By Donna Boynton and Linda Bock
Telegram & Gazette
September 13, 2009
http://www.telegram.com/article/20090912/NEWS/909120345/1116
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| Rev. Dennis J. Rocheford celebrates a Mass in May 2007 for U.S. Marines at a base in Rutbah, Iraq. |
Rev. Rocheford served as Marine chaplain
The Rev. Dennis J. Rocheford was a man who drew people together, a priest who touched the lives of so many parishioners that they traveled around Central Massachusetts to attend a Mass he was presiding over, and he was a man dedicated to serving military personnel.
He was a man who had such an impact on people locally, regionally, and even worldwide, that news of his death — an apparent suicide — shocked those who knew him.
“It’s in God’s hands now, that’s where I have to leave it. I guess he was called home,” said Pat Caroll, who became close friends with Rev. Rocheford while he was pastor of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Blackstone from 2002 to 2006. Mr. Caroll worked with Rev. Rocheford to start an Alcoholics Anonymous chapter that now meets six days a week at the church.
According to Rhode Island State Police, Rev. Rocheford, 60, jumped to his death in Rhode Island Thursday morning.
Rev. Rocheford became pastor at St. Ann Parish in North Oxford July 1. A longtime military chaplain, he was on leave from St. Ann’s and also had been serving at the Chapel of Hope at the Naval Station in Newport, R.I., according to Raymond Delisle, spokesman for the Diocese of Worcester.
Bishop Robert J. McManus asked the Catholic community to pray for Rev. Rocheford, and for family, friends and veterans who are struggling to cope with his death.
“The Diocese of Worcester was blessed over the years through his priestly ministry in parishes in Worcester, Fitchburg, Hopedale, Clinton, Blackstone and North Oxford.,” Bishop McManus said in a statement. “Father Rocheford’s death was tragic, but our faith teaches us that we must not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. May the loving support he received from so many in life be continued in our earnest prayers for him in death.”
About 8 a.m. Thursday, state police in Rhode Island received a report that a man had jumped into Narragansett Bay from the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge, which connects Newport and Jamestown. In addition to Newport and state police, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Jamestown Navy-Marine Corps responded.
Authorities recovered the man’s body in the water below the bridge. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to Rhode Island State Police Capt. James Swanberg. He said the man who jumped off the bridge was identified as Dennis Rocheford.
Rev. Rocheford had been on a leave of absence from St. Ann’s, but still lived in the parish rectory when he was not at the Navy base. In addition to previously serving as pastor of St. Theresa’s in Blackstone, he served as a priest assigned to assist clergy of the Diocese of Worcester who had been charged with sexual misconduct.
“He was devoted to the military,” said Mr. Caroll, his friend from Blackstone. “He was working on the base in Newport, but would come back to the diocese on weekends to say Mass wherever he was needed. ... He was just a magnet, and he drew people to work together and stay together as a parish and to help each other.”
Rev. Rocheford was born in South Weymouth and attended schools in Worcester. He graduated from South High Community School in 1967. He joined the Marine Corps and did a tour of duty in Vietnam.
According to published reports, he was discharged in 1971, fell in love, but could not resist the call to the priesthood.
Rev. Rocheford attended St. John’s Seminary in Brighton and was ordained a priest at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Worcester by Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan in 1977. His first assignment was to St. Camillus Parish in Fitchburg as associate pastor in 1977.
Other parishes in Central Massachusetts he was appointed to include Sacred Heart in Hopedale in 1981 and St. Joan of Arc in Worcester in 1985. He studied Spanish at a seminary in the Dominican Republic before being appointed to St. Joan of Arc. Rev. Rocheford returned to military service in 1987 and served as chaplain at Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C.
When he returned to this area in 1998, he was appointed to St. John the Evangelist in Clinton.
“He was everything to everybody,” said Debbie Goodsell, a parishioner at St. John’s. “Being a chaplain, you have to administer to everybody. He transcended all groups — men, women, children — and all faiths.”
Ms. Goodsell said even some of her non-Catholic friends were drawn to him, to his charisma.
She recalled a Mass that Rev. Rocheford held in the field next to St. John’s gym with his camouflage altar cloth, as he would if he were in the battlefield.
“In one word, he was very humble,” said Ms. Goodsell, recalling the children who would flock to him. “He had no clue the effect he had on everyone he came in contact with.”
In 2001, Rev. Rocheford was appointed administrator of St. Theresa’s in Blackstone and became pastor in 2002.
In 2007, he returned to the military and, as a chaplain with the II Marines Expeditionary Force, helped Marines cope with combat.
At St. Theresa’s, Rev. Rocheford organized a donation drive to support the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Boxes of candy, nonperishable food, deodorant, aspirin, bandages, sunblock, lip balm, notepaper, cards and other items are shipped from the parish monthly now.
Elaine and Paul Bruyere were working at the thrift store at St. Theresa’s yesterday, mourning the loss of a man they said touched so many lives.
Fighting back tears, Mrs. Bruyere recalled a time that Rev. Rocheford returned to St. Theresa’s, and sought out an elderly gentleman who used to always attend Mass, but had passed away in his absence.
“The man had no one — was all alone, and he had passed away,” Mrs. Bruyere said. “When (Rev. Rocheford) heard, he asked if a group of parishioners wanted to go to the gravesite to pray.” Mrs. Bruyere accompanied Rev. Rocheford to the cemetery.
Rev. Rocheford had many devout parishioners who followed him to the churches where he was assigned. While St. Theresa’s congregation is made up of Blackstone, Bellingham and Woonsocket, R.I., residents, former parishioners from Hopedale and as far away as Clinton and Sterling would attend Mass at St. Theresa’s to visit with Rev. Rocheford, Mr. Caroll said.
“There was just so much about him, you can’t cover it all with a few words,” Mrs. Bruyere said. “He was a great man and he brought a lot of people together.”
Contact: lbock@telegram.com
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