Fr. James Aloysius McKenna, SDB, died in Charleston, S.C., at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10, after a month-long illness that was eventually diagnosed as pancreatic cancer. He was 75 years old and had been a professed Salesian of Don Bosco for 55 years and a priest for 46 years.

Father McKenna served at several Salesian works in the Archdiocese of New York during his 46 years as a priest. He was associate pastor at Mary Help of Christians Parish in Manhattan (1980-1982), pastor at Corpus Christi Parish in Port Chester (1994-1998), and director of the Marian Shrine-Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw-Stony Point (2011-2021). He held province-level offices for the Salesians in New Rochelle: development director (1989-1990) and province treasurer (1991-1994).

Fr. McKenna was born in Jersey City, N.J., on May 9, 1951, and graduated from Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., in 1969. He entered Don Bosco College Seminary in Newton, N.J., in September 1969 and professed first vows in Newton on Sept. 1, 1971. He professed perpetual vows in 1977.

Then-Brother McKenna graduated from Don Bosco College in June 1974 with a B.A. in philosophy. He was awarded a Master of Divinity degree from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio, in 1980 and was ordained in Columbus, Ohio, on May 24, 1980.

Fr. McKenna served at Salesian schools in Ramsey, Tampa, and Marrero, La., and at Don Bosco College in Newton, N.J., and did parish ministry in Belle Glade, Fla.

Fr. McKenna had arrived in South Carolina only last June to inaugurate a new Salesian parish presence in the Charleston Diocese but fell ill soon after.

At the time of his 40th anniversary of religious profession in 2011, Fr. McKenna testified that his life was centered on “community life, prayer, and celebrating Mass,” and maintained that he had experienced the rich reward of seeing God at work in his Salesian ministry. “40 years of religious profession and 31 years as a priest have given me great joy in contributing to the Salesian mission for the young.”

Fr. McKenna occasionally appeared in print. In January 1996, he contributed a reflection about the Sermon on the Mount to Catholic New York’s weekly Scripture column. Following the election of Pope Francis in 2013, Westchester County’s Journal News solicited Fr. McKenna’s thoughts; he told the paper “that Francis appears to be a man who knows exactly what he wants to do as pope. ‘He is a new-world person and has new-world ideas. He has a way of expressing himself that is for the people. He wants to be with the people and, I suppose, listen to the people.’”

Deacon Michael Gizzo of Port Chester remembers that “as pastor, he always came out in the morning and afternoon to greet students as they entered and left the grammar school we had. He did the same after every single Mass for parishioners on the weekends. And he always had a big smile, indicating how much he enjoyed it.”

Many Salesians and others considered Fr. McKenna “a model Salesian priest.”