(1950 – 2025)
January 19, 2025
With great sadness, we announce that our brother, Rev. Ronald G. Roberson, C.S.P., has entered eternal life.
He died on Sunday afternoon, January 19, 2025, at the Mary Manning Walsh Home in New York City, due to Parkinson’s disease. He was 74 years old.
Fr. Roberson had been a member of the Paulist community for 52 years and a priest for 47 years.
He was an international leader in ecumenical dialogues and the promotion of Christian unity.
In August, 2023, he retired as associate director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., after 28 years working in that office.
Ronald Glenn Roberson was born May 24, 1950, in Hutchinson, KS, the eldest of three children of Ivan and Joyce Hewitt Roberson.
He attended Hutchinson High School and Hutchinson Community Junior College. In May, 1972, he earned a bachelor of arts in political science at the University of Kansas.
Raised a Methodist, he attended a “Search” retreat during his time at the University of Kansas that set him on the path to becoming a Catholic.
“My eyes were opened to the light of Christian love and simultaneously to the beauty of the Catholic tradition,” he later wrote.
After entering the Catholic Church on May 7, 1971, he began to think about the priesthood. A priest in his hometown suggested he look at the Paulist Fathers.
He entered the Paulist novitiate on September 14, 1972; made his First Promises on August 19, 1973; and made his Final Promises on September 7, 1976. During his time in the seminary, he earned a master’s degree at The Catholic University of America.
Fr. Roberson was ordained a priest on May 14, 1977.
In his first priestly assignment, he served for five years in pastoral ministry at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.
In 1982, he moved to Rome, Italy, for graduate studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute (the Orientale), receiving a doctoral degree there in 1988 after defending his thesis on Contemporary Romanian Orthodox Ecclesiology.
From 1988 to 1992, he was a member of the staff of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, where he worked in relations with the Orthodox Christian Churches.
In 1992 and 1993, Fr. Roberson was associate pastor at the Church of Santa Susanna, which was then the parish for American Catholics in Rome. He then spent two years as associate director of the Paulist formation program in Washington, D.C.
In September, 1995, he began his work with the U.S. Bishops’ Conference in ecumenical and interreligious affairs.
Fr. Roberson staffed dialogues on the national level with the Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Polish National Catholic, and Episcopal Churches, as well as the ecumenical initiative Christian Churches Together (USA).
In 2005, he was named a Catholic member of the international dialogue between the Catholic Church and the six Oriental Orthodox Churches: the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India.
Fr. Roberson was the author of the book “The Eastern Christian Churches: A Brief Survey.”
Describing this work in a 2018 interview, Fr. Roberson said it’s important to take the long view. “It’s always steps forward and steps back,” he said. “The trend has been toward greater unity … Christians more and more are emphasizing what we have in common.”
Upon retirement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Fr. Roberson entered senior ministry.
Over nearly three decades in Washington, D.C., Fr. Roberson lived alongside the Paulist formation community. He was a friend to generations of Paulist seminarians at St. Paul’s College, St. Joseph’s Seminary, and Hecker House.
“Ron preached with authority and insight. He displayed his passion and wit at the dining table,” said Rev. Rich Andre, C.S.P. “He influenced me in countless ways, including how I interpret certain passages in scripture.”
In 2024, Fr. Roberson moved to the Paulist Motherhouse in New York City.
In addition to his brother Paulists, he is survived by his brother, Jeff, and sister-in-law, Anette; his sister, Jane, and brother-in-law, Mike; his niece, Jacqueline; and nephew, Andrew.
Our prayer for our brother, Ron:
May the angels lead you into paradise,
may the martyrs come to welcome you,
and take you to the holy city,
the new and eternal Jerusalem.
A wake service for Fr. Roberson will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m., on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City. The Mass will be broadcast live on the parish’s YouTube channel.
The principal celebrant of the Mass of Christian Burial will be Very Rev. René Constanza, C.S.P., president of the Paulist Fathers. The homily will be preached by Rev. John Hurley, C.S.P., another member of the Paulist Ordination Class of 1977.
Burial will follow in the Paulist section of St. Thomas Cemetery in Oak Ridge, NJ.
On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, at 3 p.m., an ecumenical memorial service for Fr. Roberson will be held in the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
All are welcome to attend.
