Carroll Thomas Dozier

One of five children, Carroll Dozier was born in Richmond, Virginia, to Curtis Merry and Rosa Ann (née Conaty) Dozier.[1] After graduating from Benedictine High School in Richmond in 1928, he attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1932.[1] He then entered the Pontifical North American College and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree[2]

Dozier was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Richmond in Rome on March 19, 1937.[3] Following his return to Virginia in 1937, Dozier was assigned as a curate at St. Vincent's Parish in Newport News, Virginia. He was transferred in 1941 to St. Joseph's Parish in Petersburg, Virginia.[1] Dozier was diocesan director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith (1945-1953), then transferred to Sacred Heart Parish in Danville, Virginia. In 1954, he was appointed pastor of Christ the King Parish in Norfolk, Virginia.[1] Dozier was named a papal chamberlain in 1954 and a domestic prelate in 1961.[2] He spent a brief time at St. Victoria Parish in Hurt, Virginia.

On November 12, 1970, Dozier was appointed the first bishop of the newly erected Diocese of Memphis by Pope Paul VI.[3] He received his episcopal consecration on January 6, 1971, from Cardinal John Wright, with Archbishops Luigi Raimondi and Thomas McDonough serving as co-consecrators.[3]

During his tenure, Dozier implemented the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, including insisting on liturgical changes and giving more important roles to the laity in diocesan affairs.[2] He also established the Diocesan Housing Corporation, Catholic Charities, Ministry to the Sick, and a weekly newspaper called Common Sense.[2] A self-described "progressive,"[2] Dozier was an early opponent of American involvement in the Vietnam War and offered support to young men refusing the draft.[4] He also called for busing to achieve desegregation in public schools, opposed capital punishment, and supported ecumenism and women's rights.[2][4] In 1970, Dozier celebrated two Masses of Reconciliation at Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee, for lapsed Catholics; he gave general absolution to those in attendance, to the dismay of Pope Paul VI and Cardinal James Knox.[4]

On July 27, 1982, Pope John Paul II accepted Dozier's resignation as Bishop of the Diocese of Memphis.[3] Carroll Dozier died of a stroke on December 7, 1985, at age 74.[4]

On February 14, 2019, the Diocese of Richmond released a list of priests, including Dozier, who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse.[5] On September 9, 2019, the city of Memphis removed his image from the "Upstanders Mural" across from the National Civil Rights Museum.[6][7]