Rev. Sean P. Kealy, C.S.Sp., a member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, passed away in Dublin, Ireland on July 11, 2018, at age 81.

Fr. Kealy served as a professor of theology at Duquesne University’s McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts for nearly 20 years.

Born in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland, Fr. Kealy entered the Spiritan novitiate in Kilshane at age 17, and earned his bachelor’s degree and masters’s degree from University College in Dublin, later studying in Rome.

Photo: Duquesne University

He was ordained in Kimmage, Ireland in 1965 and went on to lecture extensively in Africa, America, and Europe on the Gospels and on the history of biblical scholarship. In Ireland for most of the 1980s and early 1990s, Fr. Kealy lived at the Spiritan House and served as Director of Theologians, Rector of the Missionary College in Kimmage, Provincial Councilor for Education, and Superior of the Blackrock Community.

Having been a visiting professor in the Department of Theology at Duquesne University for a brief period in the early 1980s, he returned there in 1995 and was a staff member of the university until he was appointed to Kimmage in 2014. He later moved to Marian House.

A prolific writer, Fr. Kealy had 18 books published, at least one of which was translated into Chinese. He wrote on Jesus and Politics and did a number of studies in spirituality and commentaries on the Gospels. He had articles and reviews published in AFER, Doctrine & Life, The Irish Theological Quarterly, The Tablet, The Furrow and The Catholic Biblical Quarterly.

The Rev. Sean Hogan, C.S.Sp., a friend of Fr. Kealy’s and fellow Spiritan, will attend on behalf of the U.S. Province and Duquesne University the viewing and visitation scheduled for Friday, July 13, and the Funeral Mass on July 14 at Kimmage Manor Church in Dublin, followed by burial at Shanganagh Cemetery.