The 59-year-old religious, who worked in the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, died Jan. 2 in a Rome hospital.
«Father Casserly was an exemplary priest, devout and respectful, who with his profound technical knowledge was able to enrich the work in the field of communications, inspired by the desire to transmit the Gospel message to many. His death is a great loss,» said Archbishop John Foley, president of the pontifical council.
Father Casserly also represented the Vatican in social communications initiatives of the Council of Europe, and at meetings of the International Catholic Union of the Press.
Born in Kells, Ireland, he had previously been a missionary in Papua New Guinea. He had worked in the social communications council since 1992.
Archbishop Foley said that Father Casserly’s interest in satellite technology was due to his desire to reduce the «digital breach» between the poor and the rich, in order to make all kinds of information, especially religious, available to all.
