Peter Cardinal McKeefry

Peter Thomas Bertram McKeefry (3 July 1899 – 18 November 1973) was the Third Archbishop of Wellington (1954 – 1973) and Metropolitan of New Zealand and its first Cardinal. Peter McKeefry was born in Greymouth, the son of a police constable, both his parents were from Ireland. After living briefly in Christchurch, the family moved to Dunedin, where McKeefry was educated at the Christian Brothers’ Boys’ School. He began training for the priesthood in 1916 at Holy Cross College, Mosgiel. In 1922 he was sent to study for four years at the Collegium urbanum de Propaganda Fide, Rome. He was ordained priest on 3 April 1926 at the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano. McKeefry initially served as a curate at the cathedral Auckland. He was also...