Roger Schwietz was born on July 3, 1940, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the son of a Polish-American tavern owner.

On August 15, 1961, Schwietz made his first profession as a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) Order and entered their seminary.

[3] On December 20, 1967, Schwietz was ordained to the priesthood for OMI in Rome at the International College of the Missionary by Archbishop Joseph Patrick Fitzgerald.

He left St. Thomas in 1978 after the OMI named him director of its college seminary program at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

He was consecrated on February 2, 1990, by Archbishop John Roach, with Bishops Robert Brom and Michael Pfeifer serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth.

[9] On October 2, 2006, Guzmán Carriquiry Lecour, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity in Rome, met with Schwietz, who presented TEC to the curial dicastery.

On January 16, 2008. the Vatican appointed Schwietz as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Juneau while continuing his position as archbishop.

[11] On April 28, 2017, Schwietz was brought to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage with complaints of chest pain, later diagnosed as a heart attack.

[12] In late November 2017, he underwent successful heart valve replacement surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.