#USA #MA – The Bishop of Fall River announced Friday that Msgr. Roger J. Landry had been restricted from the public exercise of priestly ministry after allegations of misconduct were made against him by multiple individuals. The diocese said there were no allegations involving minors and that the misconduct was not sexual-related.
Landry, a priest incardinated in Fall River who had lived and worked in New York for years, was accused of violations of the codes of conduct for priests of both the Diocese of Fall River and the Archdiocese of New York. An initial investigation was conducted by the New York archdiocese, where his ministry had been based. After consultation with that archdiocese and with canonical advisors, Fall River determined that sufficient evidence existed to restrict him from public ministry pending resolution of the matter, a step the diocese said was consistent with its policy.
Although Landry had served outside southeastern Massachusetts since 2015, he remained subject to Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha. The diocese said Landry requested a leave of absence from his post as national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States and was entitled to the presumption of innocence while the investigation continued. Bishop da Cunha asked for prayers for all those affected and said the diocese had no further comment. Anyone with concerns was directed to law enforcement and to the diocese’s director of safe environment and victim assistance.
In a statement published the same day, Landry said the diocese had told him the accusations involved alleged violations of prudence, pastoral boundaries, and diocesan codes of conduct with adults. He said there were no allegations of sexual activity and none of misconduct of any kind with a minor. He maintained his innocence of any canonical violation or crime and said he would defend his reputation under church law. Those who had raised concerns, he wrote, deserved to be heard. He said he was taking a temporary leave from the Pontifical Mission Societies to protect that work and his own reputation as a priest.
Landry, born in 1971 in Lowell, Massachusetts, was a Harvard College graduate who entered seminary for Fall River and completed formation at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Then-Bishop Seán O’Malley ordained him in 1999. He later served as a parish priest and high school chaplain in the diocese, as pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford and founding pastor of St. Bernadette in Fall River, and as executive editor of the diocesan newspaper, The Anchor. From 2015 to 2022 he was an attaché to the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations. He then served as Catholic chaplain at Columbia University before being appointed national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA, a role he assumed around the start of 2025. Pope Francis named him a chaplain of His Holiness, with the title of monsignor, in November 2024. He had also been a papal missionary of mercy and a national Eucharistic preacher during the U.S. Church’s Eucharistic Revival.
Specific details of the alleged boundary and code-of-conduct issues were not released. The investigation remains ongoing.
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