Fr. Mark Beard, Beloved Louisiana Priest, Dies in Car Crash, by Anthony Iafrate

Fr. Mark Beard (R) and CatholicVote’s Anthony Iafrate (L) outside St. Helena Catholic Church on Pentecost Sunday, May 28, 2023

CV NEWS FEED // Fr. Mark Beard, a fixture of his rural Louisiana community, passed away in a tragic car accident Wednesday afternoon. He was 62.

Bishop Michael G. Duca of the Diocese of Baton Rouge asked “for prayers for Fr. Beard and his family, parishioners, and friends who mourn his loss.”

Fr. Mark served as the pastor of St. Helena Catholic Church in Amite, LA, for over a decade. Amite (pronounced ay-meet) is a small city of four thousand people not far from the Mississippi border. Located in a heavily Protestant area of the state, it contains dozens of churches of multiple denominations, with St. Helena being its sole Catholic church.

A local pillar, Fr. Mark was adored not just by Amite residents but by people throughout the entire surrounding region. Parishioners came far and wide to hear him preach the Gospel.

Through God’s grace, the late St. Helena pastor took great pride in the beautification of his parish grounds. He added life-sized statues of the 12 Apostles and Our Lady, a life-sized replica of the Garden of Gethsemane, an exhibit detailing the Jewish roots of the Eucharist, and a perpetual adoration chapel.

He also produced detailed faith-formation packets on a variety of topics, which are on sale at the parish store. Among these is a roughly-fifty page volume, printed in full color, on the Defense of Holy Mother Church. …