From Frontier Priest to Urban Prelate: Father Edmund Burke Kilroy (Biography‪)‬

This paper examines the unconventional Career path of Father Edmund Burke Kilroy (1830-1904), and the primary reason behind his decision to leave the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1859 and become a diocesan priest, and to reject President Abraham Lincoln' s offer of the post of first Catholic chaplain in the U.S. Navy, in 1864. Kilroy joined the diocese of London in 1864. During the next forty years, he gained a reputation as a model parish priest, an exemplar of stability, hard work, devotion and loyalty to the bishop and the people that he served. Prior to 1864, however, peripatetic is the word that best describes his life. Born in Ireland, he grew up in Sandwich East (Windsor), Ontario and Lockport, New York; was educated at Notre Dame in Indiana, joined the Congregation of the Holy Cross and was ordained to the priesthood in 1854; he left the community in 1859 and joined the diocese of Fort Wayne, Indiana; during the Civil War, he was an official pay agent for Indiana troops in the Union Army; lastly, he went to Washington, D.C., where he lobbied for, and was awarded, the position of Catholic chaplain for the U.S. Navy, only to reject it for an opportunity to join the diocese of London. Le present article se veut une analyse du cheminement de carriere du pere Edmund Burke Kilroy (1830-1904) et des raisons derriere sa decision de quitter la Congregation de Sainte-Croix en 1859 afin de devenir pretre diocesain, et de rejeter l'occasion que lui offrait le president Abraham Lincoln de devenir le premier aumonier de la marine americaine en 1864. Kilroy est devenu membre du diocese de London en 1864. Au cours des quarante annees suivantes, il a merite la reputation d'etre un pretre de paroisse modele, un symbole de constance, de dynamisme, de devotion et de loyaute aux yeux de l'eveque et des personnes qu'il desservait. Cependant, avant 1864, la vie de Kilroy etait plutot peripathetique. Ne en Irlande, il grandit a Sandwich East (Windsor), en Ontario, et a Lockport, dans l'etat de New York. Il fait ses etudes a Notre-Dame, dans l'Indiana, se joint a la Congregation de Sainte-Croix et devient pretre en 1854. Il quitte ensuite la communaute en 1859 pour devenir membre du diocese de Fort Wayne (Indiana). Pendant la guerre de secession, il est agent de paie officiel au sein des troupes de l'armee de l'Union de l'Indiana. Enfin, il se rend a Washington, DC, ou ses manoeuvres de couloirs lui meritent le poste d'aumonier de la marine americaine, poste qu'il refusera pour devenir membre du diocese de London.