Nov. 5, 1997
Former Archbishop Living in Minnesota
By Paul Logan
Journal Staff Writer
Former Archbishop Robert Sanchez, who once shepherded 275,000 Catholics, has worked as a farmhand for several years on land owned by nuns near a small town in southwestern Minnesota.
Sanchez, who resigned in 1993 after revelations of his sexual relationships with women, is living near Jackson in a farm house belonging to the Sisters of Mercy, the former Archbishop of Santa Fe's attorney said Tuesday.
Albuquerque attorney Richard Winterbottom said Sanchez has made the farming community of 3,500 people his home "for several years." He said Sanchez's rural lifestyle is an "exceedingly quiet, pastoral, contemplative existence."
Winterbottom, who spoke to Sanchez a few days ago, said he didn't know if he is going to stay there.
Sanchez's name was in the news last month when he led a retreat for priests in Tucson, Ariz. Prior to that, Sanchez's whereabouts have not been public knowledge since 1995, when church officials said he visited relatives in New Mexico.
Winterbottom said the Roman Catholic Church hasn't hidden Sanchez away and he isn't in Minnesota "because there is something to fear from the rest of the world. That's not the case at all."
He said Sanchez chose to live about 180 miles southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul, "working on the farm, helping the sisters with their farm and their community ... servicing the spiritual needs for those who call on him."
The Sisters of Mercy operate a medical clinic in Jackson and own two farms a few miles outside of town, said Scott Beckel, who runs a body shop and is their neighbor.
Beckel said the nuns live on one farm and have a guest house on the other, about a mile down county road 14. Sanchez lives by himself in the guest house.
The nuns grow corn, soybeans, hay and own livestock, said Beckel, who didn't know that the priest was a farm worker until the Journal telephone interview.
"I've probably seen him," Beckel said of Sanchez. "I've probably talked to him. But I've never seen anyone out of the ordinary."
Sanchez's resignation climaxed several years of controversy regarding New Mexico's pedophile priest problem, which rocked the archdiocese during the 1990s.
During his watch, more than 160 sexual abuse claims were brought against priests in the archdiocese.
Winterbottom said events surrounding Sanchez's resignation were exceedingly troublesome to the priest, who wanted to take time to think and assess his position in the church, "but perhaps more importantly, who he is in the world."
Sanchez has lived in the Midwest since 1993, said Winterbottom, who added his client found the farm to be a private place for quiet time and for doing some soul searching.
"He had been profiting by it in an inner sense," he said.
Officials of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe did not want to comment on Sanchez, communications director Mary Ryland said Tuesday.
Monsignor Doug Raun, board president of Archdiocese Priest Relief Fund, said Tuesday that Sanchez lives on a pension from the fund. The money comes from 21/2 percent of collections taken weekly at local churches, according to Raun, pastor of St. Thomas in Rio Rancho.
He said 44 priests, including Sanchez, receive monthly checks.
"The typical pension for a priest in our diocese runs around $1,300 a month," he said. Health insurance was added recently.
