Archbishop John R. Roach, who led the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for two decades, died Friday of heart failure. He was 81.
Roach graduated from the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity in 1946, and was ordained the same year. He worked as the parish priest of Saint Stephen, in Minneapolis, taught for a while and then became headmaster of Saint Thomas Academy.
Fourteen years later, Roach founded the Saint John Vianney Seminary and served as its first rector. He also received the first Saint Paul Seminary Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1975, Pope Paul VI appointed Roach to lead the archdiocese. He was the first Minneosta native to do so. During his tenure, Roach was arrested for drunken driving and for mishandling the clergy sex abuse cases in the 1980s. Roach served until his retirement in 1995.
July 12, 2003 by
John Roach
Categories: Religious Leaders
not really a tribute, but a comment.
There was a priest “coincidentally” in Miami, Florida in the 60’s but I am positive along with my twin sister that the former “Father” John Roach did serve temporarily as a visiting priest.
We believe he was indeed interested in the topic of sex abuse cases because we recall together that he was a pedophile, and have/had attempted to alert church clergy for years upon realizing he was indeed still alive and very much involved in this, of all things sex abuse cases, and may I say he was quite drunk at the time. Please post this or at least consider this as a reverse tribute. (not lying – just getting angry still to this day it was never brought forth in public, and wishing that others would step forward.
Yes it is a serious accusation, but TRUE.