Fr. Armour R. Roberts
Ordained for the Diocese of Marquette MI. Named publicly as accused by the Bismarck diocese on its list in 1/2/2020. Substantiated. Died 12/8/1989. In the late 1960s or early 1970s Roberts took three boys, who were high school freshmen, to visit Rev. John Owens in New Leipzig. The two priests allegedly plied the boys with alcohol and sexually abused them. Included in the MI A.G. Marquette report in 10/2022, which reveals multiple allegations against Roberts. His personnel file shows “trouble” when assigned to a Norway MI parish in 1961. Several transfers, then in trouble in 1965 with police due to “morals charges.” Bishop Noa asked Roberts to leave Marquette. Went to treatment, sought work in other dioceses; only Bismarck accepted him. Report in 2002 and 2014 from a man that Roberts sexually abused him and other teenage boys at St. Mary’s in Norway in the late 1950s; he said he told Msgr. Pelessier in Iron Mountain, who allegedly violated the boy’s confidentiality. Accused in 1965 by a man of abuse of his son. Another allegation in 2007 of abuse of a boy in 1960, who also alleged abuse by Fr. Michael Hale.
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