CNA Staff, May 28, 2025 / 16:11 pm (CNA).
Portland, Oregon, Archbishop Emeritus John Vlazny, who led the northeastern U.S. archdiocese from 1997 to 2013, died this month at his home near the city. He was 88 years old.
The archdiocese announced the prelate’s passing on Sunday. The retired archbishop passed away at his home in Beaverton, just a few miles from St. Mary’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Portland. A funeral is scheduled for Friday, June 6.
In a statement, Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample described Vlazny as a “great spiritual father” who led the archdiocese “through some of its most challenging days.”
“He was a man who always fully exhibited the joy of the Gospel,” Sample said. “He was truly one of the kindest and most thoughtful men I have ever known.”
Ordained in Chicago on Dec. 20, 1961, he was appointed an auxiliary bishop of that city on Oct. 18, 1983. He then served as bishop of Winona, Minnesota, before being appointed the archbishop of Portland, where he was installed on Dec. 19, 1997, and served for just over 15 years.
Vlazny was archbishop of the Portland Archdiocese when it declared bankruptcy in July 2004 as a result of sex abuse cases, becoming the first U.S. diocese of any size to do so.
“This is not an effort to avoid responsibility,” the prelate said at the time. “It is in fact the only way I can assure that other claimants can be offered fair compensation.”
Vlazny was adjacent to another U.S. first when Oregon in 1998 allowed the first-ever physician-assisted suicide to take place, that of a woman with breast cancer.
The archbishop said at the time that he was “deeply saddened” by the death.
“The suicide of this elderly woman can only bring anguish to those who have resisted the public policy initiatives that changed the law in Oregon,” he said.
Sample said that Vlazny “has left a lasting and remarkable legacy in this local Church in western Oregon.”
“He will be missed very deeply by all of us,” the archbishop said. “We now commend him to the mercy of the Lord, whom he served so well.”
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Respectful farewell to Archbishop Emeritus John Vlazny. RIP.