Father Robert Fitzpatrick witnessed the waves of change after the Second Vatican Council during his formation for the priesthood in the late 1960s. He was part of the first class of seminarians to enter after the council began in 1962.

Having studied the council from its birth, he said he has condensed his understanding of the three-year event down to a couple of sentences: “[In] the Church I grew up in, God is law, and if God is law then religion is about rules. The council went back to the Scriptures and said, ‘No, … God is love,’” he said.

After his ordination in 1973, he served as an associate pastor of St. Olaf in downtown Minneapolis until 1977. He described the parish as a bustling place for visitors to Minneapolis from around the world. Among the visitors he met was St. Teresa of Kolkata. He also said that St. Olaf pastor Father Francis Fleming was one of his greatest mentors in priesthood.

Father Fitzpatrick then built a large youth ministry program at Holy Spirit in St. Paul as its associate pastor from 1977-1984. Highlights of those years include getting the Holy Spirit youth on TV for a Mass and working with other parish youth ministries in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to send supplies on a barge to New Orleans to aid the refugee crisis from the Nicaraguan Revolution.

His longest assignment was as pastor of St. John the Evangelist in Little Canada from 1984-2005, where he oversaw the construction of a new parish school building. He considered engaging the parish in the Renew program as another highlight.

In 2005, he was named pastor of St. Rose of Lima in Roseville. When it clustered with nearby Corpus Christi in 2012, he took the helm of both parishes, helping them navigate their new relationship.

“I like to say I turned 65, and the archbishop gave me a second parish,” Father Fitzpatrick quipped.

In 2015, Father Fitzpatrick was placed on ministerial leave due to allegations of sexual abuse. The allegations were ultimately found not credible, and he returned to ministry, but he said it was a difficult time that taught him patience.

“The hard part was sitting out seven-and-a-half months waiting to come back,” he said. “The best part was the fact that there wasn’t a soul in either parish who would believe it, and they were so angry that a false accusation could stand.”

Father Fitzpatrick grew up in New Jersey and attended Catholic schools. When he was a teenager, his family moved to Minnesota and then to South Bend, Indiana. He began studies at Nazareth Hall in St. Paul, then the archdiocese’s college seminary, followed by St. Paul Seminary. He was ordained at St. Richard in Richfield.

Now 70, Father Fitzpatrick retired primarily to care for his 97-year-old mother in Little Canada.