Background
Barnabas Ahern was born on February 18, 1915, in Chicago, Illinois, United States, the son of James Joseph Ahern and Kathleen Frances Ahern.
Ahern studied at the Catholic University of America from 1941 to 1942.
Ahern studied at the École Biblique in Jerusalem from 1947 to 1948.
Ahern studied at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome from 1956 to 1958.
Barnabas Mary Ahern
Barnabas Ahern was born on February 18, 1915, in Chicago, Illinois, United States, the son of James Joseph Ahern and Kathleen Frances Ahern.
Barnabas Ahern received his elementary education, from 1921 to 1928, in the Chicago Catholic school system. A Passionist parish mission he attended made him want to be a Passionist priest, so he received his high school education, in the Passionist Preparatory Seminary, at Normandy, Missouri, from 1938 to 1932, entering the Passionist novitiate, at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1932, and professing his simple, temporary vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and to promote devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ - a special Passionist vow - there, on July 30, 1933. Following his ordination to the priesthood on June 7, 1941, he pursued further theological, biblical, and Semitic studies at the Catholic University of America, where he received the Licentiate of Sacred Theology in 1942; at the École Biblique in Jerusalem, 1947 - 1948; and at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, 1956 - 1958. He received his Doctor of Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
Barnabas Ahern entered the Roman Catholic Passionist order in 1933, and was ordained as a priest in 1941. He taught scripture in Chicago from 1943 to 1947, again from 1948 to 1956, and in Louisville from 1959 to 1962. From 1962 to 1965, he was called to Rome to serve as peritus at Vatican II. He taught again in the United States from 1965 to 1970 at the Catholic Theological Union. Ahern then returned to Rome, where he was involved with various congregations and commissions, and taught at the Gregorian University. Poor health resulted in his returning to the United States in 1978, until he was able to travel to Africa to teach in Kenya from 1984 to 1989. In 1989, battling Alzheimer's disease, Ahern returned to the United states, entering the Passionist nursing home - Daneo Hall - in Chicago.
Among other scholarly activities, Ahern was involved in work on the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine's translation of the scriptures (later known as the New American Bible).
(This book details about the formation of Scripture in the...)
1967(Passionist priest comments on the details of these epistles.)
1960Ahern was president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America, a member of both the Pontifical Biblical Commission and the International Theological Commission.
Quotes from others about the person
"No individial, perhaps, did more, to promote Biblical scholarship, among the American hierarchy, at Vatican II, than Father Barnabas Ahern." - Fr. Vincent Yzermans, Vatican II journalist