Louisiana priest who once headed bishops' Family Life Bureau dies

Published: 2006-07-20

LAKE CHARLES, La. (CNS) -- Msgr. Irving A. DeBlanc, who once headed the national Family Life Bureau of the U.S. bishops in Washington and had a syndicated column in the Catholic press, died July 16 at Christus St. Patrick Hospital in Lake Charles. He was 91. His funeral Mass was celebrated July 20 at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Parish in Lake Charles, where he served as pastor for 31 years. It was followed by interment in a special vault reserved for him outside the front entrance to the church. From 1955 to 1961 Msgr. DeBlanc was head of the Family Life Bureau of what was then known as the National Catholic Welfare Conference, the predecessor of the present-day U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The bureau, part of the conference's Social Action Department, was a central organization for coordinating and developing family life programs nationwide and provided assistance and resources for diocesan family life offices across the country. For years he wrote a nationally syndicated weekly column, "Making Marriage Click," and he was the author of numerous works on engagement, marriage, parenting and other aspects of family life.

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