John Aloysius Ward

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John Aloysius Ward (24 January 1929 - 27 March 2007) was a Roman Catholic clergyman. He became Bishop of Menevia in 1981, and Archbishop of Cardiff in 1983. The later years of his ministry were overshadowed by cases of sexual misconduct by priests under his authority, and he retired in 2001.

Ward was born in Leeds, England, but considered himself a Welshman. He was raised in Wrexham, where he served as an altarboy at St. Mary's Cathedral. During the Second World War, he attended Prior Park College in Bath, run by the Christian Brothers. In 1946, he joined the Capuchin Order of Friars Minor at Pantasaph, near Holywell in Clwyd.

He was ordained by Bishop of Southwark Cyril Cowderoy at Our Lady of Seven Dolours in Peckham on 7 June 1953. He worked in north and mid Wales from 1954 to 1960, using his fluent Welsh on his travelling mission. He became parish priest in Peckham in 1960. He was Minister Provincial of the Capuchins of Great Britain in 1969, and became an elected adviser to the Father General of the Capuchin Order in Rome in 1970.

Ward was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Menevia on 25 July 1980, in south and west Wales, and consecrated on 1 October 1980. He succeeded Langton Fox as Bishop on 5 February 1981. He was appointed Archbishop of Cardiff on 25 March 1983. He built on the work of his predecessor, Archbishop John Murphy, in expanding the Catholic Church in Wales.

The later years of his ministry were overshadowed by cases of sexual misconduct by priests under his authority. In 1998, Father John Lloyd, a parish priest and Ward's former press secretary, was imprisoned for sexual offences involving children. Parents had written letters to Ward to complain of Lloyd's behaviour: he reportedly passed the letters on to Lloyd. In 1999, Lloyd was defrocked by the Pope. Later in 1999, Ward himself was accused of raping a woman with a crucifix on the altar of his parish church in the 1960s. He was arrested, but never charged. The allegations appeared in the press, and Ward made impassioned statements of his innocence, claiming that the allegations were entirely false.

In October 2000, Father Joseph Jordan was imprisoned for indecent assaults on boys, and for downloading child pornography from the Internet. Jordan had been ordained by Ward in 1998, despite Ward being warned about Jordan's behaviour by the Bishop of Plymouth, Christopher Budd, under whom Lloyd started his training for the priesthood. A BBC Panorama investigation accused Ward of failing to take action, and he was pressured to resign.

Ward suffered a stroke and then a deep vein thrombosis in November 2000, and went on sick leave, with Bishop of Wrexham Edwin Regan deputising for him. The Catholic Herald defended Ward, but The Tablet called for his retirement. After a period of recuperation, he said he was ready to return to his office. Ward was interviewed by Pope John Paul II, and resigned shortly afterwards, on 26 October 2001. He was replaced as Archbishop by Peter Smith.

Ward retired to a bungalow, where he displayed his episcopal coat of arms over his front door.