Robert Joseph Fox

Robert J. Fox (born December 25, 1927 -) is a priest and a prolific author of religious books for members of the Roman Catholic Church. As well as his writings, Fox has worked as a priest in a number of rural towns in South Dakota. He is currently the Director of the national Fatima Family Apostolate and Youth for Fatima Pilgrimages as well as the editor of the Immaculate Heart Messenger and has written frequently for a number of Catholic publications in the US. The Fatima Family Apostolate organises the national Annual Marian Congress attended by thousands of people annually.

Life and career
He was born in Watertown, South Dakota in 1927. His father, Aloysius Fox, was a farmer. Fox was raised in a religious family and developed a vocation at an early age. After graduating from Watertown High School Fox studied at St John's University, an all-male Benedictine liberal arts college in rural Minnesota between 1947 and 1950. Fox graduated from the St Paul Seminary in 1955.

After being ordained, Fox served as an Associate Pastor in several congregations where some of his supervisors suggested that he start working as a writer. He started sending in letters and articles to Catholic publications and they were published. He eventually became a weekly columnist for the National Catholic Register and has written regularly for a number of other publications.

Fox became the pastor of St Anthony's parish based in Bristol, South Dakota in 1962. He was the pastor in a number of parishes in South Dakota between 1961 and 1971. He became the pastor at St Bernard's Church in Redfield, South Dakota in 1971.

In 1971, Cardinal John Wright, the Prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy asked him to write six books as part of the General Catechetical Directory kept at the Vatican. Fox did so and started a prolific career with well over 50 books to his credit as at 2005. In 2005, he published an autobiography A Priest is a Priest Forever.

As thanks for the request, Fox built the first shrine commemorating the Virgin Mary in Redfield in 1972. He took his first pilgrimage group to Our Lady of Fatima in Fátima, Portugal in 1974 for six weeks and has been doing so ever since.

Fr. Fox has given talks at many conferences accross the globe and has often appeared on television, making appearances on EWTN, and also produces a quartly magazine Immaculate Heart Messenger.

Listed among his many conference presentations are sound Catholic faith teachings that are Mariological which took place in Fatima, Austraila, Poland, Sryia, Mexico, Italy, and the United States.

Among Fr. Fox’s numerous television and radio appearances are several Mother Angelica Live Shows; an appearance on Johnette Benkovic’s The Abundant Life; EWTN Doug Keck's Bookmark; Daily Mass; WEWN shortwave radio and Sirius Satellite Radio; Relevant Radio

He has built three shrines to the Virgin Mary since that date. He began the Fatima Family Apostolate in 1986 and has been the director of that body since then as well as the editor of its newsletter. In 1987, he began the first National Marian Conference in Alexandria, South Dakota in June of each year with an annual average attendance of 8,000. He celebrated 50 years in the priesthood in 2005.

Fr. Fox has retired officially and now offers daily Mass only at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, which is part of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery Hanceville, Alabama. He continues to write books and is the editor of the Immaculate Heart Messenger Magazine and he can be seen on EWTN.