Born Charles Joseph Keeney on December 3, 1896 in Hoboken, New Jersey he was educated at Our Lady of Grace parochial and high school. After high school he entered the Passionist Seminary in Dunkirk, New York. he completed his novitiate in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and professed his vows on December 15, 1912. He was ordained on December 17, 1921 by Bishop Paul Nussbaum of Corpus Christi, Texas.
His first years were preaching laymen retreats at the retreat houses in Pittsburgh and Brighton, Massachusetts. In 1926 he was asked to assist Bishop Nussbaum in his new diocese of Marquette, Michigan. However, a pulmonary condition required that he be sent in 1929 to the Glockner Sanitarium, a tuberculosis hospital in Denver, Colorado. When his health was improved, Father Keeney remained in Colorado where he served as pastor in Estes Park and Cripple Creek. But he had a relapse and wen, this time, to Tucson, Arizona to a desert bungalow for about ten years. These were difficult years for him. In 1950 he returned back east and lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Dunkirk, Toronto, Canada and Brighton. He died at a hotel in Buffalo while on his jubilee trip of religious profession. He was buried in Union City, New Jersey.