Moses Kiley was born on November 13, 1876, in Margaree, on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, to John and Margaret (née McGarry) Kiley.[1] He received his early education at a grade school in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. When Kiley was 16, the family immigrated to the United States, moving Somerville, Massachusetts.[2] He financed his higher education by working as an errand boy at a carriage shop in Somerville established by his older brothers.[2] He also worked as a floorwalker at a department store in Boston and as a trolley motorman.[3][4]
Kiley was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in Rome on June 10, 1911.[6] Following his return to the United States, he was assigned as a curate at St. Agnes Parish in Chicago, Illinois, where he remained for five years.[1] In 1916, he established the Mission of the Holy Cross for homeless men.[2] That same year, he was named the first archdiocesan director of Catholic Charities, a post which he held until 1926.[1]Kiley was elevated to the rank of monsignor in 1924.[2] From 1926 to 1934, he served as spiritual director of the Pontifical North American College in Rome.[2]
Following the transfer of Archbishop Samuel Stritch to the Archdiocese of Chicago, Kiley was appointed the sixth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Pope Pius XII on January 1, 1940.[6] Kiley was installed at the Church of the Gesu in Milwaukee on March 28, 1940.[2]
During his tenure in Milwaukee, Kiley earned a reputation as a conservative leader and stern administrator.[7] He oversaw an extensive renovation of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, which suffered major damage from a fire in 1935.[8] He rebuilt the St. Aemillian Orphanage in Milwaukee, which had also suffered major fire damage in the 1930s.[7] Kiley also renovated St. Francis Seminary in St. Francis, Wisconsin, converted Pio Nono High School into a minor seminary, and created a Catholic Family Life Bureau in 1948.[8]
Moses Kiley died on April 15, 1953, at St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, at age 76.[2]
^ abcdeCurtis, Georgina Pell (1961). The American Catholic Who's Who. Vol. XIV. Grosse Pointe, Michigan: Walter Romig.
^ abcdefgh"ARCHBISHOP KILEY OF MILWAUKEE, 76; Roman Catholic Prelate, Who Had Been Chicago Director of Charities, Is Dead". The New York Times. April 16, 1953.
^McNamara, Robert Francis (1956). The American College in Rome, 1855–1955.