Bishop John Ricard, who led the National Black Catholic Congress for three decades and served as a bishop in two U.S. dioceses, died on May 20 at 86.
His death was announced by the Archdiocese of Baltimore in the archdiocesan newspaper, Catholic Review. Ricard passed away at St. Josephʼs Seminary in Washington, D.C., according to the archdiocese.
“Bishop John Ricard’s death is a profound loss for our local Church and for the entire Catholic community in the United States,” Baltimore Archbishop William Lori said in the announcement.
Lori said Ricard, a former auxiliary bishop in Baltimore, “served this archdiocese with grace, humility, and a joyful spirit that made him beloved by all who encountered him.”
Born in Baton Rogue, Louisiana, on Feb. 29, 1940, as one of eight children, Ricard attended Epiphany Apostolic College in Newburgh, New York. He completed religious studies at St. Joseph Seminary in Washington, D.C., and received a doctoral degree from The Catholic University of America.
He joined the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, or the Josephites, in 1962 and took his final vows on June 1, 1967. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 25, 1968, by Baton Rouge Bishop Emmet Tracy.
He served at several parishes in New Orleans and Washington prior to being appointed as a vicar bishop in the Archdiocese of Baltimore by Pope John Paul II. He was subsequently consecrated as an auxiliary bishop of that archdiocese on July 2, 1984, the first Black bishop to serve there.
In 1997 he was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, where he served until 2011 when he retired for health reasons.
In addition to his duties as a prelate, Ricard also served as the first president of the National Black Catholic Congress, holding that role from the congress’ inception in 1987 until 2017.
After his retirement from Pensacola-Tallahassee, he served as rector of St. Josephʼs Seminary in Washington. He was elected superior general of the Josephites in 2019.
Having grown up amid pervasive racism in the segregated South prior to the Civil Rights era, Ricard at times commented on racial conflict in the United States, including in 2016 amid civil unrest around police shootings, which he described as a “wake-up call for all of us” in an interview with Catholic News Service.
The bishop said he and his friends “lived under constant threat of being arrested” during the 1950s in Louisiana. He said the Catholic Church can “bring [a lot] to the table” of racial healing in the United States.
“Weʼve got a lot of work to do,” he told the news service.
In a statement released after his death, the Josephites said Ricard “faithfully served the Catholic Church for decades through his ministry as a Josephite priest, counselor, educator, pastor, bishop, humanitarian, and leader.”
“He devoted his life to the proclamation of the Gospel, humanitarian efforts worldwide, the mission of the Josephite Society, and the pastoral care of God’s people, especially within Black Catholic communities,” they said.
The Josephites asked for “prayers for the repose of Bishop Ricard’s soul, for the Josephite community, his family, friends, and all who mourn his passing.”