Thomas Roberts (archbishop)

infobox bishopstyles
name=Thomas Roberts
dipstyle=The Most Reverend
offstyle=Your Excellency
relstyle=Monsignor
deathstyle= |

Thomas d'Esterre Roberts, SJ (March 7, 1893—February 28, 1976) was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Bombay in India from 1937 to 1950.

Biography

Born to English parents in Le Havre, France, Thomas Roberts was ordained as a Jesuit priest on September 20, 1925. He later served as a teacher in Liverpool [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874002-1,00.html Gadfly] July 13, 1964] .

On August 12, 1937, he was appointed Archbishop of Bombay by Pope Pius XI. Roberts, who was informed of his appointment by a reporter [Ibid.] , received his episcopal consecration on the following September 21 from Archbishop Richard Downey, with Archbishop Francis Mostyn and Bishop Robert Dobson serving as co-consecrators.

After thirteen years of service, the Jesuit prelate resigned as Bombay's archbishop on December 4, 1950, in order for a native Indian to govern his see. Bishop Valerian Gracias, who was responsible for the archdiocese during a leave of absence of Roberts' [Novak, Michael. "The Open Church". Transaction Publishers, 2001.] , was named his successor. Upon his resignation, Roberts was also named Titular Archbishop of "Sugdaea". He then returned to England, in Mayfair, London, and dedicated himself to lecturing, traveling, writing, and promoting theologically liberal causes.

From 1962 to 1965, Roberts attended the Second Vatican Council; he once described an ecumenical council as "a football match at which all the players are bishops" [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,829211,00.html The Church in Council] October 5, 1962] . In reference to the third session of the Council, which discussed the guilt of the Jews for deicide, Roberts declared, "It is so plain that the guilt lay not with the Jewish people, but with the Jewish priestly establishment, that it seems legitimate to wonder whether the refusal to face up to this may not be a subconscious reluctance to face up to the analogy in the Church today" [Historical Text Archive. [http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php/sections.php?artid=76&op=viewarticle Catholics, Jews, and Vatican II: A New Beginning] ] .

During the third session, Roberts also played a significant role in promoting recognition of conscientious objection to war, using the example of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian anti-Nazi farmer and also church sexton who was beheaded in 1943 for his refusal to serve in in the army. People like Jägerstätter, Roberts argued, should be aware that they have the clear support of Church teaching.

Because of his progressive views, he was forbidden by the conservative James Cardinal McIntyre from lecturing in Southern California [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874002-1,00.html Gadfly] July 13, 1964] . He also advised Pope Pius XII against dogmatically defining the Assumption of Mary in 1950, championed nuclear disarmament (regularly speaking at Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament meetings [Aspden, Kester. "Fortress Church: The English Roman Catholic Bishops and Politics, 1903-63". Gracewing, 2002.] ), and rejected the idea that procreation was the primary end of marriage [Grant, Linda. "Sexing the Millennium: Women and the Sexual Revolution". Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 1995.] . Moreover, he advocated the greater participation of the laity in ecclesiastical affairs, and reforming the Church's law on birth control and procedures for annulment.

Roberts died at 82, shortly before his next birthday.

Trivia

*Roberts discouraged people from kissing his episcopal ring, once joking that he kept it in his back pocket [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874002-1,00.html Gadfly] July 13, 1964] .
*In 1954, he published "Black Popes' Authority: Its Use and Abuse".
*He enjoyed the works of Agatha Christie [Ibid.] .
*Roberts was a close friend of Robert Blair Kaiser, who covered the Second Vatican Council for "TIME" Magazine.

References

External links

* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/broberts.html Catholic-Hierarchy]