Joseph Vincent Sullivan

Joseph Vincent Sullivan (August 15, 1919—September 4, 1982) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Baton Rouge in Louisiana from 1974 until his death in 1982. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph in Missouri from 1967 to 1974.

Sullivan was credibly accused by several parishioners of sexual abuse, later admitted by the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

Biography

Early life Joseph Sullivan was born on August 15, 1919, in Kansas City, Missouri, to John Lawrence and Anastasia Agnes (née Presser) Sullivan. He received his early education at local Catholic schools, and began his seminary formation in Missouri. He then studied at the Sulpician Seminary of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He earned a doctorate in theology from the Catholic University in 1949. In February 1979, Sullivan refused to allow theologian Charles Curran, whom he denounced as "heretical" and "not in accord with Catholic teaching", to speak at the Catholic Campus Ministry at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. After he removed the Claretian Fathers from the chaplaincy at Louisiana State University in March 1979, 51 priests filed a list of grievances against Sullivan with the Vatican.

In February 1981, Sullivan issued a pastoral letter in which he declared that ministries to divorced and remarried Catholics "may not witness, explicitly or implicitly, that the living Church condones the marital lifestyle of those living in an invalid marriage." St. Michael the Archangel High School in Baton Rouge, named after Sullivan, changed its name in 2005 following the settlement of a separate lawsuit alleging Sullivan had sexually abused a minor boy.