Early life and education Daniel Reilly was born on May 12, 1928, in
Providence, Rhode Island, to Francis and Mary Ann (née O'Beirne) Reilly. He entered Our Lady of Providence Seminary in
Warwick, Rhode Island, in 1943, then in 1948 continued his preparation for the priesthood at the Grand Seminary in
Saint-Brieuc, France. After his ordination, Reilly briefly served in a
parish before completing his graduate studies at
Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts. Reilly attended two sessions of the
Second Vatican Council in Rome during the early 1960s and was raised by the Vatican to the rank of
monsignor in 1965. He received his
episcopal ordination on August 6, 1975, at the
Cathedral of Saint Patrick in Norwich, Connecticut, by Archbishop
John Whealon, with Bishops Vincent Hines and
Louis Gelineau serving as
co-consecrators. During his tenure in Norwich, Reilly transferred other priests facing allegations of sexual abuse to different parishes.
Retirement and death On March 9, 2004, John Paul II accepted Reilly's resignation as bishop of Worcester. On September 17, 2012, the Diocese of Norwich reached a $1.1 million settlement with a
New London, Connecticut, woman who claimed that she had been
sexually abused as a minor by Reverend Thomas Shea from Joseph Parish in New London. The woman claimed that Reilly, when bishop of Norwich, knew about Shea's history of abuse allegations, but kept transferring him to different parishes. In October 2020, Reilly reminisced about running retreats for men and women of the
US Armed Forces in South Korea and Hawaii. He also spoke of travelling by plane and ferry to
Block Island in Rhode Island to celebrate mass when he was a priest in the Diocese of Providence. On December 30, 2020, the newspaper
The Day calculated that Reilly and the Diocese of Norwich faced 35 separate lawsuits by men who had been sexually abused during the 1990s as minors. The men all accused Brother K. Paul McGlade, a monk who ran the Academy at Mount Saint John in
Deep River, Connecticut. As bishop, Reilly had served on the Academy school board that recruited McGlade from Australia. Reilly died on June 18, 2024, at the age of 96. ==See also==