BOSTON -- Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, OFM Cap. has announced that he has granted Father Richard P. McLaughlin senior priest retirement status. The effective date was Aug. 1. Father McLaughlin’s most recent assignment was as a member of the emergency response team of the archdiocese.

A native of Somerville and a son of St. Clement Parish, Father McLaughlin is one of the three sons of the late Thomas and Ellen (Toland) McLaughlin, He has a brother Thomas who lives in Florida and another brother, Robert died last March.

St. Clement Parish sits on the border of Medford and Somerville and boasts a parish grammar and high school. Father McLaughlin is a proud alumnus of both. Following his high school graduation he attended Boston College and then entered St. John’s Seminary in preparation for ordination to the priesthood.

Cardinal Richard Cushing ordained him to the priesthood at Holy Cross Cathedral on May 29, 1968. His first assignment was as an assistant at Lakeville’s St. Martha and Mary Parish. He was at the same time Juvenile Court Chaplain for the Fourth District Court of Plymouth. In 1970 he began a10-year assignment at St. Peter Parish, Dorchester. He was subsequently an associate at Blessed Sacrament Parish, Jamaica Plain and St. Ann Parish, Wollaston between 1981 and 1985.

He moved across Boston from Quincy to East Boston in 1985 when he was named parochial vicar at St. Joseph-St. Lazarus Parish; and in 1988 Cardinal Bernard Law named him pastor of the East Boston parish. He served two terms as pastor there and in September 2000 Cardinal Law named him pastor of St. Therese Parish in Everett. With the closing of that parish in October 2004, Father McLaughlin ceased to be pastor and was named as a member of the archdiocesan emergency response team.

In addition to his parish duties, Father McLaughlin served for many years as chaplain of the Army National Guard. In the Spring of 2000 he was granted a sabbatical period during which he enjoyed a priestly renewal program offered at the Pontifical North American College at Rome.

In his retirement Father McLaughlin will reside in his own home.