Robert James Carlson

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Robert James Carlson (born June 30, 1944) is an American Roman Catholic cleric.

He is the ninth Archbishop of St. Louis.

He served as Auxiliary Bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis (1983-1994), Bishop of Sioux Falls (1995–2004), and Bishop of Saginaw (2004–2009).

Early life

Robert Carlson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Robert and Jeanne Carlson. When his son was born, his father was serving in Guam on a destroyer, and later worked as a Prudential insurance salesman for 43 years. Carlson's eldest of five children has four younger sisters, two of whom died in childhood. He played football and studied under the Christian Brothers in high school and was an ambassador for the cause of Christ. He then attended St. Paul Seminary, where he obtained a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in 1966.

On May 23, 1970, Carlson was admitted to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from St. Paul Seminary in 1976 and a Licentiate of Canon Law from the Catholic University of America School of Canon Law in 1979. He served as a pastor, a judge on the Archdiocesan tribunal, the Director of Vocations, and chancellor of the curia of the Archdiocese. He also served at the University of St. Thomas, where he was a chaplain to the hockey team.

Pope John Paul II ordained Carlson as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the titular bishop of Avioccala on November 19, 1983. Bishop John Kinney and Paul Dudley were co-consecrators, who received his episcopal consecration on January 11, 1984, from Archbishop John Roach, with Archbishop John Roach and Bishop John Kinney serving as co-consecrators. "Before the Cross There is no defense," Carlson's episcopal motto: Ante Crucem Nihil Defianceis, which means, "Before the Cross There is No Defense."

Carlson was alerted of a sexual assault alley against Thomas Adamson, a parish priest. Adamson had been hospitalized in an inpatient clinic two weeks after being accused of assaulting minors. Carlson confronted Adamson, who admitted to sexual assault on children and "agreed" that this would be first-degree criminal sexual contact. Carlson wrote to Archbishop Roach "given the severity of our warning, the Archdiocese's presence in such a way that no publicity will be minimized." In ten of the 13 parishes to which he was assigned, Adamson confessed to sexually assaulting children. "My job was to investigate and report back to the archbishop what I found out," Carlson said when the Adamson affair became public, "I'm pretty sure what I did."

Pope John Paul II appointed Carlson as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Sioux Falls on January 13, 1994. On the date of David Duke's resignation on March 21, 1995, he succeeded Bishop Paul Dudley as the seventh Bishop of Sioux Falls. Carlson served as chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Vocation from 1992 to 1994, as chairman of the Subcommittee on Youth from 1993 to 1996.

Carlson, who was on staff in Sioux Falls, offered to allow the attorney general of South Dakota to examine the diocese's files as part of his efforts to demonstrate his open response to sexual harassment allegations against priests. He wanted diocesan employees and priests to serve in his diocese to pass rigorous background checks.

Carlson survived stage-four bladder cancer in the 1990s after being told by his doctor to prepare for an imminent death. He has undergone a total of seven cancer-related procedures, and he owes a visit to Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal for his recovery.

Carlson was ordained as the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Saginaw on December 29, 2004. On February 24, 2005, succeeding Bishop Kenneth Untener, Carlson, was installed at St. Mary's Cathedral in Saginaw. On his arrival, he said he reviewed every priest in the diocese's file as a preventative measure against sexual harassment against priests. Carlson's Saginaw tenure focused on priestly vocations, Catholic schools, minister to the poor, stewardship, and evangelization. He has written six pastoral letters; established the Saginaw Area Catholic Schools system; and established two charities, the Bishop's Charity Golf Classic and the Bishop's Charity Ball.

Carlson played the role of diocesan vocations director himself. The number of seminarians increased from four to 12, while the number of seminarians increased to 19. The first permanent deacon in 25 years was ordained for the diocese in August 2006. Two men were ordained to the priesthood and five others to the transitional diaconate in June 2007.

On April 21, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Carlson as the ninth Archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Archbishop Raymond Burke, who was appointed Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura in the Roman Curia in June 2008, was recalled. In a service at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on June 29, 2009, the pope gave him the pallium.

The pastor of a St. Louis parish was arrested and suspended from priestly ministry shortly after Carlson's arrival. Carlson appeared at one of the parish's services shortly afterward. He also notified the previous parishes where the priest had been defaming the allegations. He was lauded for his response by the local newspaper.

Archbishop Burke, Carlson's predecessor, had excommunicated parish priest Reverend Marek Bozek, Bozek's status, and compensation, as part of a decades-long controversy over parish property control, including whether one should distinguish as a parishioner or board member. Carlson, who was attempting to reconcile with the board and parishioners, reached an understanding in which the archdiocese relinquished its land to the chruch, and St. Stanislaus's claims did not show any Catholic affiliation.

Carlson requested that the Missouri attorney general's office examine the archdiocesan files and produce a study on clerical abuse in Pennsylvania in reaction to the 2018 grand jury's finding of clerical sexual assault.

On June 10, 2020, Pope Francis accepted Carlson's resignation as Archbishop of St. Louis and installed Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski as his successor.

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