Paul M. Boyle Papers

Fonds

Identifier: PBY

Staff Only

Scope and Content

General correspondence files (1960-1990); lecture notes and student papers from courses on canon law taught by Boyle; correspondence and reports from his tenure as president (1964-1965) of the Canon Law Society of America; subject files (1965-1974) on canon law as it affects religious life; correspondence, minutes, memoranda, and financial reports (1974-1983) from Boyle's close association with Stewardship Services Inc. (La Salette Fathers) and the Religious Communities Trust; minutes and meeting material from Boyle's tenure as president (1969-1974) of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM), with correspondence and committee material from his work as CMSM representative to Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Center for Intercultural Formation, Sacred Congregation for Religious, and Union of Superiors General; and material concerning the 1987 Synod of Bishops on the role of the laity, Vatican finances, the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law, and the Pontifical Commission on Religious Life in the United States of America.

Bishop Boyle continues to retire papers regularly. In the last ten years, he has sent correspondence, reports, newsletters, minutes, agenda, circulars, and other material concerning the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the Religious Communities Trust, Canon Law, Apostolic Synods of Bishops, and the Passionists.

Dates

Creation: 1960-[ongoing].

Creator

Boyle, Paul M. (Paul Michael), 1926- (Person)

Language of Materials

English.

Conditions Governing Access

Restricted by contract. Much of the material in this collection is presently closed to researchers.

Background

Summary: Catholic priest, canon lawyer, superior general of the Congregation of the Passion (1976-1989), and bishop of the Vicariate Apostolic of Mandeville, Jamaica, West Indies (1991- ).

Paul M. Boyle was born in Detroit, Michigan, on May 28, 1926. In 1946 he made his vows as a Passionist of the Western Province of the United States. Ordained in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 30, 1953 and sent to Rome for graduate studies in canon law, he received a licentiate in Sacred Theology from St. Thomas University in 1955 and a licentiate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Lateran University in 1957. He also attended Northwestern University in Evansville, Illinois, St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, St. Regis College in Toronto, and St. Paul College in Detroit.

In 1964-1965 Boyle served as the president of the Canon Law Society of America and from 1965 to 1968 as its executive coordinator. He taught canon law and homeletics at Sacred Heart Seminary in Louisville and canon law at St. Meinrad Theological Seminary from 1965 to 1968. In 1969 Boyle became president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, a position he held until 1974. From 1974 to 1976 he served as president of Stewardship Services Inc., an organization established by the CMSM to give financial assistance to religious communities. During these years he began working on another project to help religious communities with financial management: In 1976 he founded and became the president of Religious Communities Trust set up to instruct religious organizations on short term investments, a position he still holds.

In May of 1968, Boyle was elected Provincial of the Holy Cross Province of the Passionists (Chicago); from 1976 until 1988 he served as Superior General of his congregation. In 1991 Pope John Paul II made him the first bishop of the newly formed Vicariate Apostolic of Mandeville, Jamaica, West Indies.