fgazette.com Community news site for Union Parish Louisiana
By: Jim Brown
Despite his conflict with President Trump, Pope Leo XIV is quite popular worldwide. There is talk of an American visit by the pontiff soon. He should come to Louisiana. More than half the population in South Louisiana is Catholic. There are over 500,000 Catholics in the greater New Orleans area alone. If the pope wanted to visit a state with a Catholic pulse, the Bayou State should be a “must stop.”
Catholic newspaper OSV Newsweekly puts New Orleans at the top of their list to visit a city that reflects Catholic “culture, history, physical landscape and spirituality.” The St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest continuing functioning Cathedral in the country, built in 1789. The first Catholic hospital was founded in the Crescent City, Hotel Dieu, operated by the Daughters of Charity. It would be hard to find a region more quintessentially Catholic since its founding than a large part of Louisiana.