Mitchell T. Rozanski

Mitchell Rozanski was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He is of Polish descent and his surname means in Polish rose.[1] He attended Sacred Heart of Mary School in Dundalk, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel High School in Essex, and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., before entering the Theological College at the Catholic University, where he received seminary training.[2]

He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop William Borders on November 24, 1984.[3]

His parish assignments included appointments at St. Michael Church in Overlea in 1984 and the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in 1985.[2] He was appointed Associate Pastor at St. Anthony Church in Baltimore in 1985 and at St. Isaac Jogues Church in the same city in 1990. He was named administrator of Holy Cross Church and of St. Mary Star of the Sea Church in Baltimore in March 1993, before being appointed pastor there in the following October.[2] In January 2000, he was appointed temporary administrator of Immaculate Conception Church in Towson and in June of that year he assumed the same duties for St. John the Evangelist Church in Severna Park, where he was named pastor on November 28, 2000.[2]

On July 3, 2004, Rozanski was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore and Titular Bishop of Walla Walla by Pope John Paul II.[3] He received his episcopal consecration on the following August 24 from William Cardinal Keeler, with Bishops William Newman and W. Francis Malooly serving as co-consecrators.[3] He selected as his episcopal motto: "Serve The Lord With Gladness."[4]

As an auxiliary bishop, Rozanski also served as Vicar for Hispanic Ministries and as Seton Vicar, in which position he ministered to the parishes in Anne Arundel, Howard, Carroll, Frederick, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Counties.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced on April 18, 2011, that he would succeed Edward U. Kmiec, the Bishop of Buffalo, New York, as Roman Catholic Co-Chairman of the Polish National Catholic-Roman Catholic dialogue, due to Bishop Kmiec's impending retirement. He was named to the post by Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, Georgia, and Chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. On November 12, 2013, he was elected to chair the USCCB Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs beginning in 2014.[5]

Coat of Arms as bishop of Springfield

On June 19, 2014, Pope Francis named Rozanski the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Springfield (Massachusetts).[6] He was installed as such on August 12, 2014.

In December 2019, Rozanski banned the Pioneer Valley Gay Men's Chorus from singing in a caroling concert at St. Theresa's of Lisieux Parish in South Hadley during the Christmas season, though invited by parishioners.[7][8]

In June 2020 Robert M. Hoatson who is the co-founder of Road to Recover Inc. for survivors of clerical sexual abuse publicly called on Rozanski to resign. Hoatson described Rozanski's handling of abuse allegations in the past years of a Chicopee individual against former Springfield bishop Christopher Joseph Weldon to be “woefully deficient.”[9] In that same month an investigation by retired Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis found the claim against Weldon "to be unequivocally credible."[10] Hoatson also called on Pope Francis to rescind the appointment of Rozanski as archbishop for St. Louis.[9]

On June 10, 2020, Pope Francis appointed him Archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, following the resignation of Robert James Carlson.[11] He was installed on August 25, 2020.[12]