Bishop Emeritus Daniel Patrick Reilly, fourth bishop of Worcester, dies at 96

WORCESTER – Bishop Daniel Patrick Reilly, the fourth bishop of Worcester, died Tuesday evening at age 96.

The news was first reported by The Catholic Free Press, the official newspaper of the Worcester Diocese.

Reilly was named fourth bishop of Worcester by Pope John Paul II in 1994. He was installed in December of that year at St. Paul Cathedral.

“Bishop Daniel Reilly led this diocese at times of great joy as we entered into a new millennium, and offered the pastoral care of the Good Shepherd in times of sorrow, including the tragic loss of life in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse fire and outreach to victims of sexual abuse as he implemented the Charter for the Protection of children and young people,” diocese spokesman Ray Delisle said in an email to the T&G. “His pastoral zeal and his indomitable spirit relied on his trust in God and living his episcopal motto, In Kindness and in Truth.”

Reilly submitted his resignation in May 2003, retired from the diocese in March 2004 and became bishop emeritus. He was succeeded as bishop of Worcester by the Most Rev. Robert McManus, the current bishop.

Reilly was born in Providence, one of nine children. He attended St. Michael's Parish School there, as well as Our Lady of Providence Seminary in Warwick, Rhode Island. He was ordained in 1953.

The following year, Reilly was appointed assistant chancellor of the Diocese of Providence. He remained in the Providence Diocese for the next 22 years in a variety of roles, including as a priest at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.

During the early 1960s, he attended two sessions of the Second Vatican Council in Rome and rose to the rank of monsignor.

Pope Paul VI named Reilly Bishop of Norwich, Connecticut, in June 1975.

Reilly was eventually named as a defendant in multiple lawsuits alleging that priests accused of sexual misconduct were reassigned to other parishes during his time as a high-ranking church official in Providence and Norwich. In one case, the Diocese of Norwich reached a $1.1 million settlement with a New London, Connecticut, woman who said she had been abused as a minor by a priest who had been transferred to different parishes while Reilly was bishop.

In an interview with the Telegram & Gazette, Reilly said he was not personally involved in the reassignment of priests accused of sexual abuse.

Reilly held honorary doctoral degrees from the College of the Holy Cross; Assumption University; Anna Maria College; Providence College; Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island; Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut; Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut; and St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont.

Reilly was a trustee with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, Assumption University, Saint Vincent Hospital, Catholic Mutual Relief Society of Omaha and St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore. He served as chaplain for the state Knights of Columbus and on the board of directors of Emmanuel Communications in Worcester.

According to his biography on the Worcester Diocese website, Reilly held many posts in the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, including chairman of the International Policy Committee. He traveled to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on a U.S. peace mission in 1995 and also to South Africa, where he met Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, on a Catholic church mission.

"I was very fortunate as a bishop … to get to these places and not neglect the diocese (to which he was assigned back in the United States),” Reilly told The Catholic Free Press in 2020, when he marked his 45th anniversary as a priest.

For a decade he was chairman of Catholic Relief Services, the overseas assistance and development agency of the United States bishops.

A visitation will be held from 2 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Afterward a vigil service will be held. The funeral Mass will be at the Cathedral of St. Paul Wednesday, at 11 a.m.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Fourth bishop of Worcester, Daniel Patrick Reilly dies at 96