“As I look back over the last four years, one of my fondest memories is the close and treasured friendship that we have enjoyed.” Those words opened a letter dated Dec. 19, 1980, printed on stationary with the Seal of the Vice President of the United States in blue. It was addressed to Archbishop John Roach of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and signed by Walter F. Mondale, whose service in the nation’s second-highest office was drawing to a close.

Mondale died April 19 at age 93. Funeral services are planned for September.

Walter Mondale

Former Vice President Walter Mondale is seen in this 1993 file photo. He died April 19, 2021, in Minneapolis at age 93. He was vice president under President Jimmy Carter, elected in 1976. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 1984 as the Democrats’ nominee, and his running mate, Geraldine Ferraro, was the first woman to be nominated for the nation’s second highest office. Mondale was ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996 under President Bill Clinton. CNS photo/Win McNamee, Reuters

A Presbyterian, Mondale, the former U.S. Senator from Minnesota, vice president under President Jimmy Carter and U.S. ambassador to Japan, was a personal friend of Archbishop Roach, archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 1975 to 1995.

Archbishop Roach gave the benediction at the 1977 inauguration ceremony. “We beg your special blessing on President Carter and Vice President Mondale and their families,” he prayed. “There is a loneliness on the mountain. Grace that loneliness with your presence.”

Allison Spies, the archdiocese’s archives programs manager, said the men wrote to each other regularly.

“Archbishop Roach visited Mondale in Washington, and they traveled together to Rome in 1978,” she said. “They of course disagreed on some topics, but they especially shared convictions about peace and the risks of the nuclear arms race.”

Archbishop Roach worked on a 1983 pastoral letter from the National Council of Catholic Bishops (a precursor to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) on nuclear weapons and the arms race. In his unsuccessful 1984 presidential bid, Mondale advocated for a nuclear freeze, and in an essay written during that time, he noted that “the Catholic Church has raised serious questions about the morality of nuclear war.”

Like Mondale’s other friends, Archbishop Roach called him by his nickname, “Fritz,” a nod to his middle name, “Frederick.” When the archbishop died in 2003, Mondale described him to The Catholic Spirit as “just always a good friend.” He praised him for his qualities as a pastor and “ecumenical spirit,” and he commended him for working together on shared policy goals, despite their disagreement about legalized abortion.

Mondale received an honorary degree from the University of St. Thomas in 1973 and received its law school’s Dignitatis Humanae Award in 2019.