Name Daniel Feeney Posthumous style none | Religious style Monsignor Spoken style Your Excellency Died September 15, 1969 | |
Parents Mary Ann Feeney, Daniel Joseph Feeney | ||
Reference style The Most Reverend | ||
Daniel Joseph Feeney (September 12, 1894 – September 15, 1969) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Portland from 1955 until his death.
Biography
Daniel Feeney was born in Portland, Maine, to Daniel Joseph and Mary Ann (née Quinn) Feeney. His father worked as superintendent of the Portland Gas Company. Raised in St. Dominic's Parish, he attended public schools and graduated from Portland High School in 1912. He studied at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1913 and 1915. He then studied at the Grand Seminary of Montreal in Quebec, Canada, for six years.
He was ordained to the priesthood on May 21, 1921. He then served as assistant pastor at St. Mary's Church in Orono from 1921 to 1926, and as superintendent of diocesan schools from 1926 to 1929. He was pastor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Presque Isle from 1929 to 1946.
On June 22, 1946, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Portland and Titular Bishop of Sita by Pope Pius XII. Feeney, who was Portland's first native bishop, received his episcopal consecration on the following September 12, his fifty-second birthday, from Archbishop Amleto Cicognani, with Bishops Matthew Brady and Joseph McCarthy serving as co-consecrators, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. He performed many of Bishop McCarthy's administrative duties due to the latter's poor health, and later became Apostolic Administrator (1948) and Coadjutor Bishop (1952) of the diocese.
Feeney succeeded McCarthy as the seventh Bishop of Portland upon his death on September 9, 1955. During his tenure, he opened a number of rectories, convents, schools, social centers, parish halls, and the diocesan chancery. The Bishop also freed the Portland diocese of its considerable debt, which was his self-proclaimed greatest tangible accomplishment. From 1962 to 1965, Feeney was attended the Second Vatican Council, and was subsequently active in implementing the Council's reforms, such as by modernizing the Cathedral.
He died at the age of 75, having spent his last several months at Mercy Hospital. His funeral Mass was held at St. Dominic Parish, as the Cathedral was closed for renovation.