Father Robert T. Kennedy

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Father Robert T. Kennedy, a priest of the archdiocese who served as chairman of the canon law department at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., died March 28 in Baltimore. He was 89.

Father Kennedy served as chairman of the canon law department from 1983 until his retirement in 2005. He was a faculty member in Catholic University’s School of Religious Studies, 1974-1983.

At St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, he was professor of canon law, 1971-1974, and professor of dogmatic theology, 1965-1970. He was vice chancellor for the archdiocese, 1962-1965,

He was parochial vicar at Most Holy Trinity, West Point, 1970-1971, and Church of the Magdalene, Pocantico Hills, 1962.

After serving a summer assignment at Our Lady of Peace parish in Manhattan in 1959, Father Kennedy attended Lateran University in Rome where he received his doctor of canon and civil law degree.

Born in Boston, he earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass. and a bachelor of laws degree from Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass.

Following law school, he served on New York State bar and as an assistant to a U.S. Court of Appeals judge before entering St. Joseph’s Seminary to study for the priesthood.

He was ordained by Cardinal Francis Spellman at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1959.

A Funeral Mass was celebrated April 8 in Catholic Community of St. Francis Xavier in Hunt Valley, Md. Burial was planned in Newton, Mass.

Father Robert T. Kennedy