Bishop Dorsonville appointed to Houma-Thibodaux Diocese

Bishop Michael G. Duca offered his congratulations to Bishop Mario Dorsonville, who was appointed fifth bishop of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux Wednesday by Pope Francis on Feb. 1.

Bishop Duca said Bishop Dorsonville will find his new diocese a “rich deposit of the Catholic faith, a people united by a strong sense of family and community, a vibrant and diverse culture and exquisite cuisine.”

“I know the faithful of Houma-Thibodaux will embrace their new shepherd as quickly as he is certain to embrace them,” Bishop Duca said in a statement.

Bishop Dorsonville succeeds New Roads native Archbishop Shelton Fabre, who was appointed to the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky by Pope Francis in March 2022.

Bishop Dorsonville has been an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Washington since 2015. From 2019–2022 he served as chairman for the Migration and Refugee Services Committee of the U.S. bishops’ conference.

“I am deeply humbled and thankful to our Holy Father for his acceptance of me as the next bishop of Houma-Thibodaux,” Bishop Dorsonville said during a press conference Feb. 1 in Houma. “I have a deep love for the Lord and his church and a keen interest in learning more about Houma-Thibodaux, listening to her needs and dreams and discerning where the Holy Spirit will lead us.”

Bishop Dorsonville will be installed March 29 at the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales in Houma.

Very Rev. Patrick Madden has served as the diocesan administrator since April 1, 2022.
“With great gratitude to the Holy Spirit and to our diocesan family for their prayers, I am delighted by the appointment of Bishop Mario Dorsonville to pastor our diocese into the future for the glory of God and the salvation of souls,” Very Rev. Madden said.

Bishop Dorsonville was born Oct. 31, 1960 in Bogotá, Columbia and attended the Major Seminary of the Archdiocese of Bogotá, receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy in 1981 and a Bachelor’s degree in Sacred Theology in 1985.

Bishop Dorsonville was ordained a priest in 1985 in Bogotá. He served in several parish assignments and taught business ethics at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá. He received a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá in 1991. 

After moving to Washington, D.C., and earning a doctorate in ministry from the Catholic University of America in 1996, he returned briefly to Colombia, where he served as a chaplain and professor at the National University of Colombia and as a professor at the major seminary of the Archdiocese of Bogotá.In 1997, he received his first parish assignment in the Archdiocese of Washington.

Bishop Dorsonville was vice president of the archdiocese’s Catholic Charities and director of The Spanish Catholic Center from 2005–2015. Before he was consecrated an auxiliary bishop in April 2015, Bishop Dorsonville was a mentor to newly ordained priests and an adjunct spiritual director at St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington.

The bishop has been vicar general for the archdiocese since 2015.

His bishop’s motto is “Sacerdos in Aeternum,” taken from Psalm 110:4, which says: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’ ”

The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux serves approximately 90,000 Catholics in southeastern Louisiana.

(The Bayou Catholic magazine in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux and Catholic News Service contributed to this report.)