Jude Speyrer

Jew Speyer ( born April 14, 1929 in Leon, Louisiana, † July 21, 2013 in Opelousas, Louisiana) was Bishop of Lake Charles.

Life

Jew Speyer attended St. Joseph Seminary in St. Benedict LA (1942 /47) and the Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans (1947 /49) and studied at the Pontifical North American College in Rome (1949 /50) and Swiss at the University of Freiburg (1950 /53). He received on July 25, 1953 in Lafayette to the priesthood by Bishop Jules Jeanmard. He has served in numerous pastoral and administrative duties of the diocese Lafayette, most recently as chancellor and vicar general of the diocese of Lafayette.

Pope John Paul II appointed him on 29 January 1980, on the first bishop of the newly established Diocese of Lake Charles. The Bishop of Lafayette Gerard Louis Frey gave him on 25 April 1980, the episcopal ordination; Co-consecrators were Maurice Schexnayder, Bishop Emeritus of Lafayette, and Harold Robert Perry, SVD, Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans. He built the diocese on both pastoral and administrative and founded the Tabor Retreat House and the Katharine Drexel Conference Center at Saint Charles Center, the diocesan spiritual center.

On 12 December 2000 his retirement request was granted on health grounds by Pope John Paul II. He was Diocesan Administrator of Lake Charles to 21 February 2001.