‘He loved people’

Darryl Ducote briefly paused, taking a moment perhaps to stifle a tear as he talked about the years he spent with his mentor, his friend, Bishop Stanley J. Ott.

Bishop Ott, who was installed as the third bishop of the Diocese of Baton Rouge on March 25, 1983, died 30 years ago on Nov. 28, 1992. 

Ducote, who was ordained a priest in 1971, spent three years of his early priesthood living in the rectory at St. Joseph Cathedral in Baton Rouge, where then-Msgr. Ott was pastor. At the time Ducote was serving as associate director of religious education for the diocese. 

“I think about him frequently,” Ducote, his voice cracking with emotion, said. “I pray to him because I respect him so much and ask him for guidance. I just loved the man; he was a real inspiration to me.”

“Those were the best years of my priesthood, largely because of (Bishop Ott),” added Ducote, who made the final decision to leave the priesthood in 1980 and currently serves as the director of the Office of Marriage and Family Life in Baton Rouge. 

Ducote described Bishop Ott as a faithful priest, a consummate pastor who was selfless. He said the love Bishop Ott had for others shone through in the way he treated everybody.

Ducote said he connected with Bishop Ott on three levels, the first being his mentor’s holiness.

“He was the holiest man I’ve ever met,” Ducote said. “He was deeply spiritual, prayed intently and if you watched him pray, you could almost see he was in connection with God. 

“It was just amazing the level of holiness he had developed during the course of his life. And to honor that holiness, a goodness that everyone responded to.”

A shared love of the liturgy and Bishop Ott’s recognition of Ducote’s gift of the liturgy also deepened their relationship.  Ducote said one of Bishop Ott’s goals was to make the cathedral the liturgical example for the diocese, especially in the early stages of the post Vatican II era. 

“He spared no expense in terms of liturgical celebration for major feasts like Chrism Mass, Holy Week, diocesan celebrations,” Ducote said. “And I had a particular love of the liturgy so he and I really worked well together.”

He remains touched so many years later that he was asked by Bishop Ott to help plan his instillation ceremony as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1976.

Ducote said the third connection was the bishop’s personal presence to people. He said the bishop possessed an uncanny ability that when talking to people he knew he could remember all of their family names.

“He would focus on them with such intensity that he could spend two minutes with them and they could feel like they spent half an hour,” Ducote said. “I mean his ability to concentrate on people and his love of people was just remarkable.”

He remembers how Bishop Ott, who had a baseball bat on his coat of arms as a nod to his relative and baseball great Mel Ott, required all of the priests living at the rectory, even if they were not attached to the parish but serving in ministries elsewhere, to attend every Sunday Mass and visit with parishioners  for donuts and coffee.

“His belief was that we had to put all of our efforts into Sunday because that is when we had the greatest chance of impacting the congregation,” Ducote said.

And after sharing a donut or two and cup of coffee, Bishop Ott would go off again to make hospital or prison visits, while a fading Ducote would sneak back in the rectory for an afternoon siesta. 

“He would not stop even when we finally got a break. That was his life,” Ducote said.

He also remembers Bishop Ott as a healer, taking over after the turmoil that unfolded during the administration of  Bishop Joseph V. Sullivan. Ducote said Bishop Sullivan was divisive because he attempted to undo the progress that was made under founding Bishop Robert E. Tracy. 

Ducote said Bishop Tracy was a progressive thinker and formed consultative bodies to help in the diocesan-making process.

“(Bishop Sullivan) undid all of that,” Ducote said. “(Bishop Ott) did a masterful job of reorganizing the diocese and putting people in position that were capable.

“His presence was incredibly healing. That was his greatest contribution.”

Ducote recalls that circumstances during the Bishop Sullivan years served as part of the catalyst in his decision to leave the priesthood.  In 1978 Ducote took a leave of absence to earn his master’s degree in social work at LSU and at the end of those two years he applied to the Vatican for laicization, a lengthy process that took four years and spilled over into Bishop Ott’s tenure.

At one point Bishop Ott summoned Ducote, who by then was director of religious education and in charge of the folk choir at St. George Church in Baton Rouge, into his office.

Ducote said Bishop Ott told him the Vatican approved the laicization but with a number of stipulations, such as having to leave Baton Rouge and never teach in a Catholic institution.

“(Bishop Ott) looked at me and said ‘I am dispensing you from all of this,” Ducote said. 

“The crowning thing was it had been so difficult to leave the ministry, the personal impact on me,” Ducote recalled. “Many people were angry with me and thinking I was persona non grata.” 

“Bishop Ott was the only person who thanked me in the official church for my ministry. I was deeply moved. I only felt his respect.”

Ducote also remembered how Bishop Ott, when hospitalized as he was fighting cancer, would get in a wheelchair and visit other cancer patients on the floor.

“He loved people and was incredibly loved,” Ducote said. “I think he should be canonized.”