byFather Robert M. O'Grady Pilot Staff
Father Charles Kinsella Courtesy photo
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A priest with deep roots in the Merrimack Valley who spent most of his priestly ministry in the archdiocese in chaplaincies at area hospitals and prisons died in Lawrence on Oct. 31, 2024.
The only child of the late Norbert and Emily (Mixon) Kinsella, he grew up in Lawrence, attending Holy Trinity School before entering the high school seminary of the Augustinian Friars. After college and theological studies, he was ordained at his home parish, St. Mary, Lawrence, on Oct. 30, 1965, by Boston Auxiliary Bishop Eric F. MacKenzie.
For the first several years of his priestly ministry, he served in assignments of the St. Thomas of Villanova Province of the Augustinian Friars.
In 1969, he was assigned as an assistant at St. Theresa of Lisieux Parish, North Reading, remaining there until 1976. While in that parish, in 1971, he asked to be incardinated into the archdiocese in no small part to be able to spend time caring for his ailing father in Lawrence.
One year after his 1975 incardination, he was appointed an associate at St. Thomas of Villanova Parish, Wilmington. In 1979, he was named to the faculty of the Augustinian-sponsored Austin Preparatory School, Reading.
He was an especially talented musician and, in assignments, especially his school assignments, handed on the students an appreciation for music.
From 1982 and for an ensuing decade, he was chaplain at the Cushing Hospital in Framingham. The facility had been a military hospital serving veterans, especially those of the Second World War, and later was a long-term care facility. It closed in 1991, making Father Kinsella the last resident chaplain.
Thereafter, he was on long-term disability before being granted senior priest retirement status in 2007.
Father Kinsella's funeral Mass was celebrated on Nov. 5 at St. Monica Church, Methuen. Father Peter Gori, OSA, pastor of St. Augustine Parish, Andover, was the principal celebrant and homilist; Father Robert E. Casey of Gate of Heaven and St. Brigid parishes, South Boston, concelebrated, as did Msgr. George Carlson of Hull, who had been assigned at the North Reading parish with Father Kinsella. Merrimack Regional Bishop Robert F. Hennessey was present for the Mass and brought the condolences of Archbishop Richard Henning and celebrated the Rite of Final Commendation.
Father Kinsella was buried with his parents in Elmwood Cemetery, Methuen.