Fr. Shenan Boquet is the president of Human Life International. Before coming to HLI, he most recently served as Pastor of St. Gregory Barbarigo Parish in Houma, Louisiana.
Since being ordained as a priest in 1993, Fr. Boquet has given hundreds of talks at conferences and in parishes on issues ranging from the dignity of the human person and the nature of marriage, to social justice and moral theology. He has given retreats and educational seminars on the Theology of the Body, Holy Scripture and various theological topics. Fr. Boquet has also appeared numerous times on EWTN and Ave Maria Radio, as well as in other media. He has served and continues to serve on numerous boards, including the Diocesan Priests Council, of which he remains Chairman.
Fr. Boquet grew up in the small town of Bourg, Louisiana, just south of Houma in a devoutly Catholic family, for which he is extremely grateful. His earliest and most influential examples were of his parents and parish priests, all of whom instilled in him at a young age a love for Christ and his Church, and an active faith that was to be lived, and not merely held. He was very active as a youth in service projects with Catholic Charities and with other groups who ministered to the elderly, the sick, the poor, and the marginalized.
This active faith grew naturally into a vocation to the priesthood, where the contemplative and sacramental aspects of the Faith complemented and informed the active. A natural teacher, Fr. Boquet has been marginalized himself at times for sharing the Church’s teaching on life and family issues, although he emphasizes that it is important to do so with Charity. Throughout his priesthood, he has found himself in leadership positions, and increasingly in the areas of pro-life and pro-family teaching and advocacy.