Bishop Robert Deeley's 50th Jubilee
Bishop Robert Deeley, JCD, marks a milestone on July 14, 2023. It is the 50th anniversary of his ordination to priesthood.
The bishop was ordained by Humberto Cardinal Medeiros, then-Archbishop of Boston, at Sacred Heart Church in Watertown, Massachusetts. It is the same church where he was baptized, made his first Communion, and was confirmed.
The bishop said he first had the sense of being called to the priesthood when he was just a boy of age 4 and 5. He remembers his mother taking him and his younger brother, Kevin, to daily Mass one day and being fascinated by it.
He said he had many positive role models and mentors in his life who helped him discover his vocation, including Father (later Msgr.) John Keilty, who he describes as one of "those valuable gifts that God has put into my life." It was Father Keilty who, one day after confession, asked him "Have you ever thought about priesthood?"
He had thought about it, and in 1964, he entered Cardinal O’Connell Minor Seminary in Jamaica Plain. After two years there, he received a Theodore Basselin Fellowship to study philosophy at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Then, after earning his bachelor's degree, he continued his studies at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, receiving a degree in theology.
He was ordained to the priesthood just weeks after returning home. His initial assignment was as an associate pastor of St. Bartholomew Parish in Needham. He then became secretary to the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Boston, which would lead to his next assignment. He was one of two priests chosen by the American bishops to go to the Vatican to assist the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in investigating clergy sexual abuse cases from the United States.
After seven years in Rome, he returned to the Archdiocese of Boston, serving as vicar general and moderator of the curia. In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI named him an auxiliary bishop. He was ordained a bishop on January 4, 2013, choosing as his episcopal motto Veritatem Facere in Caritate, which he translates as “living the truth in love.”
"The truth is Jesus Christ. So living the truth is to live as Jesus calls us to live," he said.
Just over a year after his episcopal ordination, Bishop Deeley was chosen by Pope Francis to be the 12th Bishop of Portland. He was installed on February 14, 2014, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland.
Of all his noteworthy accomplishments during the past 50 years, the bishop said what stands out the most to him is the ability to celebrate the Eucharist.
“The most spectacular moment of everything is the ability to celebrate the Eucharist. There is nothing more profound than the Mass, that God would give us the gift of his Son, and his Son would give himself for us. We celebrate that in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in that act, he becomes present to us again. What could be greater than that? It’s like I say to the kids when I’m celebrating first Communion, ‘Isn’t this great?’ It is!”
Read more about Bishop Deeley's jubilee
Bishop Deeley reflects on his 50 years as a priest in the July 2023 cover story of Harvest magazine.
Bishop Deeley celebrates a jubilee Mass in the chapel of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
Bishop Deeley's public schedule
Bishop Deeley's 2014 Installation as Bishop of Portland - Story in Harvest magazine.
