The Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province announced the election of a new leadership team to serve during the 2023-2026 term. Team members include Redemptorist Fathers John Collins and Kevin O’Neil, both of whom are on the staff of San Alfonso Retreat House, West End, in the Diocese of Trenton. Father Collins was named provincial superior, and Father O’Neil was named provincial consultor. The team also consists of Father John Olenick, who was named provincial vicar.
As members of the Ordinary Provincial Council, the team will guide the missionary activities of the Baltimore Province with five additional Redemptorists who will be elected to the Extraordinary Provincial Council during the Provincial Chapter the weeks of March 13 and March 20.
“Coming into provincial leadership under the theme of Missionaries of Hope in the Footsteps of the Redeemer is a humbling entry point,” Father Collins said. “The Message of Capitulars from the 26th General Chapter of the Redemptorists states: ‘We are part of this wounded world, but we are also aware of many signs of hope emerging in the world, in the Church and in our Congregation.’ I look forward to walking in hope with my confreres in this upcoming term with the Redeemer guiding us each step of the way.”
All have served the missionary charism of St. Alphonsus de Liguori, but each brings a different background and a variety of ministerial experience.
Father Collins was born in Boston and raised in a Redemptorist parish, the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (“The Mission Church”). He professed his first vows in 1979 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1987. He has most recently served as the director of San Alfonso Retreat House while also ministering as a member of the retreat team since July 2015.
Father Collins has previously served as chaplain and campus minister at Gwynedd Mercy University, Gwynedd Valley, Pa., from 2001 to 2015. His prior ministerial background also includes parish ministry, retreat programs and workshops, spiritual direction, pastoral counseling and psychotherapy. He obtained master’s degrees in religious education and a master of divinity degree during seminary studies and completed a master’s program in clinical social work after ordination.
Father Olenick was born and raised in Winston-Salem, N.C. He worked at the Winston-Salem Journal and then for R.J. Reynolds before entering the Redemptorist congregation in 1996. He studied philosophy at the Oblate School of Theology in Washington, D.C., for one year. His novitiate was in Glenview, Ill., and he made his first profession Sept. 11, 1999. His theological studies were done at the Washington Theological Union.
After he was ordained a deacon, Father Olenick spent seven months in Mexico learning the Spanish language and Hispanic culture. He was ordained a priest May 10, 2003, in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington. He served as parochial vicar of Immaculate Conception Parish in the Bronx, N.Y., from 2003 to 2008, and Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, Philadelphia in 2008 before he was named pastor. In 2014, Father Olenick was elected to the Extraordinary Provincial Council. In October 2018, he was transferred to Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia as pastor.
Father O’Neil was born in Kingston, N.Y. After grammar school he entered the Redemptorist seminary formation program, studying in St. Mary’s Seminary High School, St. Alphonsus College and Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary where he received a master’s degree in religious education and a master of divinity degree. He was professed a Redemptorist in 1975 and ordained in 1981. After two years in parochial and Hispanic ministry at Mission Church in Boston, he was sent to study moral theology. He received his licentiate in sacred theology from the Instituto Superior de Ciencias Morales in 1986 and his doctorate in sacred theology from the Alphonsian Academy in 1989.
From 1990 to 2012, Father O’Neil taught moral theology in Washington Theological Union. Since 2013, he has been on the preaching staff at San Alfonso Retreat House.
Father O’Neil co-authored with Father Peter Black, “The Essential Moral Handbook” and “Life, Death, and Catholic Medical Choices.”