Raymond James Boland (February 8, 1932 – February 27, 2014) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the second

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of the Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama from 1988 to 1993 and the fifth Bishop of the

Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

in Missouri from 1993 to 2005.

Biography

Early life

Raymond Boland was born in Cork County, Ireland, on February 8, 1932. He received his early education from the Christian Brothers in

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

. He trained at

All Hallows College All Hallows College was a college of higher education in Dublin. It was founded in 1842 and was run by the Vincentians from 1892 until 2016. On 23 May 2014, it was announced that it was closing down, due to decreasing student numbers. The sale o ...

(Dublin) as a missionary priest, while also taking a degree at University College Dublin. Boland was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Denis J. Moynihan on June 16, 1957, for the

Archdiocese of Washington The Archdiocese of Washington is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. Its territorial remit encompasses the District of Columbia and the counties of Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, P ...

. Boland was the pastor of Saint Hugh of Grenoble Parish in

Greenbelt, Maryland Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. At the 2020 census, the population was 24,921. Greenbelt is the first and the largest of the three experimental and controversial New Deal ...

, from 1970 to 1973.

Bishop of Birmingham

Boland was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Birmingham on February 2, 1988 by Pope John Paul II. He was consecrated on March 25, 1988, by Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb.

Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph

Boland was appointed bishop of the

on June 22, 1993, by John Paul II. The Vatican accepted Boland's request for retirement as bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph on May 24, 2005. Boland died on February 27, 2014, in Cork, Ireland. One of his brothers, John Kevin Boland, was the Bishop of

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

References

Episcopal succession

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boland, Raymond James 1932 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Alumni of All Hallows College, Dublin Alumni of University College Dublin American Roman Catholic clergy of Irish descent Irish emigrants to the United States People from County Tipperary Roman Catholic bishops of Kansas City–Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama Bishops in Alabama