Zeringue remembered by sister

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Carleen Zeringue Groves remembers when she was 5-year-old on May 19, 1949 and she and her older brother, Ronald, were presented with a new baby brother by their parents, Guy Paul Zeringue Sr. and Irma Simone Zeringue.

Guy Paul Zeringue Jr. was born and raised in Houma, identified as a serious child who was not afraid of solitude, became an altar boy and went to seminary to study for the priesthood at the age of 14.


“He did come out and graduated from Vandebilt [Catholic High School], but re-entered the seminary after graduation,” Groves said. “He was ordained in 1975 at St. Louis Cathedral [in New Orleans].”

Zeringue’s first Mass was at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Houma. He was at the center of a final mass there last Tuesday and interred at St. Francis de Sales Cemetery No. 2.

“My parents were very proud of him,” Groves said. “He was kind beyond all limits, generous to a fault and intelligent and relatively quiet. However he was a perfectionist.”


Groves said her brother was a master woodworker. His many projects included building an altar for the late Bishop Warren Louis Boudreaux’s home in Schriever.

“My little brother, when he became older, the nuns would come to me and say, ‘Everything Guy does is to perfection, but he does it very slowly,'” Groves said. “‘If you could speed him up we would have a winner.’ He did take his time, but when it was done it was done to perfection. Every parish he was in he made major renovations. Particularly [at Sacred Heart] in Morgan City, [St. Ann] Bourg, [St. Louis] Bayou Blue and at St. John [the Evangelist Church], which was his last parish in Thibodaux.” Zeringue also served at Holy Savior Catholic Church in Lockport.

Zeringue was heading a building project at St. John the Evangelist Church when he lost a battle with pancreatic cancer, eight weeks after diagnosis, at the age of 62.


“I am saddened at the death of Father Zeringue,” Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux Bishop Sam G. Jacobs said. “Even though he has been suffering from a number of illnesses over the years, he was not one to complain. Even to the end he maintained his attitude. I am grateful to God for his dedicated, priestly ministry in our diocese over the years. I pray that he will be another intercessor for the diocese and its work proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus. May he rest in the eternal peace of Christ.”

“He was a terrific brother,” Groves said.

Zeringue is survived by his sister and by their younger brother, Kevin Zeringue, of Decatur, Ala.





Father Guy Paul Zeringue’s first Mass was at
St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Houma. He was at the center
of a final mass there last Tuesday and interred at St. Francis de
Sales Cemetery No. 2. The longtime local pastor was remembered by
his family this week for his touching
personality.

 

COURTESY PHOTO