Norman Rogge
Alleged Abuse: Sentenced twice on sex crimes, but still appointed as a priest in St. Landry Parish following those convictions in 1990. Abuse allegations stretch from the 60’s through the 80’s; victims reportedly in Florida and Georgia.
Where is he now: Deceased
Norman Rogge was a Jesuit priest named on the Jesuits’ December 2018 list of priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse of a child. He also was on the list released by the Archdiocese of Mobile in 2018.
Rogge, who died at a New Orleans retirement home in 2009, was twice convicted of sex abuse of children. He wasn’t removed from ministry until 2002, when journalists from the Dallas Morning News informed the Lafayette Diocese of his past convictions.
According to the story printed in the Dallas Morning News in 2002, Rogge was convicted in 1967 of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile for groping a 14-year-old at a movie. The child lived at a group home Rogge had access to, and other residents also complained of inappropriate touching during swimming lessons at Rogge’s lake house, the paper reported. A police report indicated he also admitted to asking a boy for oral sex.
After this conviction, Rogge was given probation and ordered to get psychiatric treatment. He stayed in Tampa, in ministry as a priest, until he was transferred to the Mobile Diocese in 1979.
The Mobile Diocese included Rogge on their list of priests having credible allegations of sexual abuse of children against them. The Mobile allegations against him were lodged between 1979, when he arrived, and 1981, when he left.
In 1984, Rogge was in Tampa for a visit and spent a weekend at a cabin with two other men and an 11-year-old boy, the Dallas newspaper reported. One of the men was a convicted child molester. All three of the men were associated with an organization formed to search for missing children, the newspaper reported.
A police report alleges that the men walked around all weekend naked, and masturbated in front of the child. In connection with this investigation, Rogge pleaded no contest to a lewdness charge in 1985, and was placed on probation again, along with ordered treatment at a Catholic facility, the newspaper reported.
In both cases, he was given “deferred adjudication,” which means once we completed his probation he had no criminal record.
Between 1989 and 2002, Rogge was assigned to St. Charles College and St. Charles Borromeo parish in Grand Coteau, and to Christ the King in Bellevue.
When the Lafayette Diocese removed him from ministry in 2002, he was sent to the Ignatius residence in New Orleans, where he died.
Timeline:
1956: Ordination
1957: St. Mary’s College, St. Mary’s, KS
1958-1960: Jesuit College Preparatory School, Dallas
1960-1979: Sacred Heart Church, Tampa, Fla.; Jesuit High School, Tampa, Fla.
1967: Convicted of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Juvenile
1979-1981: St. Ignatius Church, Mobile, Ala.
1981-1982: The Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, CA
1982-1985: Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, Campti, LA
1985: Convicted on a Lewdness charge
1989: Immaculate Conception Parish, New Orleans
1990- 2002: St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, La.
2002: Removed from ministry after Dallas Morning News published a story about his past convictions
2004- 2008: Ignatius Residence, New Orleans, LA
2009: Deceased
