Rev. Donald McGurrin, o.m.i.- Assignment Record

Assignment Record– Rev. Donald McGurrin, o.m.i.

Summary of Case: An Oblates of Mary Immaculate priest, McGurrin was accused in a 2002 lawsuit of having sexually abused two girls in a parish in Lowell, MA while he served there between 1978-1980. He died in 1993.

Ordained: 1944
Died: July 29, 1993

Start	Stop	Parish	Town/Accusations	State/Country	Position	Notes
1944 Buffalo bishop was John Aloysius Duffy (1937-1944), followed by John Francis O'Hara (1945-1951).	1950	Holy Angels Collegiate Institute (H.A.C.I.)	Buffalo	NY	14/14, 13/14, 10/13, 11/14	This was an Oblates of Mary minor seminary with 215-178 students. In 1947 the seminary portion of this school was moved to Newburgh, NY.
1950 O'Hara was succeeded by Joseph Aloysius Burke (1952-1962) .	1957?	Bishop Fallon High School	Buffalo	NY	11/14, 12/15, 10/17, 9/20	H.A.C.I. needed more space due to growing lay enrollment, so it opened under the name "Bishop Fallon High School". It had 261-478 students, all male. The 1957 Directory lists McGurrin as at the address for Bishop Fallon High, but he is not listed as there in the Buffalo diocesan pages.
1957 São Paolo archbishop was Carlos Carmelo de Vasconcellos Motta (1944-1964).	1959	Chapel School	Sao Paulo S.P.	Brazil		The address given is Alameda Franca 889. (EProv) precedes this information in the 1958 and 1959 Directory indexes. "Chapel was founded in 1947 by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to serve the English-speaking Catholics of São Paulo, Brazil."
1959 Burke was replaced as Buffalo bishop by James Aloysius McNulty (1963-1972).	1966?	Bishop Fallon High School	Buffalo	NY	4/19, 5/15, 5/16	School had 545-449 students. The 1966 Directory indexes McGurrin as at the address for Bishop Fallon, but he is not listed there in the Buffalo diocesan pages.
1966 Miami bishop/archbishop was Coleman Francis Carroll (1958-1977).	1969?	Cardinal Newman High School	West Palm Beach	FL	2/7, 2/6	School had 751-868 students. The 1969 Directory indexes McGurrin as at this school, but he is not listed as there in the Miami archdiocesan pages.
1969 Washington DC archbishop was Patrick Aloysius O'Boyle (1947-1973).	1970	Oblate College	Washington	DC
1970 Carroll was succeeded as Miami archbishop by Edward Anthony McCarthy (1977-1994).	1978?	Cardinal Newman High School	West Palm Beach	FL	2/9, 2/10, 3/8	School had 1,050-1,156 students.
1978 Boston archbishop was Humberto Sousa Medeiros (1970-1983).	1980	Sacred Heart	Lowell • McGurrin was accused in a 2002 lawsuit of having sexually abused two girls between 1978 and 1980, while at this parish.	MA	2/8	Parish had a school with 410 students.
1980 Miami archdiocese	1982	St. Stephen's	Miramar	FL	2/4	Parish had a school with 360-374 students.
1982 Columbus bishop was Edward John Herrmann (1973-1982), followed by James Anthony Griffin (1983-2004).	1989	SS. Simon and Jude	West Jefferson	OH	1/2
1989	1990					McGurrin is not indexed in the 1990 Directory.
1990 Buffalo bishop was Edward Dennis Head (1973-1995).	1993	Holy Angels	Buffalo	NY	3/8, 5/7, 4/6 In residence.	Parish had a religious education program with 120 students. McGurrin died July 29, 1993

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1945-1994)

• REV. D. MCGURRIN, ASSISTANT PASTOR AT HOLY ANGELS CHURCH, Highbeam.com, from Buffalo News, July 31, 1993
• Who are the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Buffalo?, www.buffomi.org, Jan. 18, 2011
• Chapel School, Sao Paulo, Brazil - Former Schools on Waymarking.com
• JOHN DOE Nos. 1 -29 and MARY ROE Nos. 1 -5 v. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, C. A. No. 02-4138;
• Letter to Dr. Mary Jane Doherty, Chairperson of the Archdiocese of Boston Review Board, July 27, 2011
• Mass. Group Discloses New Names of Accused Priests, By Jay Lindsay, Boston Globe, July 28, 2011

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy and Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates McGurrin's's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on Aug. 29, 2011.