Father Kenneth Doyle, longtime journalist and author of the popular Q&A column, dies at 82

ALBANY, NY – Father Kenneth Doyle, who wrote the Catholic News Service’s popular “Question Corner” column for the past 11 years and served as CNS’s Rome bureau chief in the early 1980s, died on May 28. October at the Teresian house in Albany. He was 82 years old.

Ordained in 1966 for the Diocese of Albany, Father Doyle had also served as associate editor and then editor of The Evangelist, the diocesan newspaper, before taking the post at CNS Rome. He later served as director of media relations for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, chancellor of public information for the Diocese of Albany, and for many years pastor of Mater Christi Parish in Albany.

His funeral will be celebrated on November 5 at Mater Christi, followed by interment at St. Peter’s Cemetery in Troy, New York.

“Father Ken served the people of our diocese and the community of Albany in many ways throughout his productive life, a man of great skill and talent,” said Bishop of Albany Edward B. Scharfenberger in a statement. “For the most part, however, he will be remembered as a pastor, with a kind heart. We pray in thanksgiving for his life and ministry and for his eternal rest in the Lord.

CNS Special Projects Director Edmond Brosnan said Father Doyle “had such a wonderful relationship with readers who sent him questions. While describing the intricacies of Catholic teaching, he always showed a pastor’s heart.

The son of W. Kenneth and Sallie Shea Doyle of Troy, Father Doyle graduated from Catholic Central High School in 1957. He began his studies at Mater Christi Seminary in Albany and completed them at Theological College of Catholic University of America in Washington.

He was ordained on May 28, 1966, by Auxiliary Bishop Edward J. Maginn of Albany. Father Doyle served as associate pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Albany, and soon after began his association with The Evangelist, working there as associate editor and managing editor from 1967 to nineteen eighty one.

In an interview with The Evangelist in December 2020, Father Doyle said that while attending Catholic University he minored in English and English Literature because “I have always loved writing. A year after being ordained, I was called by Auxiliary Bishop Maginn and he asked if I would be willing to (be) associate editor of The Evangelist,” he said.

In 1978, Father Doyle earned a law degree from Albany Law School in 1978 and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1979.

During his three years in Rome as CNS bureau chief, from 1981 to 1984, Father Doyle covered papal events and Vatican activities for news service subscribers in 40 countries. His assignments included traveling with St. John Paul II on many of his pastoral visits, including his trips to West Africa, Britain, Switzerland, and Poland.

Recalling what coverage of a papal trip looked like, Father Doyle told The Evangelist that the pope “was spending some of the air time with the reporters, walking up and down the aisle, and you could Ask him a question.There were about 10 English-speaking journalists – from the Associated Press, UPI, Times – and we organized our questions to cover everything we wanted to ask him.

“And what interested me was that you could ask him a question in one of seven or eight languages ​​and he would answer in that language,” the priest said. “And I remember coming back from England in 1982, I said to him, ‘When do you think we can expect a full reunion with the Anglican Church? Is it reasonable to think of the year 2000? Because the Archbishop of Canterbury said that was the target he had in mind.

“The pope just looked at me and he smiled and winked and he said, ‘I share the prophetic mission of Christ, but I’m not a prophet.’ And then he laughed,” Father Doyle noted. “And English was his seventh or eighth best language and he could play on words like that in that language.”

In 1984, Father Doyle was appointed public affairs officer for what is now called the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.

In 1992, he became pastor of St. Catherine of Siena in Albany, which later became Mater Christi Church, and served there until his retirement in 2016. In 2000, he also began serving in the position as chancellor of public information for the diocese.

He was named by CNS to be the new author of the popular “Question Corner” column in 2011, succeeding Father John Dietzen, who first developed the column in 1971 for The Catholic Post, newspaper of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois. Father Dietzen, who died in 2011, was the newspaper’s deputy editor from 1957 to 1973.

Father Doyle’s first “Question Corner” column debuted on June 17 of that year. He continued to write the column after retiring as a pastor. He recently retired from writing the column this year and CNS has rerun a selection of his previous columns, the last one appearing on February 28.

After his various roles in Catholic journalism for so many years and his travels around the world reporting on the pope, he told The Evangelist he really wanted to be a pastor again.

“I was delighted to return to a parish in 1992,” he said of his charge as parish priest that year. “The happiest I’ve ever been in my priesthood was all my years at Mater Christi, working with people because that’s why you did it in the first place.”

On October 30, the parish community of Mater Christi remembered Father Doyle in prayer.

Shortly after his death, a post on the parish’s Facebook page read, “It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we share with you the passing early this morning of Fr. Ken Doyle. We are all so grateful for the many years, love, dedication and countless memories we all shared with him. We know he was and is loved and supported by all your love and prayers.

– – –

Contributing to this story was The Evangelist, newspaper of the Diocese of Albany.