Peter de Rosa

De Rosa was born in London in 1932.^[1] He attended St Ignatius' College and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest.^[2] He graduated from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and taught metaphysics and ethics at Westminster Seminary in London before becoming dean of theology at Corpus Christi College in London.^[3]

De Rosa wrote on Christian theology while still a priest. His early works included Communion of the Sick (1964), Christ in Our World (1966), Christ and Original Sin (1967) and God Our Saviour (1968).^[4]

In 1970, de Rosa left the priesthood. He subsequently worked in London as a staff producer for the BBC.^[2]

De Rosa became a full-time writer in 1978.^[2] His best-known fiction was published under the pseudonym Neil Boyd. The first novel, Bless Me, Father, drew on his experiences as a young curate and concerned the newly ordained Father Neil Boyd and his relationship with the older Irish parish priest Father Charles Duddleswell. The stories were set in a fictional London parish during the early 1950s.^[2]

The novel developed into a five-book series comprising Bless Me, Father, A Father Before Christmas, Father in a Fix, Father Under Fire and Bless Me Again, Father. De Rosa used his pseudonym as the name of the young curate who narrates the stories.^[5]

The books were adapted as the television sitcom Bless Me, Father, produced for ITV. De Rosa wrote all 21 episodes, which were broadcast in three series from 1978 to 1981. Arthur Lowe played Father Duddleswell and Daniel Abineri played Father Neil Boyd.^[6]

De Rosa continued writing on Christianity and the Catholic Church under his own name. His Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy, published in 1988, presented a critical history of the papacy and Catholic teaching and government.^[3]

He subsequently turned to Irish history with Rebels: The Irish Rising of 1916, first published in 1990, an account of the Easter Rising and its aftermath.^[4][7] His later works included the novel Pope Patrick, a satire about an Irish cardinal elected pope.^[8]

In 1993, de Rosa collaborated with Annie Murphy on Forbidden Fruit: The True Story of My Secret Love for Eamonn Casey, the Bishop of Galway, Murphy's account of her relationship with Irish Catholic bishop Eamonn Casey and the birth of their son.^[9] The relationship became one of the most prominent scandals involving the Irish Catholic Church after it became public in 1992.^[10]

De Rosa married Mary Hennelly and they had two sons, Francis and Daniel. The family lived for many years in Ashford, County Wicklow, Ireland. Mary de Rosa died in 2005.^[11] De Rosa later returned to England and lived in Bournemouth, Dorset. He died following a short illness in Ringwood, Hampshire, on 4 November 2024, aged 91.^[11]