By Matt McDonald
Boston, Mass., Dec 18, 2024 / 16:30 pm
Father Roger Landry is now Monsignor Roger Landry — but he says he’s not ready to abandon the title “Father” anytime soon.
Monsignor Landry, 54, the incoming national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States and a regular contributor to the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister publication, said he got the news this past weekend. He made it public Tuesday morning.
He said the new title, which is an honor bestowed by the pope, “will take some getting used to,” adding that he prefers the simpler title he has had during his 25 years of priesthood.
“I really love being called ‘Father,’ which is an ever-present challenge, every time it’s used, to respond as a spiritual father in the image of God the Father and of my own hardworking manly dad. I think it’s the greatest title to which any man and priest ought to aspire,” he told the Register.
“But I anticipate those who have always known me as ‘Father’ or strangers who see me dressed in black, will still use it as the most natural vocative. I hope they do,” he continued.
Monsignor Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, where he serves as executive editor of the diocese’s newspaper, The Anchor. The diocese sent a written statement to its priests this past weekend. It says:
“On November 14, 2024, Fr. Roger Landry was honored with the title Chaplain of His Holiness by the Holy Father, Pope Francis, for his distinguished service to the Church.
Join Us in Congratulating Monsignor Landry on His New Title!
Let us all wish Monsignor Landry hearty congratulations and best wishes.
Monsignor Landry shared with the Register that he was informed of his new title by Fall River Bishop Edgar da Cunha this past Saturday.
He expressed surprise at the news, given that in 2014 Pope Francis had announced stricter criteria for the conferral of the title of monsignor. The new rules limited eligibility to priests in the Holy See’s diplomatic corps, those who had served at least five years in the Vatican, and diocesan priests over the age of 65. The only category that applied to Monsignor Landry was that of the diplomatic service. However, having worked for seven years as an attaché to the Holy See’s diplomatic corps at the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York with no title conferred, he assumed he was exempt.
Monsignor Landry hails from Lowell, Massachusetts, where he was his high-school class valedictorian. He pursued a bachelor’s degree in biology at Harvard in 1992 and was ordained a priest in 1999 after completing his studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
His pastoral journey began as a parochial vicar at parishes in Fall River and Hyannis. He later served as a pastor in New Bedford and another church in Fall River before undertaking assignments outside his diocese for the past nine years.
From 2015 to 2022, he served as an attaché to the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York. Subsequently, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, appointed him as the Catholic chaplain at Columbia University.
Congratulations, Monsignor Landry, on this well-deserved recognition of your service and dedication. We are grateful for your commitment to the Church and the community.
