Fr. Vidrine returns home as Sacred Heart pastor

“It’s a real joy for me to be back in my hometown,” Fr. Jason Vidrine said in the Sacred Heart Church office on Thursday. He recently became pastor of the church after Fr. Joshua Guillory left for an assignment to the Vatican in Rome that could last five or more years.
Fr. Vidrine, a Ville Platte native and son of James Vidrine and Debbie Blood of Ville Platte, has other relatives in Ville Platte, Pine Prairie and Hammond.
He said it’s somewhat unusual for the church to assign pastors to towns or cities where they grew up. Vidrine said the practice may have some basis in the scriptural descriptions of Jesus being rejected upon his return to his hometown of Nazareth as a teacher.  However, that parallel may have less to do with what Jesus was telling the people of Nazareth than with the distractions today of being among family and others who priests have known since childhood.
He discussed this reality with Bishop Michael Jerrell after being assigned to Sacred Heart, but realizes that since Bishop Jarrell was once assigned s the Pastor of Sacred Heart here, he emphasized that because he is from here, and has maintained contacts here, he understands the needs of the people and the church’s parish here.
Fr. Vidrine sees the Catholic Church’s teaching about celibacy for priests (prohibition on priests entering into marriage) in a similar way. He cites from St. Paul’s writings in the New Testament on the issue, and says the issue of being distracted does enter into the equation involving the responsibilities of having a family. That’s because a priest’s responsibilities regarding the sacraments of the Catholic Church take up a lot of time and effort, and assisting parishioners with issues of spiritual direction or with other personal matters pretty much take up the rest of the priests’ time.
It’s a fairly severe commitment that Fr. Vidrine said he was inspired to pursue by two former priests who previously served at Our Lady Queen of All Saints Church, Fr, Gil Dutel and Fr. Randy Moreau.
After attending Ville Platte High School and after graduating from Bayou Chicot High School in 1998, he went straight to St. Joseph Seminary College in Covington. After graduating in 2002, he was assigned to the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
Vidrine was ordained a deacon at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in October 2005, and then ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lafayette in July 2006. Fr. Vidrine said mass for the first time at Our Lady Queen of All Saints Church in 2006.
He was parochial vicar at Our Lady of Wisdom Church and the Catholic Student Center at the University of Louisiana from 2006 to 2008.
Before being appointed pastor of Sacred Heart Parish earlier this month, he was parochial vicar at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Scott, in 2008 and 2009, and at St. Peter Church, and principal of St. Peter School, in Gueydan, from 2009 to 2013.