Who’s No. 1? On Sunday, it’s no contest for Gayle Benson

By Les East
Contributing writer

Gayle Benson’s Catholic faith has always been a guiding force in her life.

  The arrival of football into her life came relatively late and despite some reluctance on her part.

And, nowadays, the nexus of her contrasting roles as a humble volunteer at the St. Louis Cathedral and the most prominent businessperson in New Orleans as the owner of the Saints has placed her at the forefront of the two most unifying gatherings in her hometown each autumn.

Benson is a key figure both at Sunday Mass, celebrated most prominently at the oldest continuously active cathedral in the United States, and Saints home games, played in front of sellout crowds less than two miles away.

As thousands and thousands of fans tailgated on the grounds of the Caesars Superdome and throughout adjacent neighborhoods in anticipation of the first regular-season home game Sept. 18, Benson resumed her own distinctive pre-game ritual.


THE LATE TOM BENSON SHOWS HIS SUPER BOWL XLIV RING TO POPE BENEDICT IN 2010 IN ST. PETER'S SQUARE.

Lector at 9 a.m. Sunday Mass
It started with her being a lector at 9 a.m. Mass at St. Louis Cathedral, then being whisked to the Superdome where she attended a 10:30 Mass for about 100 guests inside the Saints offices ahead of the noon kickoff against Tampa Bay.

Benson began as a lector at the Cathedral in the late 1990s, a handful of years before she met her late husband Tom Benson, who began the pregame Mass ritual shortly after buying the franchise in the mid-1980s.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond, Archbishop Emeritus Alfred Hughes and the late Archbishop Philip Hannan are among the many prominent celebrants of pre-game Mass inside the Dome.

“I think it is reflective of (Tom and Gayle Benson) being convinced that Sunday Mass is at the heart of their faith,” Archbishop Hughes said. “Whatever else is going on, however exciting it may be for 60,000-plus fans in the Dome and any number via television, they consider fidelity to the Mass to be incredibly important.

“I see that as an expression of wanting to keep in proper perspective all the wonderful things in which they were engaged in the wider community, undergirded by their faith in God.”

Catholic faith a lifelong guide
Gayle Marie LaJaunie grew up in Old Algiers and was never a likely candidate to run an NFL franchise, but if ever someone was preordained to guide a franchise that was born on All Saints’ Day and proudly took its nickname from that, she would be the one.

In order to understand how faith and football intersected in Gayle Benson’s life, we must go back to the mid-1980s and examine how she evolved from a faithful Catholic, but anonymous citizen, to a multi-faceted community leader.

“I grew up with a very humble beginning,” she said. “The only thing we had was our faith.”

Benson had immersed herself in her faith and her interior design business in the wake of “a horrible marriage.”

“She has had some very real challenges to overcome in life,” Archbishop Hughes said.

If not for Benson’s decades-long commitment to being a lector at St. Louis Cathedral, she never would have become the owner of the Saints (or the NBA Pelicans).

It is said that God works in mysterious ways.

  In this case, God worked with a Yorkie named Coco Chanel.

  Coco was one of two Yorkies that Benson had, and Coco went missing one day.

  “I was devastated,” Benson said. “I called my friend, and she and I put posters all over. The next day, I ran an ad in the paper.”

Days passed without any word on the dog, which was more than 10 years old and suffered from cataracts.

“I said you know what?” Benson recalled. “If I find that little dog, I’m going to go to Mass every day.”

Meanwhile she prayed and lit candles for Coco at Holy Name of Jesus Church, which she attended faithfully.

Lost and found
Finally, she got a phone call from a lady who had seen the ad in the newspaper and had found a dog that “didn’t look so good” at the corner of Napoleon and St. Charles.

“She said, ‘What is the name of your dog?’” Benson recalled.

Benson told the lady, and Coco answered when called.

“She came back on the phone and said, ‘I found your dog,’” Benson said. “I started crying.”

True to her word, Benson started going to Mass daily, eventually switching to the cathedral because it was more convenient to her office on St. Charles Avenue.

Oblate Father Frank Montalbano introduced himself to the lady who kept showing up at the 7:30 a.m. Mass.

“We became kind of friendly and he said, ‘I want you to start reading here,’” Benson recalled. “I said OK, and so I started reading at the cathedral and went to classes, and they trained me how to do that. After I did that, I started getting more and more involved.”

In addition to reading, Benson would help clean the cathedral and do other “chores.” She became involved with the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) for people interested in becoming Catholics.

Meanwhile, Tom Benson had become widowed in 2003 when his wife, Grace, died of Parkinson’s disease.

On the anniversary of Grace’s death, Mr. Benson attended Mass at the cathedral and afterward entered the sacristy to thank Msgr. Crosby Kern for celebrating the liturgy for Grace.

After speaking with the monsignor, Mr. Benson asked, “Who is this young lady” as he shook the lector’s hand.

“Football was never on my radar,” Gayle said, but Mr. Benson proved to be persistent and that eventually paid off.

“He was just so kind to me, very respectful, that I just fell in love with him,” Gayle added.

Mr. Benson proposed 4 1/2 months after their first date, and the couple was married two months after that.

Morning preparation
At that point, Gayle Benson’s life changed in many ways. She no longer had time to attend Mass every day, but she remained as a Sunday lector, and she continues to study the readings of the day “every single day, before I even get out of bed.”

“I open my phone, I put my glasses on, and I read the readings of the day,” Benson said. “It helps put you in a good spot. It gives you peace, and it makes you grounded to know that you’re going to be OK no matter what happens – every day.”

Benson’s meticulous preparation for her Sunday readings is not terribly different from her football team’s daily preparation for its performance on Sundays.

“I always read and study before I get to Mass on Sundays,” she Benson said.

“The Scriptures are not supposed to be read; they’re supposed to be proclaimed,” Archbishop Aymond explained. “So we train people in proclaiming the Scriptures that they not read, but that they proclaim them in such a way that it’s the telling of a story that happened thousands of years ago, and it’s happening today.

“It’s clear by the way that Gayle proclaims it that she has prayed over the Scriptures. The way it’s proclaimed should not just touch ears, but it should also touch the heart. And she does that.”

Both archbishops said when the Scriptures are proclaimed well by a lector, it enhances the homilist’s ability to connect with the congregation.

“A good lector is not someone who is flamboyant,” Archbishop Hughes said, “but someone who exhibits reverence for the Word and invites the congregation to pay attention to the content of the Word.

“There’s no question about the fact that when the Word of God is proclaimed reverently, that helps the homilist immensely. And Gayle is a good lector.”

Archbishop Hughes said St. Augustine was known to tell his priests that in addition to preparing their homilies well, they should listen closely and with an open mind as the Word is proclaimed.

“God may want the celebrant to hear something that had not touched him before that God wants the congregation to hear through him and thus make an adjustment in the homily that he has prepared,” Archbishop Hughes said. “So that’s another way in which – when the Word is proclaimed well – it can help the homilist be a better servant to God’s word.”

God is in charge
Benson’s celebrity came long after she had begun as a lector, and her continued reverent demeanor demonstrates that she still recognizes Archbishop Aymond’s admonition that “the personality (at Mass) is God.”

Nonetheless, Archbishop Hughes cited the fact that St. Augustine was inspired to his own conversion when a prominent orator named Marius Victorinus publicly became baptized.

“I don’t think we can (overstate) the importance of public people witnessing to what is important in life,” Archbishop Hughes said.

Benson said she is fond of the message in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, which says in part: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

“That’s my favorite,” Benson said. “But all of the Gospels and all of the readings always give you some sort of message. I feel like, if people will listen to it and reflect on it, you always learn something from it, even if it’s just one little sentence or one little word.”

When told of Benson’s favorite reading, Archbishop Aymond responded, “I think her life would indicate that she believes those words and tries to live them.”

Prior to the 9 a.m. Mass at the cathedral on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, the French Quarter was unusually crowded because thousands of tourists were in town for the Florida State-LSU football game that would be played that evening in the Superdome.

The out-of-towners likely didn’t realize that the lector who jumped in to help as a eucharistic minister to accommodate the larger-than-usual congregation was also the owner of the Saints.

Many others were watching on television, which has been a custom for decades.

Second TV Mass added
The 11 a.m. Mass on Sundays has long been televised on WLAE-TV, but on July 4, 2021, the 9 a.m. Mass started airing on FOX 8, which has a larger reach.

“It was her idea,” Archbishop Aymond said.

Benson’s personal celebration of Mass prior to Saints games is replicated this time of year as the broadcast of the early Mass leads into an NFL pre-game show.

Archbishop Aymond considered Benson’s philanthropic role in the community as he quoted St. Peter: “We have to put our gifts at the service of others.”

“That describes Gayle,” Archbishop Aymond said. “People sometimes say she’s very generous to the church. That’s true, and we’re glad, but she’s also very generous to the community. Wherever she sees a need she puts some of the gifts that God has given to her. She certainly brings a blessing to our city, to our church, to our society.”

The Bensons have long been philanthropic leaders in the region.

When Mrs. Benson inherited her husband’s business empire – which also includes among other entities three automobile dealerships, the Faubourg Brewery and a horse racing stable and farm – upon his passing on March 15, 2018, she never considered abandoning her role at the cathedral.

“I felt like the Lord had been blessing me, and he deserved my praise,” she said. “I feel like it’s my way of giving him praise and giving back to him for all that he has done for me. It’s overwhelming when I think about it.

“I wake up every day and thank God that I’m alive and that I’m healthy and that I have good people around me, and that’s really all that I could ask for. I’m grateful for all the fans, and I’m so happy that they love the Saints and they appreciate the Saints and the Pelicans and everything that we do.”

Then the humble volunteer considered the prominence of the business mogul.

“I never look at myself as somebody that’s taken over all this stuff,” she said. “I just try to live the way that God wants me to – one day at a time.”

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