Robert Deeley

Early life and education

Robert Peter Deeley was born on June 18, 1946 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Michael and Mary Deeley, both immigrants from County Galway, Ireland. In 1964, after graduating from Matignon High School in Cambridge, Deeley went to Cardinal O’Connell Minor Seminary in Jamaica Plain.

After two years, he was awarded the Basselin Foundation Scholarship and attended The Catholic University of America, where he graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts. He then continued studies at the North American College in Rome, earning a Bachelor of Sacred Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1972.

Ordination and ministry

On July 14, 1973, Deeley was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston by Humberto Cardinal Medeiros in his home parish of Sacred Heart in Watertown.

Following ordination, Deeley was an associate pastor and then Secretary to the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Boston. In 1981, he returned to the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he earned a Licentiate of Canon Law in 1983, and a Doctor of Canon Law summa cum laude in 1986. His dissertation was entitled: "The Mandate for Those who Teach Theology in Institutes of Higher Studies: An Interpretation of the Meaning of Canon 812 of the Code of Canon Law."

Back in Boston, he served in various capacities in the Metropolitan Tribunal before being called to work in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger in 2004. This was a job he kept until 2010, when he returned to Boston and was named Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia in 2011. He was named a Prelate of Honor in 1995 by Pope John Paul II. giving him the title of "monsignor." He was also president of the Canon Law Society of America in 2000.

Auxiliary Bishop of Boston

On November 9, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named then-Msgr. Deeley Auxiliary Bishop of Boston and Titular Bishop of Kearney. He was consecrated on January 4, 2013 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross by Seán Cardinal O'Malley. Archbishop John Nienstedt of St.Paul-Minneapolis and Bishop Robert Evans of Providence, who were both classmates of Deeley's at the North American College, served as co-consecrators. Deeley chose "Veritatem facere in caritate" ("Living the truth in love") from St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians as his Episcopal motto, because he believes that is "the heart of our challenge in the Church today."

Deeley is the third President of the Canon Law Society of America to be named bishop by Pope Benedict XVI, joining Bishop Randolph Calvo of Reno and Bishop Mark Bartchak of Altoona-Johnstown.

Bishop of Portland, Maine

Bishop Deeley was installed as bishop of the Diocese of Portland in Maine on February 14, 2014 in a Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland on February 14, 2014.