Congrégation du Saint-Esprit
Raymond Kirk was born on May 3, 1901 in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. He attended the Duquesne University Prep School, graduating in 1919. He entered the novitiate for the Holy Ghost Fathers the following year, and earned a bachelor's degree at Duquesne. He was ordained a priest for the Holy Ghost Fathers on August 29, 1925, after which he spent a year in New York City doing parish work and earning a doctorate at New York University. His brother was James P. Kirk, Treasurer of the City of Pittsburgh in the 1940s.