LeDoux opted to remain at St. Augustine Church rather than evacuate the city. Stranded at the church for eight days and being a vegan, he survived on a diet of pasta and marinara sauce, while taking in people who had lost their homes in the hurricane.

Within six months, the archbishop of New Orleans, Alfred Hughes, had decided to close the church. The congregation under LeDoux's leadership vehemently and publicly challenged this decision, for which the archbishop dismissed LeDoux as pastor. The church, however, remained open.

LeDoux then was pastor of Our Mother of Mercy Church in Fort Worth, Texas from 2006 to 2015.

In 2011, LeDoux authored a book, War of the Pews: A Personal Account of St. Augustine Church in New Orleans, documenting the difficulties faced by St. Augustine Church in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, with the general trend in declining church attendance. The book's title relates to the early years of St. Augustine Church when pew fees were a common practice. At the time of his death, he was in pastoral residence at Holy Ghost Church in Opelousas, Louisiana. Then New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared a "Fr. Jerome LeDoux Day" for the city in 2007. Around the same time, the New Orleans City Council acknowledged the contributions of St. Augustine Church to the musical heritage of the city, which LeDoux nurtured as part of his St. Augustine ministry. As part of the 2007 recognition, New Orleans artist Richard Thomas painted a poster honoring LeDoux, with proceeds of its sale as prints benefiting LeDoux's church.

Also in 2007, filmmaker Peter Entell produced a documentary film Shake the Devil Off about St. Augustine Church and its efforts to remain open as a parish following Hurricane Katrina, made in a cinéma vérité style and featuring LeDoux as he conducts daily church business. As part of the incident, Entell highlighted the dismissal of LeDoux and his replacement by a Caucasian priest in this predominately African-American parish. In the film, Entell claimed that racism played a role in the decision of the local archdiocese. The name of the film is also the name of a gospel song which is sung by LeDoux and parishioners in the film.