Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville of Houma-Thibodaux has died at 62

The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux mourns the passing of its Bishop.

Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville has died due to liver disease complications at the Oschner Medical Center in Kenner, Friday, January 19, at 6:50 p.m. The disease was discovered late last year. Decisions will be made Jan. 22 about funeral arrangements as well as who will lead until Pope Francis appoints a new Bishop.

Rev. Patrick “P.J.” Madden served Houma-Thibodaux as the diocesan administrator from April 1, until Dorsonville was named Bishop.

Dorsonville, 62, was appointed Bishop on Feb. 1, 2023. A native of Bogotá, Colombia, he was Houma-Thibodaux's fifth bishop. Houma-Thibodaux's diocese includes 38 churches, 11 schools and an estimated 90,000 Catholics in Terrebonne, Lafourche and Morgan City.

Ordained as a priest in 1985, Dorsonville served as auxiliary bishop in Washington from March 20, 2015 until he became Bishop last February. He succeeded Bishop Shelton J. Fabre, who was installed as archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky, on March 30, 2022.

Dorsonville was chairman of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops Migration and Refugee Services Committee from 2019 to 2022. He was a member of the conference's committees on domestic justice, migration and refugees, and religious liberty and the Adhoc Committee Against Racism.

He served as a priest and professor of business ethics from 1990 to 1991 at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá. His first appointment within the Archdiocese of Washington was as parochial vicar of Our Lady of Lourdes Church Parish in Bethesda, Maryland, where he served from 1997 to 2004. He also served as parochial vicar of St. Mark the Evangelist Church Parish in Hyattsville, Maryland, from 2004 to 2005.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: The Bishop of Houma-Thibodaux has passed