Early Life
He was born in Newry, Northern Ireland, in the Roman Catholic diocese of Dromore, on 24 September 1936. His father was a dairy farmer. He was educated at St Colman's College in Newry and entered the St Patrick's Missionary Society at Kiltegan, County Wicklow in 1954. He also attended University College Cork where he obtained an honours degree in philosophy before going to study theology in Rome, where he was ordained priest on 17 March 1962. He served as a missionary in Nigeria for almost six years before being appointed Procurator General of St Patrick's Society in Rome. In 1969 he was appointed secretary to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome, when he was chosen by Pope Paul VI to be one of his private secretaries. On Pope Paul's death he remained in service as a private secretary to his successor, Pope John Paul I, and also to Pope John Paul II. As private secretary to three Popes, Magee is the only man to hold such a position in Vatican history.
He also acted as chaplain to the Vatican's Swiss Guard.
Read more about this topic: John Magee (bishop)
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