Local Catholic clergy and diocesan officials permitted, promoted, and participated in the popular veneration of Richard for years prior to her being named a Servant of God.

[2][6] At the request of her family, she was informed by the hospital chaplain, Joseph Brennan, a newly ordained Catholic priest, that she was going to die.

[1][2] The Director of Pediatrics at the hospital, Theresita Crowley, a nun, also witnessed her calm acceptance of suffering and prayers for others.

[1] Floyd J. Calais, a Catholic priest who was at the time the chaplain of Charity Hospital in Lafayette, was a close friend of Brennan.

Calais says that he was "invited to retreats and recollections, and began speaking about Charlene, how she achieved grace before she died" and about the need for money to build a new church in the parish.

A 1975 series of articles about Richard in the newspaper of the Lafayette diocese spread the cult and were republished in a booklet, Charlene, A Saint from Southwest Louisiana, in 1979.

[4][11] On the thirtieth anniversary of her death that year, an outdoor Mass was held there which was attended by four thousand people and which was covered by Louisiana television stations and the Cable News Network, and was reported in newspapers in Louisiana, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Albany, and Seattle.

[1][4][7][9][11][12][13][14][15] The media coverage resulted in knowledge of Richard spreading world-wide, with interest in her expressed in Yugoslavia, Croatia, Australia, and Africa.

[10][16][17] Though no beatification process had begun for Richard, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette began collecting in 1991 testimonials about reputed help obtained through her.