A gifted administrator, Kenney made two trips to the United States, where he established Maryland as a vice-province and set up Missouri as a separate Jesuit mission.
He entered the Society of Jesus on 20 September 1804, continuing his religious training at Stonyhurst College and Palermo, Sicily, where he was ordained in 1808 and where he also obtained his D.D.
In hope of the order's re-establishment at some point, they began to save some funds for the purpose of reviving their work.
[3] Father Kenney was a friend of the founder of the Christian Brothers Edmund Rice whom he advised (Rice helped Kenney in purchasing Clongowes Wood) and also played a big part in the foundation of the Irish Sisters of Charity.
[citation needed] In 1819 he was sent as a canonical visitor to the Jesuit mission in Maryland in the United States, which including Georgetown College.
In St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, the Peter Kenney Prize is awarded to students of ecclesiastical history studying for BD or BTh degrees.