Edmund James O'Reilly (30 April 1811 – 10 November 1878) was an Irish Jesuit

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theologian.

Biography

Edmund James O'Reilly was born in

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, on 30 April 1811. He was educated at

Clongowes Clongowes Wood College SJ is a Catholic voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814. It features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel ''A Portrait of the Artist as ...

and

Maynooth Maynooth (; ) is a university town in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is home to Maynooth University (part of the National University of Ireland and also known as the National University of Ireland, Maynooth) and St Patrick's College, Maynoo ...

and studied theology for seven years in the Roman College in Rome. He then gained the decree of Doctor of Divinity by a "public act" de iniversa theologia. He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

a priest in 1838. He taught theology for 13 years at

Maynooth College St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth (), is a pontifical Catholic university in the town of Maynooth near Dublin, Ireland. The college and national seminary on its grounds are often referred to as Maynooth College. The college was of ...

. He entered the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

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, Italy. He taught theology for several years at Saint Beuno's College in

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.Russell, M. (1911)
"Edmund O'Reilly"
In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 24 September 2021 from New Advent. O'Reilly was named Professor of Theology at the

Catholic University of Ireland The Catholic University of Ireland (CUI; ) was a private Catholic Church, Catholic university in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1851 following the Synod of Thurles in 1850, and in response to the Queen's University of Ireland and its assoc ...

in Dublin on its foundation.Daly, John S
"Fr. Edmund James O’Reilly, S.J.: On the Idea of a Long-Term Vacancy of the Holy See"
Revised and edited by Lane, John, October 1999. Retrieved 24 September 2021. Father

Peter Jan Beckx Peter Jan Beckx, SJ (also ''Pieter Jan Beckx'', in French ''Pierre Jean Beckx''; 8 February 1795 – 4 March 1887) was a Belgian Jesuit priest, elected the twenty-second Superior-General of the Society of Jesus in 1853. Early life and ed ...

, Superior-General of the Society of Jesus, proposed to appoint O'Reilly as Professor of Theology at the Roman College. However, circumstances, which were unrelated to O'Reilly, prevent the appointment. O'Reilly was the Rector of a house of spiritual exercises at Milltown Park near

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, and Provincial of Ireland from 1863 to 1870. At a conference held regarding the philosophical and theological studies in the Society of Jesus, O'Reilly was chosen to represent all the English-speaking "provinces" of the Society (Ireland, England, Maryland, and the other divisions of the United States). He was constantly consulted on

theological Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of an ...

questions by the bishops and priests of Ireland. These bishops chose O'Reilly as their theologian: Cardinal Paul Cullen, then Bishop of Armagh, at the Synod of Thurles in 1850; Doctor

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

, Bishop of Shrewsbury, at the Synod of Shrewsbury; and Doctor Thomas Furlong, Bishop of Ferns and O'Reilly's former colleague as Professor of Theology at Maynooth, at the Synod of Maynooth.

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John Henry Newman John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English Catholic theologian, academic, philosopher, historian, writer, and poet. He was previously an Anglican priest and after his conversion became a cardinal. He was an ...

in his famous ''

Letter to the Duke of Norfolk ''Letter to the Duke of Norfolk'' is a book written in 1875 by St John Henry Newman. Consisting of about 150 pages, it was meant as a response to Protestant-Catholic polemics that had emerged in the era of the First Vatican Council. In the boo ...

'' calls O'Reilly "a great authority" and "one of the first theologians of the day". O'Reilly's chief work was ''The Relations of the Church to Society''. He died in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, United Kingdom, on 10 November 1878.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oreilly, Edmund 1811 births 1878 deaths 19th-century Irish Roman Catholic theologians People educated at Clongowes Wood College Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth 19th-century Irish Jesuits