Father Maurice J. O'Connor Pilot file photo
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Father Maurice J. O'Connor, who retired from his leadership of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Stoughton on Nov. 16, 2003, died at Marian Manor in Taunton on Dec. 15, 2020.
Born in Boston on Oct. 8, 1928, Father O'Connor was raised in Cambridge's St. John the Evangelist Parish. His parents were the late Maurice and Mary (Mitchell) O'Connor. He attended local schools before entering St. John Seminary at Brighton.
Archbishop Richard J. Cushing ordained him to the priesthood on Sept. 29, 1953, a member of the "second" class of that year. The plethora of candidates for the priesthood in the archdiocese meant that they had to make space in the theology house for the rapidly increasing number of seminarians; this even so with the building of a minor seminary at Jamaica Plain. Many will recall that the first two years of the college division of the seminary were housed for two decades at Cardinal O'Connell Seminary in Jamaica Plain. There was more than a bit of irony in the seminary's name in that Cardinal O'Connell had been mightily opposed to anything like a minor or college seminary despite much pressure to the contrary.