FATHER KARL JOHN ROESCH, OSB

MAY 27, 1934 – MARCH 7, 2017

 
The community of St. Mary’s Abbey announces with sorrow the passing from this life of Father Karl John Roesch, OSB, after a long illness, in the eighty-third year of his life, the sixty-third of his monastic profession, and the fifty-seventh of his priesthood.

Father Karl was born John Roesch, Jr. in Newark, New Jersey to John and Mary Roesch on May 27, 1934 and christened at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament. John attended the parish school and later graduated from Saint Benedict’s Preparatory School, Newark, in 1951. It was at St. Benedict’s thatJohn encountered the Benedictine monks of St. Mary’s Abbey.

John entered St. Vincent College in 1951, interrupting his course of studies by the year of novitiate as a Benedictine monk at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Atchison, Kansas, where he pronounced monastic vows in 1954 as Frater Karl. He returned to St. Vincent where he graduated in 1956. Frater Karl then began the study of theology at St. Mary’s Abbey School of Theology at Delbarton. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1960.

Father Karl quickly became an integral figure at Delbarton School, serving at various times as prefect of boarding students, director of transportation, advanced placement coordinator, and coach of freshman football and varsity baseball. He chaired the committee that planned the renovation of St. Joseph Gymnasium and the new Abbot Brian Clarke Gymnasium. Meanwhile, he taught full-time, having earned a master’s degree in mathematics at the Catholic University of America. He was, however, about to begin a second career.

In 1987, after almost thirty years of service in education at Delbarton, Father Karl accepted the call to assume the pastorate of the Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Linden, New Jersey, then under the care of St. Mary’s Abbey.

Father Karl gave himself to the pastoral service of the people of Linden until 2000, when a new chapter in his life opened with an invitation to move south, to St. Mary Virgin Mother Parish in Hartsville, South Carolina. He embraced his new environment as pastor and accepted several posts in the Diocese of Charleston, which includes the entire state. Here he remained for sixteen more years until illness forced his retirement and return home.

Father Karl is survived by his nieces and nephews and his monastic community.

The Reception of Father Karl’s body will take place at St. Mary’s Abbey Church at 4:00 on Sunday afternoon, March 12.  The Funeral Mass for Father Karl will take place on Monday, March 13 at 11:00 AM at the Abbey Church.  Interment will follow in the Abbey Cemetery.