A documentary video titled “The Five Priests” is about Roman Catholic Priests who lived and died in Shreveport while working among the sick and dying during the Yellow Fever Pandemic in the late 1890s. Yesterday it was announced it has been accepted for entry in the famous Cannes Film Festival in France. Cheryl White, Professor of History at LSU in Shreveport is one of the people who worked on the project. She explains more.
"It's not a Catholic story, it's not a Shreveport story, it's not even a Louisiana story,' White explained. "It's a universal one and I think we're seeing that in the response we're getting."
The five priests featured in the documentary are being considered by the Vatican in Rome for sainthood. This came about as White and her associates put together portfolios of the priests and in December of 2020, the Diocese of Shreveport got the process started.
"Bishop Francis Malone of the Diocese of Shreveport in a ceremony at Holy Trinity Church declared them to be servants of God and that is the first step in the process," White said.
It’s going to take several years for the Vatican’s review and vetting of the priests for sainthood but in the meantime, their story will get significant exposure as the Cannes Film Festival is regarded as the largest film market in the world and may catch the attention of major film distributors. The LSUS Foundation is among underwriters for the documentary.