Former Catholic archbishop dies

Archbishop Ward said in 2001 he was 'very hurt' by criticism

The former Archbishop of Cardiff, John Aloysious Ward, has died suddenly at the age of 78, it has been announced.

He retired after 18 years in the post in 2001 because of ill health but after criticism for ignoring warnings about paedophile clergymen.

Archbishop Peter Smith said he was "deeply saddened" at his death.

He called the former archbishop "a dedicated friar, priest and bishop throughout the 50 years of his ministry."

Archbishop Ward stood down after a meeting with Pope John Paul II.

He had been accused of not listening to concerns from colleagues and parishioners about two paedophile priests in Cardiff.

It was alleged that he ordained Father Joe Jordan in 1998, despite the knowledge that he had already been tried and acquitted of indecently assaulting a young boy.

Jordan, who used football as a way of meeting boys, then went on to indecently assault two nine-year-olds while he was a priest.

'Struck down'

In 2000, he was sentenced to eight years in jail for those offences and for indecently assaulting a 12-year-old boy in the 1980s.

Father John Lloyd, one of the archbishop's colleagues, was also jailed for eight years in 1998 for paedophile offences.

In his resignation statement, Archbishop Ward said: "I am weary of an environment characterised by a lack of loyalty.

"I have been shocked and deeply hurt by those sections of the media and members of the Catholic church who did their utmost to attack me when I was struck down by illness.

"They were and are poor servants of justice and truth."

Born in Leeds, John Ward was brought up in Wrexham and joined the Capuchin Friars at Holywell in Flintshire, and was ordained a priest in 1953 in the Franciscan Parish at Peckham in London.

He became a bishop in 1980 and was appointed the fifth Archbishop of Cardiff on 29 March 1983.

Archbishop Smith said: "My thoughts and prayers go to his sister Margaret, his family and friends across the parishes and two dioceses in which he served as bishop."

Canon Bob Reardon, vicar general for the Archdiocese of Cardiff, said Archbishop Ward was a "very approachable man, who had a great love for Wales" and who had contributed much to encouraging relationships with other churches and the creation of parish and deanery councils.

He added: "He was instrumental in reorganising the church in Wales by creating a new diocese in 1987. He was very keen the Catholic church in Wales had an identity as a Welsh church."