Rev. Dennis J. Rocheford celebrates a Mass in May 2007 for U.S. Marines at a base in Rutbah, Iraq.
Posted on 09/12/2009 6:33:40 AM PDT by NYer
Thank heavens that we have a compassionate Father to met out Justice.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
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Poor man. May God have mercy on his soul.
Rev. Dennis J. Rocheford celebrates a Mass in May 2007 for U.S. Marines at a base in Rutbah, Iraq.
I will pray for Father and his family
Thank you for that updated information. While we don't know for sure, we can presume that they put him on 'medication'. May God have mercy on him.
We often struggle to understand such deeds. We know that only God knows truly what's in a man's soul.
May God bring him to eternal life, with the Glory of God's eternal love.
Thank you for such a thoughtful post.
Bump
Prayers that God will forgive him.
We need as many good priests as we can get, and he seems to have been a good priest.
Hard to imagine why he would do something like this, but I hope that he was not in his right mind, that he repented at the last instant, and that God will forgive him.
It is a terrible thing for a priest to commit suicide! I pray that he has been saved through the grace of Our Lord.
God Bless the soul of Father Rocheford.
fini, Thanks for your service.
His judgment could have been severely diminished by the psychiatric medications he was taking. There is voluminous evidence that some of these drugs can cause suicidal thoughts and feelings.
His soul has been commended now to the infinite Mercy of a loving God. That is all we really know.
I was a parishioner at St. Theresa’s while Fr. Dennis was there. He was truly an amazing man. I’m not a very big church goer, but I was there every sunday when he was serving mass. He always talked fondly of his time in the military, and he had lots of funny(and some sad) stories to tell as well. Sadly he had a family history of alcoholism, and that probably is what led to his death. He had been called back to Iraq for about a year, and when he came home he seemed changed. Things just never were right with him, and a few months later he was gone. I found out that he had gone back to drinking and he wasn’t going to be working in another parish. I know that it was a terrible blow to him to lose his appointment at St. Theresa’s.
I can barely look at his pictures, it just kills me to think of how such an amazing person had such terrible sadness in him. He was so kindhearted and loving. I remember once my little niece escaped us and climbed the altar during the end of mass. I was totally mortified, but Fr. Dennis picked her right up and continued mass with her. He made the church feel like a family, everyone was welcome there..It will never ever be the same without him.
I just feel so terrible about this..I almost wish I hadn’t found out...
Thank you for sharing your memories of this priest. Life often poses unexpected challenges to be overcome. Perhaps that is why the Catholic Church encourages us to read the lives of the saints, especially those with the same debilitating vices, so we can draw courage and strength from their journeys.
Father Dennis was an awesome Marine and Chaplain. He married my wife and me on Jan 17, 1998. In his homily, he spoke of the marathon that we were to embark on together, an even greater challenge than the USMC Marathon that we had just run together in Oct, 1998. I thought of him often, and in fact called his parrish and got his cell phone number about three weeks ago, and hadn’t yet called when I saw the news.
Father Dennis was a special person to me, and to everyone I knew who ever met him.
I hope that he knew how many people cared so much for him as he ran his own marathon, one that led him to Vietnam, where he was one of six Marines in his company of over 100 to leave Hue City alive, to the priesthood, and to serve again with Marines in Iraq in 2007, and back to being a parrish priest.
Semper Fi, Father.
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