Daniel Patrick Reilly
Daniel Patrick Reilly (born May 12, 1928) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Reilly served as bishop of the Diocese of Norwich in Connecticut from 1975 to 1994 and as bishop of the Diocese of Worcester in Massachusetts from 1994 to 2004. Biography. Early life and education. Daniel Reilly was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Francis and Mary Ann (née O'Beirne) Reilly. He entered Our Lady of Providence Seminary in Warwick, Rhode Island in 1943, then in 1948 went to the Grand Seminary in Saint-Brieuc, France. Ordination and ministry. Reilly was ordained  to the priesthood for the Diocese of Providence on May 30, 1953 by Bishop Russell McVinney at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Providence.After his ordination, Reilly briefly served in a parish before completing his graduate studies at Boston College. Reilly was named assistant chancellor (1954), secretary to Bishop McVinney (1956), chancellor (1964), and vicar general (1972). Reilly attended two sessions of the Second Vatican Council, and was raised to the rank of monsignor in 1965. Bishop of Norwich. On June 5, 1975, Pope Paul VI appointed Reilly as the third bishop of the Diocese of Norwich . He received his episcopal ordination on August 6, 1975, at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick in Norwich by Archbishop John Whealon, with Bishops Vincent Hines and Louis Gelineau serving as co-consecrators. Bishop of Worcester. On October 27, 1994, Pope John Paul II appointed Reilly as the fourth bishop of the Diocese Worcester. He was installed on December 8, 1994.During his tenure in Worcester, Reilly reopened St. Joseph Parish but merged it with Notre Dame des Canadiens Parish in Worcester. He raised over $50 million for his Forward in Faith campaign to place the diocese in a stable financial  condition. In 2002, Reilly became the first Catholic bishop to open the annual synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In 2003, he expressed his unequivocal opposition to same-sex marriage and civil unions but declared that he was open to discussion on giving public benefits to same-sex couples. Retirement. After reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, Reilly retired as bishop on March 9, 2004. He was succeeded by Bishop Robert McManus, then-auxiliary bishop of Providence. On September 17, 2012, the Diocese of Norwich reached a $1.1 million settlement with a New London, Connecticut, woman  who claimed that she had been sexually abused as a minor by Thomas Shea, a priest at St. Joseph Parish in New London. The woman claimed that Reilly, when bishop of Norwich, knew about Shea's history of abuse allegations, but kept transferring him to different parishes. On December 30, 2020 the newspaper "The Day" calculated that Reilly and the Diocese of Norwich faced 35 separate lawsuits. by men who had been abused during the 1990's as minors by K. Paul McGlade, a monk who ran the Academy at Mount Saint John in Deep River, Connecticut. Reilly had been  on the school board, which recruited McGlade from Australia.