NEW ORLEANS —

A Louisiana priest, who died in World War II, is being considered for sainthood.

In September 2020, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops began a canonical consultation on the cause of beatification and canonization for Father Joseph Verbis Lafleur. It is a process that can take years, even decades, to complete. Advertisement

Father Lafleur was born in Ville Platte in 1912 and lived in central Louisiana until he began studying to become a priest. He eventually attended what is today known as the Notre Dame Graduate School of Theology in New Orleans.

By 1938, he received his first and only parish assignment at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Abbeville. Father Lafleur served as an associate pastor until the United States entered WWII, when family members sa

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