The Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province elected a new leadership team to serve during the 2023-2026 term. Rev. John Collins, C.Ss.R., is elected Provincial Superior; Rev. John Olenick, C.Ss.R., is elected Provincial Vicar; and Rev. Kevin O’Neil, C.Ss.R., is elected Provincial Consultor. These members of the Ordinary Provincial Council (OPC) 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. The elected leadership team brings new enthusiasm and assumes leadership under the Redemptorist theme “Missionaries of Hope in the Footsteps of the Redeemer.”
“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 John Collins, C.Ss.R.Provincial Superior
Father Collins was born in Boston and raised in a Redemptorist parish, the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (“The Mission Church”). Father Collins 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 in Long Branch, New Jersey, while also ministering as a member of the retreat team since July 2015.
He has previously served as Chaplain and Campus Minister at Gwynedd Mercy University from 2001 through 2015. His prior ministerial background also includes parish ministry, retreat programs and workshops, spiritual direction, pastoral counseling and psychotherapy. Father Collins obtained master’s degrees in Religious Education (MRE) and Divinity (M.Div.) during seminary studies and completed a master’s program in Clinical Social Work after ordination.
Father John Olenick, C.Ss.R.Provincial Vicar
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. Father Olenick studied Philosophy at the Oblate School of Theology in Washington, D.C., for one year. His novitiate was in Glenview, Illinois, and he made his first profession on September 11, 1999. His theological studies were done at the Washington Theological Union.
After being ordained a deacon, Father Olenick spent seven months in Mexico learning the Spanish language and Hispanic culture. He was ordained a priest on May 10, 2003, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Father Olenick was the Associate Pastor at Immaculate Conception in the Bronx from 2003 to 2008. He was transferred to Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Philadelphia in 2008 as an Associate Pastor. He was made pastor in 2008 and remained at Visitation until 2018. In 2014 he was elected to the Extraordinary Provincial Council. In October of 2018 he was transferred to Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia as Pastor.
Father Kevin O’Neil, C.Ss.R.Provincial Consultor
Father O’Neil, was born in Kingston, NY. After grammar school, he entered the Redemptorist seminary formation program, studying at St. Mary’s Seminary High School, St. Alphonsus College, and Mt. St. Alphonsus Seminary, where he received a Master’s in Religious Education (MRE) and a Master’s of Divinity (M.Div.). 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, he taught moral theology at the Washington Theological Union. Since 2013 he has been on the preaching staff at San Alfonso Retreat House in Long Branch, New Jersey. He co-authored with Father Peter Black, The Essential Moral Handbook and Life, Death, and Catholic Medical Choices.
The Redemptorists are a religious congregation of Catholic priests and Brothers founded in 1732 by St. Alphonsus Liguori in Naples, Italy. More than 4,000 Redemptorists are currently working with the poor and most abandoned in nearly every part of the world. More than 150 Redemptorist priests, brothers, and students represent the Baltimore Province in the United States and surrounding Islands.
