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Rev. Msgr. Thomas J. McDonnell

Deceased: 2009-06-14

Diocese: BOSTON

Seminary Graduation Year: 1961

CSM Graduation Year: 1964

Rev. Monsignor Thomas J. McDonnell

Monsignor Tom McDonnell passed away on Sunday. Even though he had been dealing with lung cancer for several years, he did not allow his illness to define his life. Instead, he continued to practice the priestly vocation he believed God had given him, and his was an extraordinary ministry.

Born and raised in Mattapan, where he worked as an usher at the Oriental, Fr. Tom was ordained in Rome in 1960, and held advanced degrees in liturgy and dogmatic theology from the Vatican’s Pontifical Gregorian University. He was a voracious reader and a reflective thinker, yet he never strayed from the working-class neighborhood roots that nurtured him as a kid growing up in St. Angela’s parish. He did spend five years as a professor at St. John’s Seminary, but left the academy to work in parish life.

Father Tom will lie in state at St. Monica’s Church, South Boston. A funeral Mass will be said there Saturday at 11.

For Fr. Tom, his work indeed is done, and he did it so very, very well.