The Reverend Thomas Michael Rosica | |
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| Church | Catholic,Latin Church |
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| Orders | |
| Ordination | 19 April 1986 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1959-03-03)3 March 1959 (age 66) |
| Occupation | Catholic priest |
| Education | |
Thomas Michael Rosica,C.S.B. (born March 3, 1959) is an AmericanCatholic priest, author, andBasilian Father. He was formerly chief executive officer ofSalt + Light Catholic Media Foundation, English-language media attaché of theHoly See Press Office,[1] and president ofAssumption University inWindsor, Ontario.[2] He resigned from Salt + Light and other positions in 2019 following substantiated allegations ofplagiarism.[3][4]
Rosica has an undergraduate degree in French and Italian fromSt. John Fisher College, inPittsford, New York. He then entered theCongregation of St. Basil as a novice and studied theology and sacred scripture atRegis College in Toronto. He continued his studies in theology and scripture at thePontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, and thenÉcole Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem.[5]
Rosica was appointed by theCanadian Conference of Catholic Bishops as the national director and chief executive officer of the 17thWorld Youth Day 2002 in Toronto.[6][7] The theme of the World Youth Day was "You are the salt of the earth... you are the light of the world." Shortly after the World Youth Day, Thomas Rosica was approached by the founder ofSt. Joseph Communications,Gaetano Gagliano, to run a religious television network. The new television station was named "Salt + Light Television" after the theme of the World Youth Day 2002 and began its broadcast on July 1, 2003 with only two employees.[8]
Rosica served as the Vatican's English language spokesperson for the transition in the papacy during February and March, 2013[1] and as media advisor at theVatican for theOctober 2018 Synod of Bishops.[9]
Since 2015, Rosica has regularly been accused of plagiarism in his publications, blog postings, and speeches.[10] On February 17, 2015 Rosica issued acease and desist letter against David Domet, of the Catholic blogVox Cantoris, accusing the blogger of having made false and defamatory statements.[11]
In February 2019, Rosica stepped down from the governing boards ofUniversity of St. Michael's College in Toronto,St. John Fisher College in New York andUniversity of St. Thomas in Houston because of plagiarism accusations.[3] In March 2019, Rosica went on sabbatical from the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation;[12] he resigned as CEO in June.[4] That same month, theCanadian Conference of Catholic Bishops announced that it had retracted Rosica's works published by the CCCB because the works "failed to provide all the appropriate citations, as well as bibliographic references, and did not acknowledge a number of original sources".[13] Rosica took full responsibility for the "lack of oversight."[3]
In 2020, Rosica's plagiarism was found to extend to text that heghostwrote for CardinalMarc Ouellet.[14]
In 2022, new plagiarism accusations were brought against Rosica concerning two new articles published inIl Sismografo, a Vatican-basednews aggregator.[15]
A lawsuit filed in Ontario, Canada, in 2024 accuses Father Thomas Rosica of sexually abusing a younger priest more than two decades ago.[16]
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