Father Edward McDonough, C.SS.R., the Redemptorist widely known as “the healing priest” died Feb. 11 in Boston. He was 86 years old.

Since the 1970s, he has conducted a healing and restoration ministry based at Mission Church (Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help) in Boston. He held these services in many dioceses throughout the country and around the world.

Thousands who attended claimed to have received healing through his prayers. He also appeared on a syndicated cable TV program that was seen on The Prayer Channel.

Born in Boston, he attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help School there; St. Mary’s Seminary, North East, PA; Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary, Esopus; and Boston College.

He was ordained a Redemptorist priest on June 20, 1948.

He served at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica parish, Sunset Park, 1949-50. Later, he ministered in Virginia, North Carolina, and Boston.

Sister Mary de Lourdes Zdrojewski of the Infant Jesus, CSFN, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth for 77 years, died Jan. 5. She was 91 years old.

Born in Brooklyn as Bernadette Catherine Zdrojewski, she was baptized in Our Lady of Czestochowa Church, Sunset Park, where she also attended the elementary school.

She entered the congregation in 1931 and took the religious name of Sister Mary de Lourdes when she was admitted to the novitiate in 1936. She made her permanent commitment in 1944. She taught in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore and served the community as its supervisor of schools.

She retired in 2007 for health reasons.

Sister Beata Virginia O’Shaughnessy, CSJ, 91, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood for 72 years died Jan. 25, in Maria Regina Residence, Brentwood.

Born in Ireland, she entered the congregation in 1936 from St. Teresa’s, Brooklyn.

She taught at St. Michael, Sunset Park, 1938-39; Our Lady of Good Counsel, Bedford-Stuyvesant, 1939-42; St. Matthew, Crown Heights, 1942-43; Immaculate Heart of Mary, Windsor Terrace, 1943-49; Immaculate Conception, Jamaica, 1949-52; St. Brendan Diocesan H.S., Midwood, 1952-53; Queen of All Saints Diocesan H.S., Brooklyn, 1953-64; Bishop McDonnell H.S, Brooklyn, 1964-66; Bishop Kearney Diocesan H.S., Bensonhurst,1966-69; St. Joseph H.S., Downtown Brooklyn, 1969-85; and Fontbonne Hall Academy, Bay Ridge, 1985-93. 

In 1997, she retired to Maria Regina Residence until her death.

Marie Sylvie Borno, the mother of Father Saint Charles Borno, parochial vicar at Our Lady of Miracles, Canarsie, died on Feb. 7.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in Haiti on Feb. 24. A memorial Mass will be held at Holy Family Church, Canarsie, on March 1, at 11 a.m.

Brother Robert Kelly, a Marianist brother for 60 years, died of a heart attack in Dayton, Ohio, on Feb. 1. He was 84.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he attended St. John the Evangelist School, Park Slope, where he also served as an altar boy; and St. Michael’s Diocesan H.S., Sunset Park.

After graduating in 1941, he worked at Arthur H. Dinsmore, an insurance broker. A year later, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy to serve in World War II. He was a Yeoman Second Class stationed on the USS Chepachet, a fleet replenishment oiler. Later, he worked with the Veterans Administration.

At age 23, he entered the Marianist novitiate in 1947 at Beacon, N.Y. His scholasticate years were spent at Maryhurst, Kirkwood, Mo.; Mount St. John, Dayton, Ohio; and the University of Dayton, where in 1951 he received a bachelor’s degree in education. He professed first vows in 1948 at Beacon and perpetual vows in 1952 at the University of Dayton.

In 1952, Brother Kelly began a 45-year career in education in Ohio and Tennessee. He was director of the first Marianist community in Memphis.

In 1967, he became one of three Marianists to establish St. Laurence College, the first Marianist community and school in Dublin, Ireland. There, he managed the finances for the school and community and taught religion and business courses until 1981.

After a one-year sabbatical (1981-1982), he went to St. Joseph College in Yokohama, Japan, where he taught business, typing and accounting. He also served as principal and as a member of the school’s board of directors until 1996.

Health issues brought him back to the U.S. in 1996. He retired from active ministry and served as a greeter at the Marianist retreat center in Ohio.

A decline in health necessitated his move in 2002 to St. Leonard, the Franciscan healthcare center in Ohio.
Brother Kelly is survived by a brother Hugh Kelly, and a sister Catherine Kelly, both of Brooklyn.

Father Arthur Newell, a member of the Missions of the Poor, died Jan. 19 of natural causes at his order’s facility in Kingston, Jamaica. He was 90.

Born in St. Mary’s parish, Winfield, he attended school there, Bryant H.S. in Queens, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and Columbia University.

He was ordained a priest for the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in 1948 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Manhattan, by Cardinal Francis X. Spellman.

For 25 years, he served in Japan and then at Incarnation Church, Queens Village.

In the late 1980s, he was assisgned to the Friars’ mission on the island of Jamaica. When the order decided it could no longer staff its mission there, he joined the Missions of the Poor so that he could continue to serve the handicapped and poor of that island nation.

A memorial Mass will be held at Incarnation Church, Queens Village, on Saturday, April 26, at noon.

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