Bishop Robert Marshall of the Diocese of Alexandria announced at Masses on Sunday, July 9, that two longtime priests of the diocese have received the honorary title of \u201cmonsignor\u201d from Pope Francis.<\/p>\n
Msgr. James Ferguson and Msgr. Scott Chemino were recently nominated by Bishop Marshall for their many years of exceptional service to the diocese.\u00a0 Upon reviewing the application, officials at the Vatican bestowed upon them the papal honor of \u201cChaplain of His Holiness\u201d and given the title of monsignor by the Holy Father.<\/p>\n
Monsignor Stephen Scott Chemino, JD, JCL, <\/strong>was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Alexandria on June 19, 1993, and has served the diocese in various capacities over the past 30 years.\u00a0 After his first assignment as Parochial Vicar of St. Joseph Church, Marksville, he served as Pastor of Mater Dolorosa Church, Plaucheville; Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church, Alexandria; Immaculate Conception Church, Natchitoches; St. Francis de Sales Church, Echo, and St. Joseph Church, Cheneyville.\u00a0 A native of Bunkie, Louisiana and a graduate of St. Anthony School, Monsignor Chemino presently serves as Pastor of his home parish, St. Anthony of Padua Church, Bunkie.<\/p>\n Before entering seminary, Monsignor Chemino obtained a civil law degree and was engaged in the private practice of law.\u00a0 He later obtained a degree in Canon Law from the Catholic University of America and served as a Promoter of Justice for the diocese from 2003-2022.\u00a0 For many years he served on the College of Consultors and the Presbyteral Council.\u00a0 For thirteen years, he served in the administration of the diocese as Vicar General of the diocese and as Delegate to the Apostolic Administrator when the diocese was without a bishop.\u00a0 Monsignor Chemino remains a caring and supportive minister to the people of the Diocese of Alexandria.<\/p>\n Monsignor James Anthony Ferguson, JCL, <\/strong>was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Alexandria on May 25, 1985, and has faithfully served the people of the diocese in a variety of ministries for the past 38 years.\u00a0 His first assignment was as Parochial Vicar of Immaculate Conception Church, Natchitoches, and then as Parochial Vicar of St. Joseph Church, Marksville.\u00a0 He later served as Pastor of St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle; St. Joseph Church, Marksville, and Mater Dolorosa Church, Plaucheville.\u00a0 For the past 19 years, Monsignor Ferguson has served as Rector of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Alexandria.<\/p>\n In addition to his parish work, Monsignor Ferguson has served the diocese over the years as Vicar Forane (Dean) of the Avoyelles Deanery, as a member of the College of Consultors and the Presbyteral Council.\u00a0 He has also been active in promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life and in the ongoing formation of the clergy.\u00a0 Monsignor Ferguson obtained a degree in Canon Law from the Catholic University of America and has served as Defender of the Bond and Promoter of Justice for the past 31 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bishop Robert Marshall of the Diocese of Alexandria announced at Masses on Sunday, July 9, that two longtime priests of the diocese have received the honorary title of \u201cmonsignor\u201d from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diocesealex.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diocesealex.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diocesealex.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diocesealex.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diocesealex.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diocesealex.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diocesealex.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diocesealex.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diocesealex.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diocesealex.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}