Rev. Rick Day was the 14th pastor at St. Joseph Church and Shrine on the West Bank from June 5, 2009 to June 30, 2017.
Day was born on Sept. 10, 1954 on Lavoisier Street, three blocks from St. Joseph Church, located on the corner of 6th and Lavoisier Streets where he was baptized and eventually became pastor.
The reverend was the youngest child in a family of nine. His parents and the oldest children came to the United States from Honduras in 1943 and the younger children were born here.
Day's siblings include Charley Day, Olive D. Duett, Sofia D. Calcagno, Rosa D. Borne, Arthur Day, Louisa D. Battalio, Clara C. Harrison and Consuelo D. Stewart.
Educated in Gretna schools, Day graduated from West Jefferson High and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Louisiana Tech University in 1977. He was hired on at WGNO-TV in the advertising department where he worked for many years as the station's still photographer.Discerning a call to the priesthood, Day entered Notre Dame Seminary in 1988, earned a Master of Divinity degree and was ordained a Catholic priest for the Archdiocese of New Orleans on May 25, 1996. He celebrated his first Mass at St. Joseph Church on Pentecost Sunday of that year.
Rev. Day is currently chaplain at West Jefferson Hospital and Ochsner Hospital on the Westbank.