Army Chaplain’s Cause for Canonization Ramps Up

On Oct. 17 in St. Landry Church before family, the local bishop, school students and local dignitaries, heroic Second World War chaplain Father Joseph Verbis Lafleur posthumously received a second Distinguished Service Medal and Purple Heart for actions on board a Japanese prisoner of war ship that cost him his life but saved scores more.

U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-La., presented the medals to Father Lafleur’s nephew Richard Lafleur and his wife, Carol, at at St. Landry Catholic Church, where the priest celebrated his first Mass following ordination in 1938.

It was the second event honoring the chaplain in as many months, following an annual memorial Mass Sept. 7 attended by some 800 people.

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