Did you know that Christ the King Catholic Church in Bossier Parish is home of the largest number of Spanish-speaking parishioners in the Diocese of Shreveport – which covers all of north Louisiana? September 15th through October 15th marks Hispanic Heritage Month, so let’s take an additional look at the history of Christ the King in downtown Bossier City, the first Catholic Church in Bossier Parish.
Christ the King was built in 1940 at the corner of Barksdale Blvd. and McCormick St. in old downtown Bossier City, a handsome white brick veneer church in the Spanish Mission style. In the church’s early history, this structure was its main expression of Spanish culture. In 1978, the growing church’s building was completely reconstructed in a modern, airy style with numerous windows and vast open space, leaving no hint of its previous Spanish style. Within the following decades though, Spanish language and culture could be seen and heard through the real structure of a church – its people.
In 1987, the Catholic Diocese of Shreveport began its Hispanic Ministry, an outreach program to Spanish-speaking Catholics in north Louisiana. “As Hispanic Catholics migrate into our area, we need to welcome them warmly as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,” asserted Bishop William B. Friend in the May 28, 1994, Shreveport Times. Within the ministry’s first five years, one Spanish Mass a month was conducted in south Shreveport at Saint Mary of the Pines and one was conducted in Bossier City at Christ the King. Father Rigoberto Betancurt, a pastor in Monroe, conducted both masses.
The coordinator for the diocese’s Hispanic Ministry, Elisa Milazzo, looked forward to the day when Spanish Masses could be held weekly, and had high hopes that the Shreveport-Bossier area would get its own Spanish-speaking priest. In July of 1999, Milazzo got her wish. Reverend Betancurt came to Shreveport fulltime to be chaplain over Hispanic ministries in the Diocese of Shreveport’s western deanery (geographic area). In the August 13, 1999, Shreveport Times, Milazzo affirmed that Betancurt’s arrival “has been an inspiration to all of us…You just can’t imagine the anticipation.”
The Times article also told the backstory of Father Rigo, as he likes to be called. Growing up in Pacora in northeast Colombia, Betancurt’s father died when he was only 7, but he never lost the memory of his father taking him and his 9 siblings to daily mass at five o’clock each morning. When Betancurt was in fifth grade and a group of priests visited his school to inspire the boys to train for priesthood, he signed up. His mother discouraged that path however, telling young Rigo he was needed to support the family. He became a teacher of music and Spanish, but ultimately could not ignore the call to priesthood. He trained in Medellín, Colombia, then Rome, Italy before returning to Colombia for his ordination in 1983.
Father Rigo’s first assignment was to a university in Brussels, Belgium, where he studied for a master’s degree in theology. Those studies were cut short when his mother became sick and he returned to Colombia. There he served in various churches and schools until he founded a church in the poorest section of the country’s second largest city, Medellín. He set his sights on helping members of the local drug gangs but the unspeakable violence of the time continued. When the director of Hispanic ministries for the Diocese of Alexandria (which once included what is now the Diocese of Shreveport) visited Betancurt in Colombia with an appeal to help fill the need for Hispanic services in northwest Louisiana, Betancurt made the complicated decision to leave his family and homeland. He did not know English, but set himself to the challenge of the move. He said, “I want Catholic Hispanics to know each other, who we are and be together for the Eucharist [communion]. I want people to reinforce their belonging to the diocese and to be in contact with pastors.”
The goal for the new Hispanic chaplaincy was to increase membership in individual parishes as well as strengthen the diocese. Like the priests in colonial and early Louisiana, who found in the scattered Catholic communities in the state’s remote areas accustomed to being unchurched, Betancurt found that many immigrants from Latin America had also faced a shortage of priests and parishes and were not accustomed to churchgoing. To reach these potential parishioners, Betancurt had many advantages. In addition to fluency in Spanish, he held valuable cultural knowledge, such as how holidays and services specifically to honor the Virgin Mary are central in the beliefs and practices of many Hispanic Catholics. However, perhaps Father Rigo’s best “secret weapon” was his certification as a soccer referee. He ran weekly pickup games at the LSU Shreveport soccer fields, where he could build relationships and invite the players to church.
In 2002, Father Betancurt, and the diocese’s Hispanic Ministry, were homebased at Christ the King. By 2003, Spanish services went from once a month to several a week, reported the April 28 Shreveport Times, and Father Rigo introduced Monday evening masses at Christ the King for service or hospitality industry workers who were not be able to attend church on the weekends. Christ the King also offered language classes both for English speakers to learn Spanish and Spanish speakers to learn English, and ministered to the spiritual and basic needs for migrant workers who sent their wages back to family in their economically-ravaged home countries.
Father Rigo believed that separate Spanish and Anglo masses and fellowship groups were what Hispanic parishioners typically needed upon arrival in a new home or homeland, but he said his ultimate goal is that the Anglo and Hispanic communities could eventually merge. Christ the King Parishioner Mary Morgan, who took the church’s Spanish classes and was welcomed as an honorary member of the church’s Hispanic community, echoed that sentiment. “Our prayer,” she said, “is that this becomes a bilingual parish. That is really what would be wonderful.”
The History Center always appreciates donations of photos and documents of Bossier Parish churches and other local institutions, and we are especially looking to add items from the Hispanic communities of Bossier Parish. If you have stories or photos or other items to donate or allow us to copy for our collections, be sure to visit or contact the History Center. We are in the new Bossier Parish Libraries Central Complex at 850 City Hall Drive, Bossier City, LA (across Beckett Street from the original History Center and “old” Central Library). We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org
For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.
Images:
- Father Rigoberto Betancurt. Photo courtesy of Christ the King Catholic Church, Bossier City.
- Father Rigoberto Betancurt at Christ the King Catholic Church, Bossier City, C. 2003 Photo courtesy of Christ the King Catholic Church.
- A celebration of the Virgin Mary at Christ the King Catholic Church, Bossier City, C. 2003 Photo courtesy of Christ the King Catholic Church.
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