A life that spanned eight papacies: Bishop Reilly met five popes, three became saints

By Margaret M. Russell
executive editor emeritus, The Catholic Free Press

Bishop Reilly’s lifetime spanned eight papacies. He had the occasion to meet five popes, three of whom are now saints.   

Shortly after the installation of Pope Francis in 2013, the fourth Bishop of Worcester told The Catholic Free Press that he was looking forward to someday meeting the latest pope “to keep this record going.” Unfortunately, he never did. He noted at the time that he had met every pope since Pius XII – except John Paul I whose pontificate lasted just one month.

Popes Pius XI and Pius XII

Pius XI was pope when Daniel Patrick Reilly was born in 1928. The pope died in 1939, and his successor took the name Pope Pius XII and served from March 2, 1939 to Oct. 9, 1958.

Bishop Reilly said that when he was a young seminarian, he saw Pope Pius XII during a general audience at the Vatican in 1949. And, when he became a deacon, he was in a semi-private audience with the pope.

“He blessed me for my ordination,” said the bishop, who was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Providence on May 30, 1953.

“We were all standing around in a circle. That was arranged by the North American College (in Rome) and I had to have a cassock – a very special outfit,” he recalled in a 2013 CFP interview.

Pope John XXIII

He said he met Pope John XXIII before he was elected pope. When Archbishop Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was nuncio of Paris he came to visit the seminary Bishop Reilly attended, the Grand Seminaire, St. Brieuc, France.

“I was very impressed, seeing this high-level churchman looking so holy and yet so down-to-earth,” Bishop Reilly recalled. “The wonder of this great Church of ours – to have leaders like that. I didn’t know he was going to become pope.”

John XXIII was pope from Oct. 28, 1958 to June 3, 1963.

“I met him as pope when I took my mother [to Italy]. He was at Castel Gandolfo and we received his blessing. That was at a general audience.
“And then I saw him at the Second Vatican Council. I was at that opening session at which he presided. He would come over on other occasions. He was [also] there at the closing,” Bishop Reilly said.
 
At the time, Father Reilly was secretary for the Bishop of Providence, Bishop Russell J. McVinney.

“I was giving a talk … in a Congregational church,” Bishop Reilly said. The minister had invited him to talk about attending the Second Vatican Council.
Pope John XXIII had just died – June 3, 1963.

“In the Catholic Church, it will take many years before Pope John XXIII is declared a saint,” he recalled the minister saying. “Tonight, here in Beneficent Congregational Church, we declare Pope John XXIII a saint.”

“That set a tone for the whole evening,” Bishop Reilly said.
The Church beatified Pope John XXIII in 2000, and Pope Francis canonized him in 2014.

Pope Paul VI

Bishop Reilly continued his pope memories by talking about meeting Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini who became Pope Paul VI in June 1963.
 
Then in the 1970s, as the Bishop of Norwich, Connecticut, Bishop Reilly brought a pilgrimage group to Rome to meet Pope Paul VI.

Bishop Reilly said he gave the pope greetings from a doctor friend in Rhode Island.

“Oh, Ciro Scotti,” responded the pope. “He’s a good friend of mine. Bring my greetings back to him.”

“That sort of personal touch is terrific,” Bishop Reilly mused in an interview with The Catholic Free Press.

The bishop got the news of Pope Paul VI’s death during a celebration of the Norwich Diocese’s 25th anniversary, his third anniversary as a bishop. He said the nuncio was there and asked to keep someone near the telephone, as the pope could die at any time.

At the offertory, a priest who’d been near the telephone told Bishop Reilly that the pope had died. Bishop Reilly told the nuncio, who announced it to the congregation, and left right after Mass. That was Aug. 6, 1978. The process of canonizing Paul VI began in 1993. He was beatified by Pope Francis in 2014 and canonized in 2018.

Pope John Paul I

Pope Paul VI had scheduled ad limina visits for the New England bishops for October 1978. His successor, Pope John Paul I, said he would keep the same date. Pope John Paul I, Cardinal Albino Luciani, was pope for a month before he died. Bishop Reilly said he had never met Paul VI’s successor even before he was pope.

Pope John Paul II

Some of the New England bishops went to the Vatican for the scheduled visit but Bishop Reilly said he did not want to go if there was no pope. Pope John Paul II, Karol Józef Wojtyla, was elected while the bishops were there, but they did not meet with him, Bishop Reilly recalled.

Bishop Reilly had his first one-on-one audience with a pope, Pope John Paul II, in June 1979. He said he planned to “do all the things I should do – visit the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul: Ad limina – to the threshold of the Church – and visit the congregations to make a report on the Diocese.”

At that time, he was chairman of Catholic Relief Services, and they had an office in Rome.

“I said, ‘I’ll see if they can get an audience with the Holy Father for me,’” he recalled.

They made the request and Bishop Reilly was told the pope would see him on Thursday; but Thursday was the day he was heading home.

“And I said, ‘No, I can’t make it on Thursday,’” laughing about his audacity of telling the pope no. Much to his surprise, the papal office replied, “Tell him to come in tomorrow.”

They had a wonderful chat about the diocese and the Church for about 20 minutes, Bishop Reilly recalled.

He saw Pope John Paul II on other occasions when he visited the United States, first in 1979.

“He did come to Boston,” Bishop Reilly said. “We met him at the airport and then we went to Boston Common. Anytime I saw him after that I’d say, ‘You came to Boston.’ ‘Oh, Boston – rain,’ he’d say.”

Bishop Reilly said he also went to the pope’s Mass in Yankee Stadium during that same trip, and in 1993 to World Youth Day in Denver.

As the new bishop emeritus of Worcester, Bishop Reilly traveled to Italy in October 2004 with a group of pilgrims from around the diocese, where they attended a general audience with Pope John Paul II. The trip was sponsored by The Catholic Free Press. The pope was very frail and about six months later, he died.

Pope Benedict XVI

Bishop Reilly said he knew Pope Benedict XVI, John Paul II’s successor, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger; he attended a theology class the cardinal gave for 30 or 40 bishops.

“When he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith … he was shy,” the bishop said. “He’s a shy man deep down, but very brilliant.”
When, as Pope Benedict, he came to the United States in 2008, “I was going to go, and my brother died,” Bishop Reilly said.

“I met him only when I went over just to have an audience, because I’d met every pope. I met him afterwards. He said, ‘How long are you a bishop?’ I said, ‘Thirty years.’ He said, ‘That’s a long time. Well done.’”

Ultimately, Bishop Reilly was a bishop for 49 years.

– Material for this article was taken from previously published stories in The Catholic Free Press.