Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – Today, the Holy Father Benedict XVI has appointed Fr. Kieran O'Reilly, SMA, until now Superior General of the Society of African Missions, as Bishop of Killaloe (Ireland). Fr. O'Reilly was born in Cork City on 8th August 1952. He joined the Society of African Missions in Wilton, Cork in 1970 and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth in 1974 followed by a Bachelor of Divinity in 1977 and a Diploma in Mission Studies in 1978. He was ordained priest for the Society of African Missions on June 17th 1978 and went to work in the Archdiocese of Monrovia (Liberia) from 1978 to 1980. Returning from his pastoral work he studied at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome from 1980 to 1984 graduating with a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture (LSS). He then taught Sacred Scripture at the major seminary in Ibadan (Nigeria) from 1984 to 1988. He served as Vice-Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of African Missions between 1990 and 1995 and became Vicar General of the Society from 1995 to 2001. In that year he was elected as Superior General of the Society of African Missions and is currently serving second term as Superior General of the society, a position to which he was re-elected in 2007. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 18/05/2010)
