By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL — When Rev. Monsignor Lanaux “Lonnie” Rareshide ends his 16-year stay on July 1 as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Church, the very popular church leader says he will leave having received as much love as he tried to give.
“When I came here I wanted to teach the most important lesson Jesus teaches in the Bible—‘Love one another’,” he said.
“But the people here have taught me as much about being a priest, and how to love, as I tried to give them. They taught me how to love by loving me.”
Rareshide is ready to officially retire from the priesthood after 54 years in the ministry. He was ordained in St. Louis Cathedral on June 3, 1961 after growing up a New Orleans boy who attended Jesuit High.
He says he knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a priest.
“My parents told me I said I wanted to be a priest when I was 5 years old,” he said. “My parents were good Catholics and friendly with our priest, and had him over to our house for dinner once in a while. That was the first time I saw a priest up close and I think it impressed me so much that I had a great desire to become one.”
Rareshide remembers in elementary school when he would attend mass, and used to hear the priests talk about how much the church needed others to commit to the ministry.
“I used to dream of the priest coming to me and saying, ‘We need you!’” he said with a slight laugh. “That was kind of funny, but I really did dream about that—it was how much I wanted to be a priest.”
Rareshide graduated from Jesuit High School and knew he faced a decision of heading to college, or entering the seminary.
“My father was a CPA and I didn’t really want to do that, and I had a good voice so I considered a career as a radio announcer,” he said. “But I knew the seminary was where I wanted to go.”
He remembers the interview with the priest who asked him, “why do you want to be a priest?”
“I know I told him in a very quiet voice that I wanted to help people,” Rareshide said, smiling as he remembers that encounter. “It wasn’t the complete correct answer, but I suppose it was part of the right answer.”
Rareshide studied to become a priest at Notre Dame Seminary and Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, but admits he faced a trying time seven years into his studies.
“I came to a place about seven years in that I questioned if I was able to do it—you know, the celibacy,” he said. “So I took a year leave of absence and taught at Xavier for that time. God gave me my answer after I talked to a chaplin who told me I could become a priest, or I didn’t have to. The next day I knew I wanted to do it—the answer was a gift from God.”
Rareshide was ordained in 1961 and began 54 years of service that would take him to 10 different parishes in the area, becoming a monsignor in 1975. Looking back at over five decades of serving, he said he can see why celibacy was important to becoming a priest.
“Paul was right when he said in the Bible that it is good to be married, but better to serve God if you are not married,” he said. “Being celibate was very valuable to my ability to serve.
“If I had a wife I would have had to consider her in many things I needed to do, but without a wife, I can serve in any capacity I need to,” he said. “What if my wife was upset with me before I was to hold mass? I can see how it has been a freeing thing to not have a wife.”
Rareshide said that nearly 16 years as the pastor of St. Margaret Mary have been “a real joy being able to serve with so many great people, and so many very committed Christian Catholics.”
He came to Slidell on Sept. 11, 1999 and took over for longtime priest Father Richard Carroll and recalls meeting “a lot of prayerful people at St. Margaret Mary. They were so willing to help others, and to share—it was like a big family.”
Carroll had served in Slidell for 29 years and led the church through its growth period, leaving little more for Rareshide to worry about in terms of the need for more buildings.
“When I came there was so much already here, it was wonderful. I never expected to build anything during my time here,” he said.
That was almost true as Rareshide only had to oversee the construction of the Children’s Development Center, a pre-K building that continued the growth of the very successful school on the grounds.
Otherwise, Rareshide said his goal has been to pass along the commandment to “love one another,” something he has seen in abundance at the church, especially enhanced by the Adoration Chapel next to the main sanctuary.
“Not many Catholic churches have Adoration Chapels, but they had one here and I believe it has been tremendous to make this ‘A Blessing Place’ thanks to so many people praying in the church,” he said.
The Adoration Chapel is a holy place where individuals take shifts to continue non-stop praying, 24/7.
“It has been so incredible to see the way there is always someone praying in the chapel, sometimes more than one person,” Rareshide noted. “It has made a tremendous difference to have so many praying people here. It’s really been quite remarkable.”
As for the state of the church family today, compared to 16 years ago when he came there, Rareshide chuckled when questioned if life is more challenging for families today due to social media and so many technological attractions.
“There have always been distractions for people who need a relationship with the Lord. You have to remember that Adam and Eve got distracted,” he said. “Selfishness is the biggest problem for people when it comes to a life of prayer and a walk with the Lord. It is still about a lack of discipline—temptations have always been here and they come in many facets even if we are busier in today’s world.”
Father Ed Grice, currently pastoring Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church in Westwego, will become the new priest at St. Margaret Mary as of July 1 when Rareshide will officially retire and move to the St. Anthony Mission in New Orleans where he will still perform mass and “pray with the people,” he said.
“I still want to do what I began doing,” Rareshide side. “I want to help the people because I really love what I do. As for St. Margaret Mary, these are many great people here and I will always love my time I had with them.”