Rev. Edward Raymond Daley, O.P.

Rev. Edward Raymond Daley, O.P., a member of the Dominican Friars (Order of Preachers) of the Province of St. Joseph, died peacefully after a period of decline at the Mount St. Rita Health Centre in Cumberland, R.I., on May 17, 2019, his 93rd birthday.

Born Edward Cleveland Daley, Jr., in Providence, R.I., on May 17, 1926, he was the son of Edward Cleveland and Gertrude Hope (Connors) Daley. He graduated from St. Raymond’s Parish School in 1939 and then LaSalle Academy in 1943, after which he spent two years in the Guzman Hall pre-ecclesiastical program at Providence College. He then entered the novitiate of the Dominican Friars at St. Rose Priory, Springfield, Ky. He made his simple profession of vows there on Aug. 5, 1946.

He spent the next three years studying philosophy at St. Joseph’s Priory in Somerset, Oh. He made his solemn profession of vows on Aug. 5, 1949. His theological studies took place at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where he received both the Licentiate and Lectorate in Sacred Theology in 1953. Father Daley was ordained to the priesthood on June 12, 1952, at St. Dominic’s Church, Washington, D.C., by the Most Rev. Patrick A. O’Boyle, Archbishop (later Cardinal) of the Capital City. He spent two years (1953-1955) at The Catholic University of America, where he received a Licentiate in Canon Law. He then spent a year at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (The Angelicum) in Rome, where he received a Doctorate in Canon Law in 1956.

Father Daley was then assigned for the next twenty years to St. Vincent Ferrer Priory, New York City, serving first as priest-secretary to the prior provincial of St. Joseph’s Province, and eventually as provincial socius and vicar provincial. For the last twelve of those years, he also served as a judge on the Marriage Tribunal of the Archdiocese of New York.

In 1976, he was appointed superior of the Dominican Friars’ community at Holy Innocents Rectory in Pleasantville, N.Y.; the following year he was appointed pastor of the parish. In 1980, he was elected prior provincial of St. Joseph’s Province, headquartered at St. Vincent Ferrer Priory in New York City, where he served for two terms (eight years). During those years, he also served as the vice-chancellor of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and as the chair of the Corporation of Providence College in Rhode Island, which awarded him an honorary Doctorate in Sacred Theology in 1981.

In 1988, Father Daley was appointed director of the Catholic Center at New York University. During his six years at N.Y.U, he also hosted a regular Sunday morning radio program wherein he explained the Catholic Faith and answered any and all questions. In 1994, he returned to Holy Innocents in Pleasantville as superior; the following year he was again appointed pastor of the parish. In 2001, he was assigned as motherhouse chaplain for the Sparkill, N.Y., Dominican Sisters, with continuing service as defender of the bond at the Archdiocesan Marriage Tribunal satellite office in Mt. Kisko, N.Y.

In 2006, Father Daley returned to his role as provincial socius and vicar provincial for St. Joseph’s Province at St. Vincent Ferrer Priory in Manhattan, serving for two years. In 2008, while remaining in Manhattan, he continued his work as judge with the Archdiocesan Marriage Tribunal. When his health began to fail, Father Daley spent a period of time at the Mary Manning Walsh Home in Manhattan, before relocating to the Mount St. Rita Health Centre in Cumberland, R.I.

A skilled administrator and canonist, Father Daley encountered all with sensitive pastoral skill, deep compassion, and abundant charity.

Father Daley was pre-deceased by his parents and by his sister Virginia Hope Lawlor of Wickford, R.I., who died in October of 2018. He is survived by his sister Ruth N. Sharkey of Watchung, N.J., and by his sisters’ families.

Father Daley’s body will be received into the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary in the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas at Providence College at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 22, 2019, followed by visitation until 7:00 p.m., when the Office of the Dead will be celebrated. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated for him the next morning, Thursday, May 23, 2019, at 10 am in the same chapel. He will then be laid to rest in the Dominican Friars Section of St. Francis Cemetery in Pawtucket, R.I.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the Dominican Foundation, 141 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10065-6618.

Arrangements by the Russell J. Boyle and Son Funeral Home, 331 Smith Street, Providence, R.I. 02908.