Raymond James Boland

Born in Ireland, Boland received his early education from the Christian Brothers in Cork. He trained at All Hallows College, Dublin, as a missionary priest, while also taking a degree at University College Dublin and was ordained to the priesthood on June 16, 1957, for the Archdiocese of Washington.

Boland was the pastor of Saint Hugh of Grenoble Church in Greenbelt, MD [1] from 1970 through 1973.

Boland was appointed Bishop of Birmingham in Alabama on February 2, 1988, and consecrated on March 25, 1988.

He was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph on June 22, 1993.

The Vatican accepted Boland's request for retirement on May 24, 2005, after which he served as bishop emeritus of the diocese. Boland died on the evening of February 27, 2014, in Cork, Ireland.

After reports indicated that the death rate of priests from AIDS is at least four times that of the general population, Boland asserted that the AIDS deaths show that priests are human.[2]

His brother John Kevin Boland was the Bishop of Savannah (Georgia).

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