Father Norman Rogge
Diocese of St. Petersburg
Ordained: 1956
Removed: 2002
Died: 2009
Assignment History:
- 1956-1957: St. Mary’s College (St. Mary’s, KS)
- 1957-1958: St. Robert’s Hall (Pomfret, CT)
- 1958-1960: Jesuit High School of Dallas (Dallas, TX)
- 1960-1979: Sacred Heart (Tampa, FL)
- 1960-1979: Juvenile Detention Home (Tampa, FL)
- 1979-1981: St. Ignatius (Mobile, AL)
- 1981-1982: Jesuit Theological Union (Berkeley, CA)
- 1982-1985: Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Campti, LA)
- 1982-1985: St. Joseph’s (Trichel, LA)
- 1982-1985: Our Lady of the Holy Rosary (Black Lake, LA)
- 1982-1985: St. Patrick’s (Montgomery, LA)
- 1985-1988: Unknown
- 1988-1989: Ignatius Residence (New Orleans, LA)
- 1989-2002: St. Charles College (Grand Coteau, LA)
- 1998-2002: St. Charles Borromeo (Grand Coteau, LA)
- 1998-2002: Christ the King (Bellevue, LA)
- 2002-2009: Ignatius Residence (New Orleans, LA)
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations Against Father Norman Rogge:
Fr. Norman J. Rogge was a Jesuit priest who worked in various parishes throughout Kansas, Connecticut, Texas, Florida, Alabama, California, and Louisiana. Fr. Rogge has been convicted twice for child sexual abuse in 1967 and 1985.
In 1967, Fr. Rogge was accused of groping a 14-year-old at a movie. According to news reports, the victim lived at a group home Rogge had access to. Other residents there also complained of inappropriate touching during swimming lessons at Rogge’s lake house. A police report indicated he also admitted to asking a boy for oral sex. Rogge pleaded guilty to charges relating to child molestation and received three years’ probation.
After this conviction, Rogge was given probation and was required to undergo psychiatric counseling. He stayed in Tampa, in ministry, until he was transferred to the Mobile Diocese in 1979.
In 1984, Rogge was in Tampa for a visit and spent a weekend at a cabin with two other men and an 11-year-old boy. One of the men was a convicted child molester. All three men were associated with an organization formed to search for missing children, a newspaper reported.
A police report alleges that the men walked around all weekend naked and masturbated in front of the child. In connection with this investigation, Fr. Rogge pleaded no contest to a lewdness charge in 1985 and was placed on probation again. He reportedly was required to go to a Catholic treatment facility in New Mexico. For both convictions, his criminal record was wiped clean of the child molestation charges upon completing probation, and after both convictions, he was allowed to continue working as a priest.
Since then, numerous survivors have come forward alleging child sexual abuse by Fr. Rogge, with the earliest allegation in 1963. In 2002, a team of journalists exposed Fr. Rogge’s sexually abusive past that resulted in him being sent to a Jesuit retirement community in New Orleans.
Rogge is named on the Jesuits’ December 2018 list of priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse of a child. He also was on the list released by the Archdiocese of Mobile in 2018.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Diocese of St. Petersburg in Florida. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in Florida, contact our office today. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Florida and nationwide. We can help.
Contact us at 888-283-9922 or [email protected] to discuss your options today.