Daniel Patrick Reilly

Daniel Patrick Reilly (May 12, 1928 – June 18, 2024) was an American Catholic prelate who served as bishop of Norwich in Connecticut from 1975 to 1994 and as Bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1994 to 2004.

Reilly was named in multiple lawsuits that accused him of covering up molestation in the clergy. He denied any involvement. 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.