Father Roach, noted church historian and longtime pastor, will stay active in retirement

Note: Five priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore will be retiring July 1. The Review profiles the five as their parishes bid them farewell. Click here to read more retirement profiles. 

Five parishes; 88 semesters teaching at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg; a new church; a new parish cemetery in the planning stages; 50 years in the priesthood.

Perhaps Father Michael Roach’s life could best be summed up by one of his favorite quotations, by St. Clement of Alexandria: “All life is a holy festival.”

It’s a festival he’s shared from Dundalk to West Baltimore to Carroll County.

As pastor at St. Peter the Apostle in Baltimore, he used to sit on the rectory’s marble steps. Occasionally, Mayor William Donald Schaefer stopped to chat, but most times the people he spoke with were poor.

“That’s where the church makes the most sense,” Father Roach said. “They bring hope.”

Often, he hurried to offer a prayer and hold the hand of someone drawing their last breath. He remembers the first time. 

“It was almost shattering,” he said, “the profundity of it.”

Father Roach has witnessed many of life’s milestones. “People are letting you into their lives. You’re the priest and that still says something to people,” he said.

A keen advocate of Catholic schools, he has served on the boards of The Cardinal Gibbons School in Baltimore, Madonna Cluster School in West Baltimore and Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville.

With sadness, he noted that Gibbons and Madonna have since closed, but Mount de Sales overcame likely closure and today thrives with 500 students. “That’s why I really rejoice at Mount de Sales’ success,” he said.

Father Roach, 76, was born into St. Bernardine’s Parish in West Baltimore. After his family, including a brother and two sisters, moved farther west, he attended St. William of York School. After a year in minor seminary, he graduated from Loyola Blakefield in Towson and what is now Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore.

Michael Roach was just a boy when his physician father would invite priests to family dinner. He loved hearing their stories of parish life and believes those stories drew him to the priesthood.

“I love a story,” he noted. “The Lord Jesus loved a story.”

Both tracks of his life – as a parish priest and as a scholar – have been marked by love and hope.

Standing in front of a classroom at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, he’s heartened by the seminarians who want to bring Christ to the people and the people to Christ. “That gives me hope,” he said.

In his 88 semesters at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Father Roach taught seven future bishops and two archbishops. “The ones I’m proudest of are the parish priests,” he added.

Father Roach loves teaching, but, he added, “I love parish work more. People take you into their hearts.”

He still has a soft spot for parishioners who welcomed him at his first assignment, Our Lady of Hope in Dundalk. 

“The priest is part of the family,” he explained. “I learned that in Dundalk. You’re beside them at the most important parts of their lives. Of course, they’ll take care of you.”

After six years there, then three at St. Dominic in Baltimore, he was named pastor of St. Peter the Apostle.

“The great privilege of my life was to serve the poor down there,” he said.

After 14 years, he traded city life for the country, becoming pastor at St. Bartholomew. “This is perhaps the great joy of my life,” he said.

During his 26 years at the Carroll County parish, he has been blessed with generous, supportive parishioners and a loyal, long-serving staff. One of his signature accomplishments was construction of a “fairly traditional church.” 

“And it’s paid for,” Father Roach said. “It’s the grace of God.”

And it’s thanks to Father Roach, according to Stephen Letnaunchyn, a 50-year parishioner at St. Bartholomew’s and the longest-serving member of the capital campaign committee. The parish had been talking about building a new church for a long time but it was Father Roach who kickstarted the process, Letnaunchyn said. 

“We could never imagine having enough money because inflation was ahead of us and growth was ahead of us,” she said.

Though Father Roach never talked about money, he was present at every fundraiser from the Christmas bazaar to Shrove Tuesday dinner. He got the parish’s Knights of Columbus to commit to it, inspired parishioners to organize an investment club and supported the basket bingo.

Once Father Roach supported the project, funds started building up. 

“People had a sense that it was a realistic goal,” Letnaunchyn said.

The result is a church that has held 1,500 people on Christmas, served as the site for police and military funerals and as a repository of local and state church history.

Letnaunchyn hailed Father Roach’s work at Mount St. Mary’s, his support of seminarians and how he’ll answer a late night call to visit the sick or shorten his vacation to preside at a funeral.

“He’s not just a clergyman, he’s a person and a friend,” he said.

Becky Walsh, director of religious education and a parishioner since 1969, praised Father Roach’s ability to get the church built, his knowledgeable opinions and original homilies, as well as the way he welcomes anyone who wants to volunteer at the parish. 

“He has kept us a homey kind of parish,” she said. “We’re all going to miss him. He’s our pastor and ‘Father’ is appropriate. He’s very real.”

Father Roach hopes to see construction of the parish’s new cemetery get underway before he retires July 1.

The priest still has lots to do. He plans to continue teaching at the Mount, help out at liturgy and hopes to visit Ireland – a continuation of the “holy festival” of a priest’s life.

Click below to listen to a Catholic Review Radio interview with Father Roach.

Also see

Father William Au, pastor of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, is set to retire

Father Demek retires after nearly 50 years as a priest

Father Gills retires after a ministry that took him around the world and around the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Father Foley, pastor to retired priests, set to retire himself

‘Unflappable’ pastor who shepherded major parish projects ready to retire

Approaching retirement, Monsignor Barker reflects on shepherding one of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese of Baltimore

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