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Bishop Emeritus of Multan, Pakistan
“Parate Viam Pacis” (“Prepare the Way of Peace”)
July 10, 1925 - May 28, 2023Ernest Anthony Boland was born on July 10, 1925, in St. Patrick’s Parish on Smith Hill in Providence, RI. He attended St. Patrick’s School and graduated from La Salle Academy in 1943. He then joined the U.S. Army, serving in France and Germany before being honorably discharged in 1945 with the rank of corporal. In 1946, he entered the pre-ecclesiastical program at Providence College, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1952.
In 1948, he entered the novitiate of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph at St. Rose Priory in Springfield, KY, where he received the religious name Bertrand. On August 16, 1949, he made his simple profession of vows. He studied philosophy from 1949-1952 at St. Joseph Priory in Somerset, OH, and made his solemn profession of vows on August 16, 1952. He then moved to the Dominican House of Studies and the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC., earning the baccalaureate (1955) and licentiate (1956) degrees in sacred theology. On Jun. 9, 1955, he was ordained a priest at St. Dominic Church in Washington by the Most Rev. Jerome D. Hannon, Bishop of Scranton, PA. In 1956, Father Boland was assigned to St. Patrick Rectory in Columbus, OH, where he taught biology at Aquinas College High School for one year.
Father Boland spent the next 34 years in the Catholic Mission of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in Pakistan, beginning as a missionary at Model Town in Bahawalpur, West Pakistan, from 1957-1960. From 1960-1962, he exercised his priestly ministry at Bishop’s House and was chancellor of the Diocese of Multan, West Pakistan. From 1962-1966, Father Boland was, among other things, the rector at St. Vincent’s High School in Mian Channun, Multan, West Pakistan, and advisor to the vicar provincial from 1963-1966. On May 17, 1966, Pope Paul VI appointed him third Bishop of Multan, and on July 25, 1966, the Most. Rev. Russell J. McVinney, D.D., Bishop of Providence, consecrated him as Bishop in a ceremony that took place at Providence’s Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. The Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, D.D., was a co-consecrator.
His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Cordeiro, Archbishop of Karachi, performed the installation ceremony in Multan on October 25, 1966. From 1966-1984, he lived at Bishop’s House in Multan, West Pakistan (renamed Pakistan in 1971). During his eighteen years as Bishop, he undertook tirelessly the building of churches, schools, and pastoral centers in the Diocese as well as the building up of the diocesan clergy. He became Bishop Emeritus of Multan in 1984 and continued his pastoral work at St. Dominic Parish in Bahawalpur until 1990. He received an honorary doctor of religious education degree at PC’s 66th commencement exercises in 1984.
Returning to the U.S. in 1991, Bishop Boland spent three years as chaplain of the Dominican Nuns at Our Lady of Grace Monastery in North Guilford, CT. From 1994-2005, as Retired Bishop in residence at PC’s St. Thomas Aquinas Priory, he served as assistant to two Bishops of the Diocese of Providence, Bishops Louis E. Gelineau and Robert E. Mulvee.
Bishop Boland passed on Pentecost Sunday, May 28, 2023 and was laid to rest in the Dominican Friars Cemetery on the Providence College campus, Providence, RI.