Fr. Gerry McLaughlin’s early life was conventionally Boston, Irish, and Catholic: born and baptized in Somerville, growing up in nearby Arlington, a parishioner in St. Agnes Parish, and a scholarship student at BC High (1939-1943). World War II propelled him into a new world. Enlisting in the Navy, he served in the Pacific in 1943-1946. At war’s end, he entered the Society of Jesus: Shadowbrook for novitiate and juniorate, Weston for philosophy and theology, and Pomfret, CT, for tertianship, with a year teaching at BC High.
 A radically new chapter in Gerry’s life began during his theology studies. Fr. John Peter Sullivan, S.J. (1904-1970) had begun a new venture in Jamaica as Director of the Cooperative and Credit Union Movement (1940-1970) and requested assistance for his Social Action Center (SAC) in Kingston. Gerry responded and was accepted, spending summers during his theology studies getting to know about credit unions — cooperative associations that make small loans to its members at low interest and offer other banking services. Particularly helpful to his quest was Xavier University in Nova Scotia, which featured the development of cooperatives. Once in Jamaica, however, Gerry realized that Fr. Sullivan’s plans for a cooperative college did not sufficiently involve Jamaicans themselves. In 1969, a unique opportunity presented itself when the Peoples National Party (PNP) purchased two large sugar estates from foreign owners unhappy with their low returns. The Jesuits persuaded the government to give the estates to the cane cutters themselves as reparations for three hundred years of slavery instead of selling them to private stakeholders. In his Oral History (2008), Gerry regarded the decision as “the most dramatic social change in the history of the Caribbean.” Unfortunately, when the government changed in 1981, the estates were turned over to government bureaucrats. Despite this setback, the Social Workers Cooperatives founded by SAC in the 1970s had 25,000 members, at the time the largest worker’s coop in the Western Hemisphere.
With the PNP’s election victory in 1972, Gerry expanded his work from credit unions to cooperative housing. But caught up in the “priests in politics” controversies within the Catholic Church at the time, Gerry had to resign his cabinet-level post in the Ministry of Housing. He also became aware that his ideal of cooperative housing ran up against the desire of most Jamaicans to own their own homes rather than live in accord with condominium restrictions.
Constant activity, however, reminded Gerry “to turn back to my interior and original spiritual program.” Turning to parish ministry, he became pastor of St. Benedict the Moor parish in Kingston from 1983 to 1989. Though he confessed to feeling inadequate to the task, his congregation appreciated his devotion and affection. In line with his desire for renewal, Gerry withdrew from the ultra-busy Jesuit life he was leading and took a two-year leave of absence from the Society (1992-1994).
He came back from his leave with a new-found interest in writing the history of Jamaica and preserving its past records. In his last years in Jamaica (1994-2016), he engaged in writing and rearranging archives in addition to his work of promoting micro-investment initiatives and serving as Housing Consultor to the government. Finding the archives of the Archdiocese of Kingston to be deteriorating, he described his response: “After some months, I succeeded in maintaining the official sacred records of the archdiocese [from 1791], the historical written letters of the Jesuits from 1837 on, as well as the collections of Archbishop McEleney, S.J.” Gerry made himself an expert in archive work, attending seminars and courses in the field. He also found time to author a small book, Jesuitica in Jamaica.
Fr. McLaughlin’s legacy to Jamaica lives on today in Jesuits’ critical self-reflection on their mission in Jamaica, awareness of the deep-seated African traditions in Jamaica, and their need to enculturate the Christian faith. Gerry wrote a final reflection on his ministry in his Oral History: “I have always boasted that I never had a task that I did not finally enjoy. Now I realize that the statement prejudges God’s will; many times I was very unhappy. But I never wavered and never considered wavering. Is not that the grace of God?”
Gerard L. McLaughlin was born on October 3, 1925, in Somerville, MA, to John and Mary (Campbell) McLaughlin, one of six children all of whom predeceased him: John, Robert, and Frank, Kathleen Wright, and Marie McCadden. As noted above, his early life ran along expected lines prior to beginning his ministry in Jamaica where he served as a priest from 1961 to 2016, fifty-five years! As a Jesuit missionary he performed a variety of works but habitually kept his eyes on how he could best mediate God’s blessing to the Jamaican people. Honors came his way both from the Jamaican government and from ordinary Jamaicans, which he gratefully accepted and gave credit to others.
His longtime friend and colleague, Fr. Joe Owens, summed up Gerry’s life in Jamaica and at Campion Health Center. “Gerry loved the Church, and he also loved Jamaica, to the point that he became a citizen; it was his home from 1961-2016. If the decision had been left to him, he would most likely have remained in Jamaica and been buried there. As much as Gerry would love to return to Jamaica, we would miss him terribly here; he enriched our Campion community immensely with his humor, his wisdom, and his soulful presence.” On July 29, two days short of the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and two months short of Gerry’s hundredth birthday, Gerry passed away at Campion Center in Weston.
Click here to light a Virtual Candle in memoriam of the life and legacy of Fr. Gerry McLaughlin, SJ.
