Michael Kennelly studied at Harvard and hoped to be a lawyer someday.
Patrick Ryan, further encouraged Kennelly to move to Mobile, Alabama, where he attended Spring Hill College, which had a high school on its campus at the time. He obtained his bachelor's degree in classics from Spring Hill College in 1939. He was ordained a Catholic priest within the Society of Jesus in 1946 while studying at St. Mary's College. Kennelly then returned to Ireland, where he received a master's degree in education in 1949 from the National University of Ireland. 
