John Aloysius Ward

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

The Most Reverend John Aloysius Ward (24 January 1929 - 27 March 2007) was a
Roman Catholic clergyman. He became Bishop of Menevia in 1981, and Archbishop of
Cardiff in 1983. The later years of his ministry were overshadowed by cases of sexual
misconduct by priests under his authority, and he retired in 2001.

Ward was born in Leeds, but considered himself a Welshman. He was raised in Wrexham,
where he served as an altarboy at St. Mary's Cathedral. During the Second World War, he
attended Prior Park College in Bath, run by the Christian Brothers. In 1946, he joined the
Capuchin order of Friars Minor at Pantasaph, near Holywell in Clwyd.

He was ordained by Bishop of Southwark Cyril Cowderoy at Our Lady of Seven Dolours
in Peckham in 1953. He worked in north and mid Wales from 1954 to 1960, using his
fluent Welsh on his travelling mission. He became parish priest in Peckham in 1960. He
was Minister Provincial of the Capuchins of Great Britain in 1969, and became an elected
adviser to the Father General of the Capuchin Order in Rome in 1970.

Ward was made Coadjutor Bishop of Menevia on 1 October 1980, in south and west
Wales. He succeeded Langton Fox as Bishop in 1981. He was appointed Archbishop of
Cardiff on 29 March 1983, He built on the work of his predecessor, Archbishop John
Murphy, in expanding the Catholic Church in Wales.

The later years of his ministry were overshadowed by cases of sexual misconduct by
priests under his authority. In 1998, Father John Lloyd, a parish priest and Ward's former
press secretary, was imprisoned for sexual offences involving children. Parents had
written letters to Ward to complain of Lloyd's behaviour: he reportedly passed the letters
on to Lloyd. In 1999, Lloyd was defrocked by the Pope. Later in 1999, Ward himself was
accused of raping a woman with a crucifix on the altar of his parish church in the 1960s.
He was arrested, but never charged. The allegations appeared in the press, and Ward
made impassioned statements of his innocence, claiming that the allegations were entirely
false.

In October 2000, Father Joseph Jordan was imprisoned for indecent assaults on boys, and
for downloading child pornography from the internet. Jordan had been ordained by Ward
in 1998, despite Ward being warned about Jordan's behaviour by the Bishop of Plymouth,
Christopher Budd, under whom Lloyd started his training for the priesthood. A BBC
Panorama investigation accused Ward of failing to take action, and he was pressured to
resign.
Ward suffered a stroke and then a deep vein thrombosis in November 2000, and went on
sick leave, with Bishop of Wrexham Edwin Regan deputising for him. The Catholic
Herald defended Ward, but The Tablet called for his retirement. After a period of
recuperation, he said he was ready to return to his office. Ward was interviewed by Pope
John Paul II, and resigned shortly afterwards, on 26 October 2001. He was replaced as
Archbishop by Peter Smith.

Ward retired to a bungalow, where he displayed his episcopal coat of arms over his front
door.

[edit] References