Bishop John Rooney VG, was an Irish-born

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

who served as bishop in South Africa. Rooney was born in 1844 in

Edenderry Edenderry (; ) is a town in east County Offaly, Ireland. It is near the borders with Counties Kildare, Meath and Westmeath. The Grand Canal runs along the south of Edenderry, through the Bog of Allen, and there is a short spur to the town ...

County Offaly County Offaly (; ga, Contae Uíbh Fhailí) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in hono ...

, he attended Carlow College before going to All Hallows College in Dublin, to be trained as priest for the Cape of Good Hope Diocese. Following All Hallows, he studied at

Propaganda College Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1867. He was in 1886 ordained

titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Sergiopolis, and coadjutor to Bishop John Leonard, whom he succeeded in 1908 as Bishop of

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

, South Africa. He resigned as bishop in 1925.'Irish Bishop Resigns Vicariate in Africa' Bulletin of the Catholic Laymans Association of Georgia, 2 June 1925.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rooney, John 1844 births 1927 deaths Alumni of All Hallows College, Dublin Alumni of Carlow College Cape Colony people 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in South Africa People from Edenderry, County Offaly Roman Catholic bishops of Cape Town Irish expatriate Roman Catholic bishops Christian clergy from County Offaly