Fr John Roche RIP

Fr John Roche (1934 - 2008)

Fr John Roche died on 22 September 2008 at his sister’s residence in Derrinagree, Co. Cork.

Born on 17 July 1934 in Clondrohid, he was educated in Carriganima NS and St Colman’s College, Fermoy, Co. Cork.

He came to Dalgan in 1953 and was ordained priest on 21 December 1959.

Jack arrived into a wintery Korea in December 1960 and after a very short introduction to the language was assigned to Soyangro parish in Chunchon diocese. Fortunately he had a great ability to pick up Korean as he went along and by the time he returned for more formal studies few years later he had a vocabulary fit for any situation.

Although he served in city parishes in Seoul and Kangnung the first stage of his mission in Korea will be remembered for the time he spend as pastor in Chorwon and Yangku, two parishes along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the border with north Korea. In an area prone to frequent invasion scares and full of Korean and U.S. troops Jack served the local communities and treated the 8th US Army as if its main mission was as a supply store for himself and his people.

He spent three years on promotion work in Britain before returning to Korea in 1979 to take part in the Columban effort to develop new Christian communities in the satellite cities mushrooming around Seoul. He worked in Inchon and Suwon dioceses where he opened a new parish in Shinjang in April 1989 and then moved into hospital chaplaincy for the next ten years. Returning to Ireland in 2001 he was delighted to be able to serve in Bweeng in his home diocese of Cloyne until illness forced him to retire.

Throughout his 50 years of missionary service Jack was driven by a compassion and care for the poor and the suffering. The lengths he went to help others usually involved him in all kinds of scrapes and complications. All he took for himself was a fund of stories that still bring a smile to the many people in Korea and in Ireland who mourn his loss.

May he rest in peace.