Father James Kelleher, the Rosary Priest, to Preach at the Basilica This Weekend on “The Message of Fatima, Saint John Paul II and Hope for America”

Father James R. Kelleher, SOLT, will be visiting the Basilica of Saint Mary from Wednesday, January 19, through Monday January 24. He is the founder of the Eucharistic Family Rosary Crusade and a proponent of the Miraculous Medal, which is a devotional medal that originated with Saint Catherine Labouré after she was graced by apparitions of the Blessed Virgin in France in 1830.

During his time at the Basilica, he will be preaching at the Saint Katharine Drexel Holy Hour on Wednesday evening at the Basilica; giving presentations to students at The Basilica School of Saint Mary on Thursday, January 20; attending the March for Life with Basilica parishioners and Father Edward Hathaway, the Basilica Rector, on Friday, January 21; and preaching at all of the Sunday Masses on January 22-23.

The theme of his homilies during the Masses will be “The Message of Fatima, Saint John Paul II and Hope for America.” He will also be promoting the Knights of the Miraculous Medal, inviting people to be a Knight. Click here to find out more. He will also be making available, for free-will donations, his Scripture Rosary DVD, after all the Masses. Click below to listen to a podcast interview with him:

Here is more information about Father Kelleher: 

Fr. Kelleher is member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT). He is also an internationally recognized speaker on the topic of Eucharistic Adoration and the family rosary. He has fulfilled major speaking engagements at Marian and Eucharistic Conferences in the United States, England and India. Fr. Kelleher founded Eucharistic Family Rosary Crusade on October 19, 2003 in Rome, Italy, on the day Mother Teresa was beatified.

Fr. Kelleher launched his first large Rosary Crusade in the Diocese of Dallas with “An Evening of Eucharistic Adoration and Global Living Rosary” in the Cotton Bowl with 22,000 people in attendance. On Sunday, May 25, 2008, he organized “An Afternoon of Eucharistic Adoration and Global Living Rosary” in the  Kansas City Royals Baseball Stadium with 25,000 participants. Both events were broadcast around the world on EWTN. From 2013 through 2017, Fr. Kelleher did eight smaller Rosary Crusades throughout the country of  Ireland. On Sunday night, July 23 2017,  he organized “An Evening of Eucharistic Adoration and Global Living Rosary” in the Spokane Avista Baseball Stadium with approximately 5,000 people attending.

Teaching Mariology, Spiritual Theology and Evangelization at the college and seminary levels, Fr. Kelleher holds a doctorate in Sacred Theology and a licentiate in Spiritual Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana. After his graduation from Notre Dame, Fr. Kelleher  worked for Coopers & Lybrand, a Big Eight public accounting firm, as well as Santa Fe Communications, a Catholic cable network, in Los Angeles.

Fr. Kelleher was the founding President of Our Lady of Corpus Christi (OLCC), a Catholic undergraduate, liberal arts institution founded by SOLT in 1998. The vision of OLCC was the education and evangelization of the world’s young people and their nations. Under Fr. Kelleher’s leadership, a world-class Chapel of Perpetual Adoration was constructed from 2001-2003 on the OLCC campus.