John,
First of all, thank you so much for offering to underwrite additional showings of this film by way of your newspaper as well as the articles in your newspaper, Focus SB. I am a devotee to the cause of sainthood for these five men. I am also a parishioner of Holy Trinity Church, and would like to invite you any time at your convenience to show you the stained glass windows honoring these five men who came to Shreveport to aid Catholics and non-Catholics alike in their hours of death. While they had it all wrong as to the cause of yellow fever (it was thought at the time to be infectious between humans, but later proven to be spread by mosquitoes), they nevertheless came to help knowing with virtual certainty that their mission would cause them a horrible death.
However, I am also a devotee of absolute truthfulness in the written word. Mistakes will always be unavoidable for one reason or another, in spite of any and all efforts to the contrary; but acknowledging them and correcting them is the core of journalistic integrity. So, in as much, as I would have liked to have seen a “capacity crowd” at the showing, I should report to you that there were, in fact, plenty of empty seats available. They reportedly had all been bought, but they were unfilled in fact. I am guessing: but, the Draconian anti-Covid policies that the Strand enforced, even after the dropping of the governor’s mandates, may have discouraged some ticket-holders from attending. If so, I would expect your offer would be taken up and be a genuine service to those who missed this showing for this reason among, probably, many others.
I am currently reading the book, and of course, attended the showing. A take-away from the reading is that I personally suspect that a great deal more of the actual research work was done by W. Ryan Smith than that for which he is generally accorded credit. I was struck by Dr. White’s remark during the film, which I can only paraphrase: that throughout over two thousand years of Catholicism that only about 9000 souls have been successfully canonized as saints, and so should this journey towards canonization end successfully for these five men, it will be a remarkable event and certainly make Shreveport noteworthy.
(I have read of various numbers from 1000 to 7000 actual canonized saints, although the number of canonized saints plus those beatified, a step below sainthood, is generally numbered at around 10,000. So I take Dr. White’s approximation as more qualitatively correct than quantitatively correct. It is, in any case, a small number compared with the number of Catholics that lived during that time frame.)
Father Peter Mangum has done a superb job of transforming St. John Berchmans from a parish Church that emerged under the Diocese of Alexandria during the first half of the 20th century, into a true cathedral, appropriate in every way as the seat of the new Diocese of Shreveport. His devotion to the Church’s namesake and patronage, St. John Berchman – a Flemish Jesuit scholastic who died before being ordained a priest – has resulted in the extremely unusual gift of a 10 day visit of a relic of the saint from his home church in Europe. So it should be no surprise that he has been a relentless supporter of the cause of the five Shreveport priests and deserves a great deal of credit.
However, the current pastor of Holy Trinity, Rev. Duane Trombetta, is equally as energetic in supporting the cause of these five men, who have now been named “Servants of God” -- the first step in a series of steps that can last anywhere from days to scores of years in the process of canonization, -- or for that matter, may end at a stage short of canonization. I might suggest that you may want to contact him at Holy Trinity sometime. You will find him to be friendly, knowledgeable, and more than willing to share information with you on the five priests as well as Holy Trinity, the parish that they served while giving their all. I feel honored to be able to call him my friend. I know you will like him.
