Father Jacques A. McGuffie, a senior priest of the archdiocese died in Boston on Dec. 9, 2022. He was born June 18, 1946, at Grand Saline, Haiti. He was one of the 10 children of the late Dickens and Leonie (Jean Phillippe) McGuffie.

The Hatian native completed his schooling: primary, secondary, and college in his homeland. In 1971, he married Marie Pean in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and working in banking there, their first child, Daphnee, was born. In 1972, the three immigrated to the United States, and in the following years, the family grew to include three more children.

Active in St. Patrick Parish, Roxbury, Jacques was encouraged by the late Father Waldron, the parish's pastor, to consider the permanent diaconate. He entered the formation program in 1998 and Bernard Cardinal Law ordained him to the diaconate Sept. 14, 1992. He served at St. Patrick, Roxbury, for seven years. He continued his secular employment as a certified financial planner and tax advisor. When his wife Marie died in 2009, he entered Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston as a candidate for the priesthood of the Boston Archdiocese. During his seminary formation, he served as a deacon at Maris Hill Nursing Home, Waltham; St. Cecilia Parish, Ashland; and St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish, Westford.

Cardinal O'Malley ordained him to the priesthood on May 25, 2013, at Holy Cross Cathedral and assigned him as parochial vicar at three parishes in Dorchester: Holy Family, St. Peter, and St. Teresa of Calcutta. In 2015, he was appointed parochial in three different parishes, these in Somerville: St. Joseph, St. Ann, and St. Catherine of Genoa.

He was granted senior priest/retirement status in December 2017 and later moved to the archdiocesan home for senior priests, Regina Cleri, in Boston's West End.

Cardinal O'Malley was the principal celebrant of Father McGuffie's funeral Mass at St. Joseph Church in Boston's West End on Dec. 15. Father John Ahern of St. Gregory, Dorchester, served as the homilist, and among the concelebrants were Father Christopher Wallace, All Saints, Haverhill; Father Gerald Souza, Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Sudbury; Father Richard Conway, senior priest, St. Ambrose, Dorchester; and several fellow priests from Regina Cleri Residence.

Following the funeral Mass, he was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Roslindale. Father McGuffie's immediate survivors are his children: Bianca Valentin, Daphnee Newton, Marie, and Davidson; and his siblings: Fredrik, Carmen Daux, Marie, and Yolene Jerome.