Bishop John Rickard, who led the National Black Catholic Congress for three decades and served as bishop in two US dioceses, died on May 20 at the age of 86.
he died Announced by the Archdiocese of Baltimore In the archdiocesan newspaper, Catholic Review. According to the archdiocese, Rickard died at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Washington, DC.
“The death of Bishop John Rickard is a deep loss for our local Church and the entire Catholic community in the United States,” Baltimore Archbishop William Lowery said in the announcement.
Lori said Rickard, a former auxiliary bishop in Baltimore, “served this archdiocese with grace, humility and a joyful spirit that endeared him to all who met him.”
Born on February 29, 1940 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as one of eight children, Rickard attended Epiphany Apostolic College in Newburgh, New York. He completed theological studies at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Washington, DC, and received a doctoral degree from the Catholic University of America.
He joined the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, or Josephites, in 1962 and took his final vows on June 1, 1967. He was ordained to the priesthood by Baton Rouge Bishop Emmett Tracy on May 25, 1968.
He served several parishes in New Orleans and Washington before being appointed as Vicar Bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore by Pope John Paul II. He was later consecrated an auxiliary bishop of that archdiocese on July 2, 1984, the first black bishop to serve there.
In 1997 he was appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, where he served until 2011, when he retired for health reasons.
In addition to his duties as prelate, Rickard also served as the first president of the National Black Catholic Congress, a role he held from the congress’s founding in 1987 until 2017.
Following his retirement from Pensacola-Tallahassee, he served as rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Washington. He was elected Superior General of the Josephites in 2019.
Having grown up amid widespread racism in the segregated South before the Civil Rights era, Rickard has several times commented on racial conflict in the United States, including the civil unrest surrounding police shootings in 2016, which he described as a “wake up call for all of us” in an interview with Catholic News Service.
Bishop said he and his friends “lived under constant threat of being arrested” in Louisiana during the 1950s. He said that the Catholic Church could “bring (a lot) to the table” of racial reform in the United States.
“We have a lot of work to do,” he told the news service.
In a statement released after his death, the Josephites said Ricard “faithfully served the Catholic Church for decades through his ministry as a Josephite priest, counselor, teacher, pastor, bishop, humanitarian and leader.”
“He dedicated his life to the proclamation of the Gospel, humanitarian efforts around the world, the mission of the Josephite Society, and the pastoral care of God’s people, especially within Black Catholic communities,” he said.
The Josephites asked for prayers “for the repose of the soul of Bishop Ricard, for the Josephite community, his family, friends and all those who mourn his passing.”
