Former Archbishop Robert F. Sanchez

Former Archbishop Robert F. Sanchez, a pioneer in Hispanic ministry who later resigned in disgrace when several women accused him of having abused them as adults, died Jan. 20. He was 77.

His death was announced by Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe, who said he died at noon in Albuquerque “surrounded by his family.”

“Archbishop Sanchez was much loved as a native son by the people of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe,” Archbishop Sheehan said. “He was respected by his brother bishops and looked up to by his priests. We continue to acknowledge the good he did during his episcopacy, are well aware of his human failings and mourn his death today.”

His Funeral Mass was to take place Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe. Interment was to be private.

Archbishop Sanchez headed the Santa Fe Archdiocese from July 25, 1974, until Pope John Paul II accepted his resignation on April 6, 1993. He was the first U.S.-born Hispanic archbishop and widely regarded as a leader in the awakening of U.S. Hispanic Catholic cultural consciousness in the late 20th century.

At the time of his resignation, the archbishop was secretary of what is now the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and a consultor to the Pontifical Commission for Migration and Tourism at the Vatican.

His leadership was cut short, however, when the CBS news show “60 Minutes” aired a segment in which at least five women alleged that they had been sexually abused by the archbishop during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Pablo Sedillo, former executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs, said in 1993 that Archbishop Sanchez had “fought tirelessly” to make other U.S. bishops aware of the concerns and needs of Hispanic Catholics.

“When history is written, Archbishop Sanchez will be seen as a pioneer who got Hispanic ministry to the point where it is today,” said Sedillo at the time.

Born in Socorro, N.M., he was ordained a priest in 1959, after studies at Immaculate Heart Seminary in Santa Fe and at the Pontifical North American College and Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

After teaching high school and holding pastorates in three parishes, he was named Archbishop of Santa Fe June 4, 1974.

He was the first archbishop to offer an apology to the local Native American peoples as well as to establish an Office for Native American Ministry.

Archbishop Sanchez established the first archdiocesan youth conference, the first Native American liturgy at the cathedral, the first ecumenical commission of the archdiocese and the Commission for the Preservation of Historic New Mexico Churches.

In 1976, he was one of four U.S. Hispanic bishops among a group of 57 church workers arrested on charges of subversion by the military government of Ecuador. The 27-hour detention of the group, meeting in Riobamba to discuss pastoral issues in Latin America, brought international protests.

In 1977, in conjunction with the second National Hispanic Pastoral Encuentro, he and the country’s other seven Hispanic bishops issued a joint message on the state of Hispanic Catholicism in the United States.

In December 1977 he was named chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Hispanic Affairs. The first Hispanic bishop to hold that post, he remained chairman for 10 years and oversaw the raising of the ad hoc committee to a permanent one in 1987.

As the top Church official on Hispanic issues, he played a major role in the development of a 1983 pastoral letter on Hispanic Catholics by all the U.S. bishops, in the third Hispanic Encuentro in 1985, and in the adoption of the National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry by the U.S. bishops in 1987.—CNS