The Rev. John J. Dougherty, retired Auxiliary Bishop of Newark and a former president of Seton Hall University, died Thursday at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, N.J. Bishop Dougherty, who was 78 years old and lived in Tenafly, N.J., had suffered a stroke in 1980.

Bishop Dougherty gained national attention as a television broadcaster and as an early and active critic of the Vietnam War.

He was born in Jersey City and was a graduate of Seton Hall in 1930. He was ordained at the North American College in Rome in 1933 and retired from official church service 49 years later.

He was professor of sacred scripture at Immaculate Conception Seminary from 1937 to 1959, and in 1946 he became host of ''The Catholic Hour,'' a radio program sponsored by the National Council of Catholic Men. He gained national recognition when the show moved to television in 1951.

In 1958 he became the 13th president of Seton Hall University and five years later was consecrated an Auxiliary Bishop. He remained university president until 1969, when he resigned to became pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in Short Hills, N.J., where he served until 1977.

An early opponent of the Vietnam War, Bishop Dougherty testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the church should be part of the debate on the morality of the conflict. He also was co-founder of an antiwar coalition calling for a stop to the bombing of North Vietnam and for negotiation with its government.

He is survived by two sisters, Cathy Dougherty and Rose Phelan, both of Tenafly, and a brother, William, of Oradell, N.J.

A mass will be celebrated at 11 A.M. Monday at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Newark.

Source: "Bishop John Dougherty, 78, Dies; A Former President of Seton Hall". Obituary. Published 22 March 1986 in the New York Times (Manhattan, New York), national edition, section 1, page 32. Retrieved 08 February 2024 from https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/22/obituaries/bishop-john-dougherty-78-dies-a-former-president-of-seton-hall.html