Peter McKevitt (30 November 1900 – 3 November 1976) was an Irish

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest, author and sociologist. He served as Chair of Catholic Sociology and

Catholic Action Catholic Action is a movement of Catholic laity, lay people within the Catholic Church which advocates for increased Catholic influence on society. Catholic Action groups were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic cou ...

in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, holding the position from 1937 to 1953.

Career

McKevitt was born in Carlingford on 30 November 1900 and was ordained priest on 21 June 1925. His academic background was not in sociology but in theology and philosophy. His PhD was awarded in 1938 by the

Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (; ) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) * Katholieke Universiteit Leuven or KU Leuven (1968 ...

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, on the basis of a dissertation on the Scottish philosopher

Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison Andrew Seth, FBA, DCL (1856, Edinburgh – 1931, The Haining, Selkirkshire), who changed his name to Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison in 1898 to fulfill the terms of a bequest, was a Scottish philosopher. His brother was James Seth, also a phi ...

. To prepare for the appointment as Professor of Catholic Sociology, a chair endowed by the Knights of Saint Columbanus but for which no immediately suitable candidate could be found, he was sent to Rome to study courses on sociology, international labour organisation, political economy, the social encyclicals, Catholic Action and the history of Russian Bolshevism. Alongside

Cornelius Lucey Cornelius "Con" Lucey (1902–1982) was a Roman Catholic bishop of Cork and Ross. Youth and education Cornelius Lucey was born 15 July 1902 into a farming family at Windsor, Ovens, County Cork near Cork City. He attended Ballinora Primary School ...

, Maynooth’s Professor of Social Ethics, McKevitt played an important role in the instigation of the

Christus Rex Christ the King is a title of Jesus in Christianity referring to the idea of the Kingdom of God where Christ is described as being seated at the right hand of God. Many Christian denominations consider the kingly office of Christ to be one of ...

Society in 1941. With Lucey, he founded the Society's journal, ''Christus Rex: An Irish Quarterly Journal of Sociology'', in January 1947. This was the precursor of ''Social Studies: Irish Journal of Sociology''. McKevitt's main work, ''The Plan for Society'', was published in 1944. This has been described as "Ireland's first sociological textbook. It related general principles of Catholic social teaching to specific Irish problems such as emigration and rural decline". His analysis of the dangers of expanding state power underlay episcopal opposition to proposals to develop a welfare state in post-war Ireland on the model of that inspired by the Beveridge Report in the United Kingdom:

the leading clerical intellectual Revd Dr Peter McKevitt ..gave warning of the latent dangers that underlay any expansion of the State's social role, 'the more we load the State with duties, the greater the powers we must give it over the arranging of our lives'. ..Throughout 1944 and 1945 the Lenten Pastorals of the Irish Catholic Bishops, taking their lead from McKevitt's analysis, warned of the incipient but mounting dangers that expanded State power posed to Catholic religious and social values.

In 1950 he addressed the World Congress of Sociology and Political Science at Zürich, Switzerland, on "The Sociological Significance of Irish Emigration".

Retirement

McKevitt retired from teaching in 1953 and was replaced as professor by Father Jeremiah Newman. He became a parish priest in

Termonfeckin Termonfeckin or Termonfechin () is a small village and townland in County Louth, Ireland. It is within a civil parish of the same name, and is north-east of Drogheda. The population of the village almost quadrupled in the period between the 199 ...

for the last 23 years of his life. In 1963 he became the first president of Termonfeckin Credit Union. Appointed

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and

monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

(1967), he died on 3 November 1976, a few months after retiring as parish priest.Declan Quaile
Catholic Clergy Who Served in Termonfeckin
Termonfeckin Historical Society, 2001. Accessed 5 September 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKevitt, Peter 1900 births 1976 deaths Irish sociologists Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni Academics of St Patrick's College, Maynooth