Who is John S. Daly?
John S. Daly was born in England in 1963, educated by the Salvatorian Fathers in Harrow Weald, at Saint Dominic’s Sixth Form College, Harrow-on-the-Hill, and at Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge where he read Classics (i.e. studied Latin and Greek with ancient history and philosophy) and won various awards for academic excellence including two Exhibitions and a Scholarship.
Although his family accepted the Vatican II reforms, he had realised by the age of fifteen that the Church was in a grave crisis and that most of the priests had lost the Catholic faith. Deeper study led him progressively to reject altogether the New Rites and, in 1983, the legitimacy of the post-Vatican II papal claimants. His acclaimed translation of Pope Paul IV’s bull Cum Ex Apostolatus Offico and his translation, commentary and textual analysis on the prophecies erroneously attributed to Saint Malachy were completed before the age of twenty.
Leaving university early in order to study the crisis in the Church more deeply he worked for eleven years with traditional Catholic publishing house Britons Catholic Library as researcher, translator and writer. During this period he was influenced by the writings of authors such as Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Robert Bellarmine, Dom Prosper Guéranger and the classic papal encyclicals. Making use of his knowledge of languages he has always given priority to the writings of the Church’s most highly approved sources in the Church’s own language. He was also influenced by personal contact with priests including Fr. Philip Shelmerdine (†1987), Mgr. Alfred Gilbey (†1998), Fr. Emmet C. Buckley S.J. (†2002) and Fr. Oswald Baker (†2004).
He studied Canon Law and Moral Theology with particular attention and from that time on has been regularly consulted by traditional Catholic priests in those fields.
In 1989 he was admitted to membership of Mensa International, the society for people with high intelligence quotients, with a verified I.Q. of 161.
In 1994 John S. Daly married his French wife Aslyne. After a few years in Ireland they finally settled in France where they now live in the Lot-et-Garonne department with their ten children.
Daly works as a translator in the fields of business, economics, theology and literature. In 2012 he was selected to translate Nobel prize-winner Maurice Allais’s 1300 page masterpiece Économie et Intérêt (Economy and Interest) into English.
In 2007 he launched traditional Catholic publishing house Tradibooks which makes available translated Catholic books and other important Catholic classics.
Daly is the author of three books: Michael Davies – an Evaluation (1st edition 1989, revised edition 2015), The Theological Status of Heliocentrism (1997), The Life of Fr. Philip Shelmerdine (2008), and translator of many, including: How Grace Acts by St. Alphonsus Liguori, Jovinian 1982 by Professor Gustavo Daniel Corbi, The Christian of the Day and the Christian of the Gospel by Père Emmanuel, Economy and Interest by Professor Maurice Allais, The Fewness of the Saved by Fr. Godts, The Secret of Firefern by Louis Morvan and Literal Interpretation of the Apocalypse by Fr. Rafael Eyzaguirre.
He has also written or translated about a hundred articles, of which the most appreciated have included: “Essay on Heresy” by Arnaldo Vidigal Xavier da Silveira, “The Collapse of Luciferianism” by the Marquis de la Franquerie Cum Ex Apostolus Officio by Pope Paul IV. Daly has also written various articles and studies in French and translated Myles Keon’s Dion and the Sibyls into French.
In the field of public speaking his 1988 talk delivered in Latin in the Nice diocesan seminary on the life and achievements of Cardinal Mezzofanti and his 2002 talk The Impossible Crisis, delivered in Verona, New York, have both been widely appreciated. His debating skills were honed on the floor of the Cambridge Union, of which he is a life member.
Verse by John Daly has been published in The Tablet and in the Catholic poetry quarterly Dowry.
He is at present working on revising and expanding his 1990 study The Errors and Heresies of Vatican II and on a definitive study of the evolution of the attitude of Archbishop Lefebvre towards the sedevacantist thesis, in addition to several shorter articles. Also on the anvil, in the much longer term, he has a book on miracles (aimed at unbelievers) and a philosophical study of the role of metaphor in science.
His writings have also frequently been translated into other languages, appearing in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese.