byFather Robert M. O'Grady Pilot Staff
Father James G. Burke Courtesy photo
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Father James G. Burke was granted senior priest/retirement status on June 1, 2024. From his ordination on May 21, 1977, at Holy Cross Cathedral by Humberto Cardinal Medeiros, Father Burke has, in the 47 intervening years, served in parish and archdiocesan assignments in various parts of the archdiocese and at the metropolitan tribunal.
He was born Sept. 3, 1951, the oldest of the four children of the late John and Rita (Walsh) Burke. He attended both St. Gregory School, Dorchester, and St. Anthony Padua School, Allston, prior to his secondary education at Christopher Columbus High School in Boston's North End.
Following high school graduation, he entered Cardinal O'Connell Seminary in Jamaica Plain, and then moved to the college seminary at St. Clement Hall, Brighton, and then across the Brighton campus for theological studies at St. John Seminary.
He served a deacon internship year at St. Ann, Neponset, prior to his priestly ordination.
Cardinal Medeiros gave him his first parish assignment as an associate at St. Thomas Aquinas, Jamaica Plain. During his five years at the parish, he also served as the chaplain at the West Roxbury Municipal Court.
In September 1982, he was assigned to canon law studies at the Catholic University of America in the nation's capital city. He completed the licentiate degree and received the JCL in 1984.
He returned to the archdiocese, which now had a new archbishop, and in 1984, he was named a parochial vicar at St. Malachy Parish, Burlington. During his seven years there, he was named a judge of the metropolitan tribunal, a position he would hold until 2019.
In June 1991, he was named a parochial vicar at St. Michael Parish, North Andover, likely the most challenging 18 months of his priestly life. In 1993, he was named parochial vicar at St. Anne Parish, Littleton, at which he also served as administrator (1997-1998).
In January 1998, he was named a parochial vicar at St. Mary of the Annunciation Parish, Melrose, and in 1999, pastor of Infant Jesus-St. Lawrence Parish, Brookline. During these assignments, he was also on the staff in varying responsibilities of the metropolitan tribunal.
In 2005, Archbishop O'Malley named him pastor of Westwood's St. Denis Parish, where he would serve his longest parochial assignment of 16 years.
In August 2021, Cardinal O'Malley named him pastor of Lexington's two parishes, then in a collaborative, Sacred Heart and St. Brigid. The two parishes are of very different style and demographic and bridging it all was not easy. Indeed, after three years, the collaborative was dissolved and the previous arrangement of a pastor for each parish was restored.
Father Burke asked for and was granted senior priest/retirement status, even if a couple years short of the usual age.
Father Burke is an avid skier and will have more time to visit the slopes of New Hampshire. He will be in residence as a senior priest at St. Linus rectory, Natick, and will assist the Natick and other parishes as need and availability arises.