McIntyre, John P. (Father)

Jesuit Father John P. McIntyre died on July 19, 2014. He was born in Boston on August 12, 1930, the son of John and Ellen (Lambert) McIntyre, both of whom had emigrated from Ireland.  He was baptized the following month in Presentation Parish, in Oak Square, Brighton, a Boston neighborhood in the shadow of the archdiocesan seminary, the chancery, and the Boston College campus.  He attended Sacred Heart High School in nearby Newton and then Boston College, where his poor eyesight did not prevent him from pursuing the rigorous A.B. Honors degree in classical languages and literature.  He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Shadowbrook in Massachusetts in 1952.

He did philosophy studies at Weston Jesuit School of Theology (now the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry) and then taught for two years as a regent at Boston College High School.  In 1959-60, he earned an M.A. in English literature at the University of Toronto.  During four years of theology studies at Weston, he was ordained to the priesthood in June 1963, at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.  He taught English for a year at Holy Cross, then did tertianship at Tronchiennes, Belgium.  He returned to the University of Toronto for further studies in English literature and received his Ph.D. in 1968.  He was assigned to teach English literature at Fairfield University in Connecticut and remained there for ten years, interrupted by a sabbatical in London in 1975-76.

In 1978, his ministerial interests took an unexpected turn.  He went to the Diocese of Gallup, New Mexico, where he served as assistant chancellor for two years.  He returned to teaching English literature at Boston College High for five years (1980-85), but then undertook canon law studies at Catholic University in Washington, earning J.C.L. and J.C.D. degrees.  From 1989 to 1998, he taught canon law at St. Paul’s University in Ottawa and served as a judge in the archdiocesan tribunal there.  In 1998, he came to the Jesuit Community at Boston College, where he continued writing on canon law and serving as a judge on the Canadian Bishops’ appeals tribunal.

In 2011, health issues led to his being assigned to the community at Campion Center.  In recent months, a series of hospitalizations weakened him and he died peacefully at Campion.