Keaveney

Father George J. Keaveney, C.SS.R

Posted

Father George J. Keaveney, C.SS.R, who was a three-term provincial of the Redemptorists’ Baltimore Province, which covers the archdiocese, died May 23 at Benedictine Hospital in Kingston. He was 67.

For the past six years, he had been serving as rector of Mount St. Alphonsus Retreat House in Esopus.

Father Keaveney was elected to three-year terms as Baltimore provincial superior in 1993, 1996 and 1999.

During his time as provincial, he moved the Caribbean islands to a separate region, brought the Sisters of Perpetual Help to the province to enhance the Spanish ministry, approved the development of the Sarnelli youth ministry and was the first provincial to accept Lay Missionaries of the Most Holy Redeemer.

Born in Boston, he attended the Redemptorist minor seminary in North East, Pa., as a high school student, after which he professed first vows in the order in 1961. He made his final profession in 1964, and was ordained in 1966 after studies at Mount St. Alphonsus in Esopus.

He later earned a master’s degree in history at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

He held teaching and administrative posts at the Redemptorist Seminary in Suffield, Conn.; was rector of the order’s retreat house in Tobyhanna, Pa., and rector of a parish in Bethpage. In 1984 he was elected to serve on the Redemptorists’ Extraordinary Pastoral Council, and reelected in 1987 and 1990.

Father Keaveney is survived by a brother, James, and a sister, Sister Margaret Keaveney, D.C.

A Funeral Mass was offered May 26 at Mount St. Alphonsus, with burial in the Redemptorist cemetery in Esopus.

Father George J. Keaveney, C.SS.R