A Look At Bishop Duca's New Coat of Arms - Diocese of Shreveport

Monday is the big day that Catholics in North Louisiana have looked forward too. The Diocese of Shreveport will have a BISHOP.

I am always curious about a Bishop's Coat of Arms. We now have information on the soon to be Bishop Duca's Coat of Arms The Catholic Connection has a special edition for this glorious event also

The episcopal heraldic achievement, or bishop’s coat of arms, is composed of a shield with its charges (symbols), a motto scroll and the external ornamentation. The shield, which is the central and most important feature of any heraldic device, is described (blazoned) in 12th century terms, that are archaic to our modern language, and this description is presented as if given by the bearer with the shield being worn on the arm.

Thus, where it applies, the terms dexter and sinister are reversed as the device is viewed from the front. By heraldic tradition the arms of the bishop are joined, impaled, with the arms of his jurisdiction. In this case, these are the arms of the Diocese of Shreveport.

These arms are composed of a red field on which is displayed a silver (white) wavy shakefork with is charged with a gold (yellow) sunburst. The sunburst with the monogram of the Holy Name (IHS) is a classic charge in design for members of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, and it is employed here to honor St. John Berchmans, titular of the cathedral-church in Shreveport who was a Jesuit and an associate of St. Aloyisus Gonzaga. Issuant from the sunburst are three wavy bars to signify the three rivers, the Red, the Mississippi and the Ouachita, that run through the Diocese of Shreveport.For his personal arms, His Excellency, Bishop Duca has adopted a design to reflect his life and ministry as a priest.

His Excellency’s personal arms are divided into four quarters. The first quarter is silver (white) with a red sunburst to honor the great Dominican Theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, patron of His Excellency’s home parish and the school he attended.

The second quarter is blue with a silver (white) star to recall the Bishop’s home in Texas, the Lone Star State. (UGGHHHH LOL- I HOPE THE BISHOP IS NOT GOING TO SPREAD ANY DALLAS COWBOY HERESY IN HIS NEW DIOCESE. THe New Bishop Must Learn We Are Saints Fan's Here)

The third quarter is also blue and holds a silver (white) lily for St. Joseph, the Bishop’s Confirmation namesake and the special patron of the Italian community.

The fourth quarter of silver (white) holds a Sacred Heart that is colored “Proper,” which is “how it normally appears,” being a red heart with gold flames and enwrapped by a gold crown of thorns recalling the church of his baptism.

On a small silver (white) shield at the center of the design, known as an escutcheon, is a red cross charged with a triple loop, that looks very much like a Celtic knot, used to represent the Most Blessed Trinity and this escutcheon is the logo of the Holy Trinity Seminary, in Irving, Texas, where His Excellency was serving as Rector when he was called to receive the fullness of Christ’s Priesthood, as a bishop, becoming the Bishop of Shreveport.

His Excellency, Bishop Duca has selected for his motto “HOPE IN THE LORD.” This phrase, taken from the 31st Psalm (Ps. 31:25), expresses the Bishop’s firm belief that in all we do as Christians we are to have courage and abiding faith in He who has set us free knowing that to do all we must “Hope in The Lord.”

The achievement is completed with the external ornaments which are a gold episcopal processional cross, that is placed in back of and which extends above and below the shield, and the pontifical hat, called a “gallero,” with its six tassels, in three rows, on either side of the shield, all in green. These are the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of bishop by instruction of The Holy See of March 31, 1969.

Designed and written by Deacon Paul J. Sullivan