Community mourns loss of popular pastor

The parish family of St. John the Evangelist and the local Catholic community are shocked and grief-stricken over the loss of popular pastor Michael McLellan, who died unexpectedly at the start of the 11:30 a.m. mass on Sunday, April 26.

Father Michael McLellan

“Father Mike,” as he was known to parishioners, had just entered from the back of the church and was greeting people during the prelude hymn when he suddenly collapsed, according to Monsignor Charles Bourque, a priest-in-residence at St. John’s and a longtime friend of the pastor.

“He was fine, and then all of a sudden he just keeled over,” said Msgr. Bourque.

The scene was reportedly tense as a doctor and a few nurses in attendance ran to his side. Bourque said the ambulance arrived “within seconds” and immediately rushed Fr. McLellan to the hospital, “but they just couldn’t save him.”

Bourque said the likely cause of death was either a massive stroke or heart attack, although no autopsy was performed.

Regardless of the cause, Bourque said McLellan’s sudden passing is a tremendous loss — not just for the St. John’s community, but for all who came to know and love him over 30-plus years of faithful ministry.

“Everybody loved him,” said the monsignor, who was a faculty member when McLellan first entered the seminary. “He was a great person and a great friend. Everyone’s really broken up about this.”

Bourque said McLellan was part of the first group of seminary students who studied Spanish rather than French, and he went on to serve for many years in predominately Hispanic parishes in Boston, including St. Paul in Dorchester and Blessed Sacrament in Jamaica Plain.

Coincidentally, Bourque himself joined the Hispanic ministry after many years of teaching French, and the two priests lived together for a time in the rectory at Our Lady of Lourdes in Jamaica Plain, where Bourque was the longtime pastor.

“It was somewhat of a transition for Mike to come to [St. John’s], moving from the rough and tumble of the city,” he said. “Coming here after that kind of an existence, it kind of took him a lot to get used to, but he did it.”

“He came to St. John’s as a ‘city priest,’ having spent much of his priesthood in city parishes,” echoed the Very Reverend Bryan Parrish, a Canton native and the assistant vicar for administration in the Boston Archdiocese. “While he had to adjust to life in a suburban parish in Canton, over time he came to love the parishioners and they loved him.”

Fr. Parrish, a longtime parishioner at St. John’s, said that McClellan was a “people person who developed genuine and lasting friendships among his parishioners.”

“He died on ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’ and lived out many of the qualities of Christ the Good Shepherd in his priestly ministry, particularly through his generous and caring service as priest and pastor,” said Parrish in a statement. “He was a strong supporter of the parish school, the youth of the parish, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society, whose special ministry is to those in financial and material need in Canton. Fr. McLellan will be deeply missed by his parishioners.”

Maggie Rubenacker, business manager at St. John’s, said that Father Mike was both a great pastor and a good friend and personal mentor. “He was known for his light heartedness and a big laugh and constant smile,” she said.

Father Rodney Copp, the current pastor at St. Gerard Majella, said that he and McLellan knew each other from the seminary and they went on to develop a “great working relationship” during their last few years together in Canton.

“He was a happy person — happy with his work, happy with his life,” said Fr. Copp. “He was a very friendly and welcoming pastor.”

And while the two Canton parishes have yet to formally unify under a single “pastoral collaborative,” as has been planned by the Boston Archdiocese, Copp said there has already been a lot of overlap and informal collaboration — thanks in large part to the efforts of Father Mike.

“We’re really one community in Canton,” noted Fr. Copp. “We are two parishes, but we work together as one Catholic community, and certainly my parishioners at St. Gerard’s are feeling this loss very greatly.”

For now, Msgr. Bourque said the St. John’s pastoral staff are “doing the best they can” in the wake of Father Mike’s death, and they will continue to “rule by committee” until they receive more clarity and direction from the Archdiocese.

A wake was held at the church on Thursday, April 30, and it was followed by a special bilingual mass with music by choir members and instrumentalists from McLellan’s former Hispanic parishes in Boston.

Friday at 11 a.m. will be the funeral mass, presided over by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, and the interment will be at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Canton, followed by a bereavement reception in the St. John’s Parish Center.

For more information about the funeral arrangements or where to send condolences, visit www.stjohncanton.org.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Apr 30 2015. Filed under News. Both comments and pings are currently closed.