SW Louisiana Native Named Auxiliary Bishop

Thursday, 11 March 2010 07:00

WASHINGTON — Pope Benedict XVI has named Father J. Douglas Deshotel, 58, vicar general of the Diocese of Dallas and a native of Southwest Louisiana, and Msgr. Mark J. Seitz, 56, pastor of Dallas’s St. Rita Parish, as auxiliary bishops of the Diocese of Dallas.             The appointments were publicized in Washington, March 11, by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.             John Douglas Deshotel was born in Kinder, Louisiana, January 6, 1952. He graduated from Immaculata Seminary High School in Lafayette, Louisiana and attended the University of Dallas, where he earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Divinity degrees. He was ordained a priest for the Dallas Diocese in 1978 in his home parish of St. Augustine in Basile, Louisiana. The ordaining prelate was The Most Reverend Maurice Schexnayder, Bishop-emeritus of the Diocese of Lafayette.             Assignments after ordination included parochial vicar, St. Patrick Parish, Dallas, 1978-1980; parochial vicar, St. Anthony Parish, Longview, Texas, 1980-1982; parochial vicar, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish, Dallas, 1982-1983; parochial vicar, St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Longview, 1983-1988; pastor, St. William Parish, Greenville, Texas, 1988-1992; pastor St. John Nepomucene Parish, Ennis, Texas, 1992-1995; pastor, St. Luke Parish, Irving, Texas,1995-2001.             He also served as vice-rector, Holy Trinity Seminary, Irving, 2001-2005; pastor, St. Monica and St. Juan Diego Parish, Dallas, 2006-2008; and vicar general and moderator of the curia, since 2007.             Mark Joseph Seitz was born in Milwaukee January 10, 1954, and earned Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Theology degrees from the University of Dallas. He was ordained a priest for the Dallas Diocese in 1980.             He earned a Master in Liturgical Studies degree from St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, in 1985. In 2004, Pope John Paul II named him a prelate of honor, carrying the title “monsignor.”             Assignments after ordination included parochial vicar, Good Shepherd Parish, Garland, Texas, 1980-1985; adjunct professor, University of Dallas, 1985-1994; spiritual director, Holy Trinity Seminary, 1986-1987; vice-rector, Holy Trinity Seminary, 1987-1993; pastor, St. Joseph Parish, Waxahachie, Texas, 1993-2003; and pastor, St. Rita Parish, since 2003.             The Dallas Diocese includes 7,523 square miles. It has a population of 3,688,838 people with 1,127,985, or 31 percent, of them Catholic.