Laurence Higgins

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Monsignor Laurence Higgins is the former pastor of St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Tampa, Florida uner the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg. He is an influential member of the Tampa Bay community, involved in politics, humanitarian efforts, and commerce.

Monsignor Higgins was born in Derry, Northern Ireland and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1953. He was then transferred to the then broad Florida Diocese of St. Augustine where he worked in Miami, and shortly after in Tampa where he founded St. Lawrence Catholic Church. At the time, St. Lawrence was not the parish known for its top-notch facilities. Instead, then Father Higgins led mass at community centers and ultimately at the social hall (which still remains standing and recently renovated). He has remained at the parish since 1958. As a priest he has remained active in the diocese, serving as the Vicar General of the Diocese of St. Petersburg under the late Bishop Thomas Larkin. In 1983, his Holiness Pope John Paul II gave him the title of Monsignor Prelate of Honor and subsequently in 1988 Protonotary Apostolic, the highest ranking of Monsignor.

As pastor, he has overseen the parish develop out of its roots as a small parish into one of Tampa's largest Catholic parishes. St. Lawrence Catholic School has long been regarded as one of Tampa's finest parochial schools, with most of its graduates continuing their education at Jesuit High School of Tampa, the Academy of the Holy Names, and Tampa Catholic High School. Monsignor has remained active in each of those high school communities as well, most recently drawing a donation from George Steinbrenner for the building of a new football field at Tampa Catholic. St. Lawrence is also the home of Monsignor's namesake mini-convention center, Higgins Hall, a venue that has hosted thousands of conventions, wedding/celebration parties, and large scale banquets.

Among his roles outside the priesthood, he is a chaplain for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and serves on planning and executive boards for the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) and the Bay Area Legal Services. Higgins is commonly turned to by the Bay area media outlets to comment on controversial and church-related issues, even being more commonly recognized by Bay area non-Catholics moreso than the serving Bishop Robert Lynch.

On April 1, 2007 he announced his retirement as the pastor of the parish effective June 30, 2007. He intends on remaining at the parish as pastor emeritus. His successor is St. Lawrence Catholic School alumnus and Tampa Catholic High School alumnus Fr. Thomas Morgan.