László Roskó (Abaújnádasd, July 3, 1924 – Seven Hills, Ohio, March 27, 2012 [March 28, according to other sources]) was a Roman Catholic priest, pastor of the Diocese of Cleveland, and a leading figure in Cleveland’s Hungarian Catholic community. For nearly four decades, he led the St. Margaret of Hungary Parish and played a pivotal role in its relocation from Buckeye Road to Orange Village.
He was born on July 3, 1924, in Abaújnádasd (now Trstené pri Hornáde, Slovakia). He completed his high school studies at the Benedictine high school in Kőszeg. After World War II, he continued his theological studies in West Germany and was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Cologne on August 24, 1952. In connection with the postwar wave of Hungarian emigration, he left for the United States in 1956, where he was incardinated into the Diocese of Cleveland.
His first assignments in the United States were in the state of Ohio. He served as an assistant pastor in Lakewood and later at St. Anthony Parish in Fairport Harbor. He then pursued university studies in Washington, D.C., from 1962 to 1965. In 1965, he was appointed assistant pastor at St. Margaret of Hungary Church in Cleveland, where he served under parish priests János Mundweil and then Dezső Hoffmann. Following Dezső Hoffmann’s departure, he took over leadership of the parish in August 1972.
During his tenure as pastor, the Hungarian Catholic community in Cleveland underwent significant social transformation. The Hungarian population of the Buckeye Road area gradually moved to the eastern suburbs, making it increasingly difficult to maintain the old church. Under the leadership of László Roskó, the community made the historic decision to sell the old church while preserving its most important liturgical and artistic treasures—including the high altar and several stained-glass windows. These were installed in the new church built on the grounds of the Divine Redeemer Home in Orange Village, which Bishop Anthony M. Pilla consecrated in September 1993. This relocation was a rare example of an American Hungarian parish that did not cease to exist but was reorganized at a new location.
László Roskó served as a pastor in both Hungarian and English. He was an active organizer of Hungarian community life, regularly participated in cultural and church events, and played an important role in preparing for and organizing Cardinal József Mindszenty’s 1974 visit to Cleveland. In addition, he focused on ensuring the next generation of Hungarian pastors; he helped prepare several young priests for ministry in the United States.
On November 1, 2009, the Diocese of Cleveland reorganized its parish network, and as part of this process, the St. Margaret Parish in Hungary ceased to exist as an independent parish. László Roskó retired at that time, bringing to a close more than forty years of service as a parish priest. His contemporaries remembered him as a simple, approachable pastor faithful to Hungarian traditions, who, with his distinctive black priest’s hat, was a familiar figure in Cleveland’s Hungarian neighborhood for many years.
He passed away in March 2012 in the state of Ohio. His funeral Mass was celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Roger Gries at St. Andrew’s Benedictine Abbey in Cleveland, after which he was laid to rest at Calvary Cemetery.