Apostate

A Life Revised

By: Robert Ledogar

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Robert (Bob) Ledogar grew up in an Irish-Catholic family in Queens County, New York City. At the age of 14 he entered the Venard, a minor seminary in Clarks Summit, PA, to begin 12 years of study to become a Roman Catholic priest in the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll). Ordained a priest in 1959 he was assigned to further studies in Europe in the Institut Catholique in Paris. After 5 years of advanced studies that earned him a doctorate in theology, he returned to Maryknoll's major seminary in Ossining, NY, to teach theology. In 1969, at the age of 37, Bob decided to leave the priesthood and the Roman Catholic faith. “I became an apostate,” he writes. In APOSTATE: A LIFE REVISED Bob Ledogar describes the processes that led to his decision. He then goes on to detail the social justice work that he and his wife, Eleanor (Elly), engaged in together with UNICEF, AFSC (American Friends Service Committee), and similar organizations in Africa, Central and South America, and New York City for more than four decades. Elly died in the Amsterdam Nursing Home in Manhattan on September 9, 2021; Bob died in hospice care in Northampton, MA, on July 2, 2025.