KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
August 1, 2020
By Thomas C. Fox
[See Schroth’s Humility and responsibility: Bishops can’t exempt themselves from tough line applied to priests, Boston Globe, June 23, 2002; and A New Future for the Church, Speech to Rockville Centre VOTF, November 14, 2002.]
Jesuit Fr. Ray Schroth was well-known in the Catholic press as a writer for America magazine and as the associate editor and book editor for Commonweal in the 1970s before we first met in Kansas City, Missouri, in June 1980.
What followed from our first encounter was a near four-decade journalism collaboration.
Schroth died July 1 at Murray-Weigel Hall, a Jesuit nursing facility next to Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus. He was 86.
He left behind countless admirers and readers. Feeling his loss are countless more former students — now well-established professionals — who carry on gratefully, holding close the knowledge, wisdom and friendships they built and shared.
Schroth was an intellectual. He devoured books and explored their ideas. He was a teacher. He counseled and encouraged students. He was a journalist. He believed storytelling could provide solace and build a better world. He was an advocate. He pursued justice endlessly.
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