Father Joseph Patrick Edwige Carré, pastor of St. Lawrence Church in Joelton, celebrated the 40th anniversary of his ordination as a priest with a special Mass on Sunday, Oct. 16, on the church campus.
Bishop J. Mark Spalding served as the main celebrant of the Mass with Bishop Marie Erick Glandas Toussaint, Bishop of Jacmel, Haiti, concelebrating. Additionally several priests and deacons of the Diocese of Nashville and of Haiti were also present.
Father Carré was ordained in his native Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Oct. 16, 1983.
During his first 22 years of priesthood, Father Carré served as associate pastor, teacher, and pastor at several Haitian churches and schools. During his final assignment in Haiti as pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption in Petit-Goave of the Diocese of Port-au-Prince, he became associated with St. Stephen Catholic Community in Old Hickory through the Parish Twinning Program of the Americas, which began between the two churches in the early 1990s.
“The Twinning Program is doing such a good job for the Catholic Church in Haiti, to where I didn’t know if it could’ve survived without it,” Father Carré previously told the Tennessee Register. That relationship is what helped him make a decision about where to settle after being forced to leave Haiti in 2005.
“My presence here is a thank you for all they did,” he said. “I didn’t know anybody here except my American friends from St. Stephen, but I knew I was in a place where I could feel like home because it was a diocese where people really cared.”
Upon arriving in Nashville, Father Carré began his ministry as administrator of Holy Name Church in East Nashville, before being named its pastor in July 2006.
He later served as pastor of St. Ann Church from 2015-2017, until he was appointed administrator of St. Lawrence Church in Joelton in July 2017. He has served as pastor of St. Lawrence since July 2019.
Father Carré was officially incardinated as a priest of the diocese in July 2012, and officially became a naturalized citizen of the United States on Nov. 15, 2013.
