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Father John S. Rausch, G.H.M., recognized early in his time as a missionary in Appalachia that people were facing severe environmental and economic challenges and devoted his ministry to seeking solutions and calling attention to their predicament.
He died Feb. 9 at age 75.
For 53 years, Father Rausch of Stanton, Ky., traveled around the region, speaking, writing, organizing and praying in a lifelong effort to carry out the biblical call to justice, friends and colleagues recalled.
“He was very dedicated to justice,” Father Dan Dorsey, Glenmary Home Missioners president, told Catholic News Service Feb. 11. “Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, seemed to sum up his own ministry and passion as far as care of the earth. He had just an incredible love of Appalachia and its people.”
Visitors to Father Rausch in Kentucky often were treated to hearty meals and warm hospitality. “It was the ministry of the table,” Father Dorsey said.
That love led Father Rausch to the Catholic Committee of Appalachia, for which he served as director from 2005 to 2013.
Father Rausch, who was writing an autobiography at the time of his death, had been a longtime supporter of coal miners and their families. In recent years, he spoke against efforts by mining companies to shed pension and health care liabilities for retired workers.
A native of Philadelphia, he began his work with Glenmary in the mid-1960s.
A pastoral letter by the 25 bishops of the Appalachia region, “The Land Is Home to Me,” influenced Father Rausch in 1980 to devote his life to serving the Appalachian region without a traditional church assignment.
A Funeral Mass will be celebrated Feb. 19 at St. Matthias Church in Cincinnati. Burial will be at Gate of Heaven in Montgomery, Ohio.—CNS
