Rosary Group Meets For 20 Years
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
Two decades of unbroken dedication by the Father Joseph Verbis Lafleur rosary group have combined an effort to pray for statewide hurricane protection as well as displaying a reverence for a venerated South Louisiana priest who has been nominated for canonization by the Catholic Church.
Those who have gathered weekly to pray the rosary have met each Monday at 5:30 pm around an 8,000-pound Italian marble statue of Father Lafleur at St. Landry Catholic Church since 2005, have done so without interruption since Hurricane Katrina battered the New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coast area.
“It doesn’t matter what the weather is, we pray in front of the statue at the church each Monday evening. It has gotten pretty cold out here sometimes during the winter nights, when the wind blows straight into you, but we still do it anyway,” says Bobby Landry, who joined the group about six years ago.
When it rains, the weekly rosary meeting moves indoors to pray in a corner of the church.
During other inclement Monday’s, those praying the rosary will squeeze underneath the eaves of the church doorways to finish the rosary when a surprise rain shower appears.
Occasionally motorists or those walking or riding bicycles in front of the church, normally witness a maximum of about 12 persons praying the Monday rosary, who also offer their personal intentions for those who are sick, infirmed or who might need spiritual help.
Sometimes pedestrians who are on foot, stop alongside the group and briefly pray or display their reverence by making the sign of the cross.
Richard Lafleur and wife Carol Lafleur are two of the original members of the rosary group, which they indicate was formed 20 years ago by St. Landry Catholic Church deacon Dwayne Joubert.
“Deacon Joubert started the weekly rosary at the church after Katrina. Deacon Joubert got the group started and afterward we started praying to Father Lafleur during those rosaries and now we have combined praying to Father Lafleur to protect us from the storms in addition to asking that the Gulf Coast be spared from hurricanes,” said Richard Lafleur.
Incorporated into each weekly pre-rosary prayer agenda includes a prayer to Father Lafleur in addition to a separate prayer used by the Diocese of Lafayette, to help steer away storms that have threatened the Gulf Coast.
Until his death in 2018, Father James Melancon, who served at St. Landry and lived at the church rectory, was usually a member of the weekly rosary group.
Father Melancon, who often added religious insights about prayer and rosary devotion, was often joined for the weekly rosary by other diocesan priests.
Following the completion of the Father Lafleur statue, members of the group have gathered around its base to pray each Monday.
Richard and Carol Lafleur for nearly 25 years, have launched a movement that has pushed for the canonization of Verbis Lafleur, an Evangeline Parish native, who moved with his family to Opelousas just before he left at the age of 14, to become a priest.
Father Lafleur said his inaugural mass at St. Landry in 1938 and in 1941, he received permission from the church to become an Army Air Force chaplain.
Verbis Lafleur died on Sept. 8, 1944, while assisting American soldiers escape from a Japanese prisoner-of-war transport ship that was mistakenly torpedoed by an American submarine off the coast of the Philippines.
As a member of the military, Verbis Lafleur was twice awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star and Purple Heart for assisting wounded and those who were dying at Clark Field in the Philippines and again aboard the prisoner ship three years ago.
At least two books have been written about the life of Father Verbis Lafleur, which highlight the sacrifices that he made as a captive of the Japanese for nearly three years.
Since 2020, the Diocese of Layette has opened the cause for the canonization of Father Verbis Lafleur, a decision that was affirmed about a year later following a vote by 99 percent of the American bishops.
In addition to the monument, which commemorates the action by Father Verbis Lafleur to assist the prisoners from the troop ship, there is a section of St. Landry Church dedicated to his memory.
