Rest in Peace: Father Ed McDonough, CSSR

This is primarily of interest to those of you in the Boston area, but Father Edward McDonough, CSSR, (Redemptorist), known as “the healing priest,” has died. He had served at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston, also known as Mission Church.

There will be a wake on Friday at the basilica from 2pm to 8pm followed by a prayer service and the funeral will be on Saturday at 10am.

Fr. McDonough had been known far and wide for the gifts granted to him through which the Holy Spirit used him to effect miraculous spiritual and physical healings.

The second and third photos on this page are from one of Fr. McDonough’s Masses at my parish, Immaculate Conception Church in Salem, Mass., in recent years.

Father was no faith-healing huckster. He was always very clear with people that the more important healing was the healing of your relationship with God broken through sin and that no one should count on a miraculous physical healing. Sometimes it is God’s will that you should bear that cross. He always saw the Eucharist and the Sacrament of the Sick as working hand in hand as well.

Father McDonough was 86 years old.