At his Funeral Mass, Father Roderick McKee – a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland who served as a priest of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington for nearly six decades – was remembered for living his life for others.
Father McKee, who was ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington at St. Coleman’s Cathedral in Newry, Northern Ireland in 1966 and who served in many parishes in Maryland and the nation’s capital over the years, died on Sept. 27 at Grace House in Silver Spring at the age of 81.
During his homily at Father McKee’s Mass of Christian Burial at St, Patrick’s Church in Washington, Msgr. Salvatore Criscuolo said the late priest exemplified the message of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans: “For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord.” (Romans 14:7-8)
Msgr. Criscuolo, St. Patrick’s former pastor who served with Father McKee when that priest retired and was in residence there from 2012 to 2021, added, “Throughout his 57 years of priesthood, Father McKee did just that. He came here as a newly ordained priest from Ireland at the age 0f 24. Think about this. He left his family, his friends, his surroundings, his country and came to America, not knowing any person, not knowing any priest, not knowing this city or Maryland, and here he started his priesthood, a calling given to him by God at the age of 24. He was truly an example of living for others.”
Before his retirement, Father McKee served as pastor of St. Thomas Apostle Parish in Washington from 2006 t0 2012. As the pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Beltsville, Maryland, from 1994 to 2004, he worked with parishioners in building a new 600-seat church there that was dedicated in the Jubilee Year 2000 by Cardinal James Hickey, then the archbishop of Washington.
Over the years, Father McKee also served as pastor at Holy Rosary Parish in Rosaryville and at St. Bernardine of Siena Parish in Suitland, and as a parochial administrator at St. Michael Parish and St. Dominic Mission in Brandywine and at St. Mary, Star of the Sea Parish in Indian Head.
When he came to serve in the Archdiocese of Washington in 1966, Father McKee was first assigned as a as parochial vicar to St. Mary’s Parish in Bryantown, and over the years he also served as a parochial vicar at Holy Face Parish in Great Mills, St. Mary of the Mills Parish in Laurel, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Bethesda, at St. Jerome Parish in Hyattsville, and at St. Bartholomew Parish in Bethesda.
In an interview for his 50th anniversary as a priest in 2016, Father McKee said a special highlight of his priesthood was serving as director of the ECHO retreat program for young adults and as director of the CYO youth retreat center from 1977 to 1983, where he said he was inspired by the witness of faith of those young people. “It certainly was a true blessing,” he said.
After living and serving as a retired priest at St. Patrick’s Church in Washington, Father McKee moved in 2021 to the St. John XXIII Residence for Retired Priests in Hyattsville.
Since Cardinal Wilton Gregory is in Rome for the Synod of Bishops, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy Campbell Jr. was the main celebrant of Father McKee’s Mass of Christian Burial.
At the Funeral Mass, Msgr. Criscuolo – who has served as a longtime chaplain to federal and municipal public safety agencies in Washington – remembered how Father McKee as a retired priest at St. Patrick’s helped out with Masses and Confessions there.
“He celebrated Mass and loved it so much, that toward the end of his time (here), he had to sit on a chair with oxygen, but he wanted to celebrate Mass for the people. That’s the priest we remember today,” said Msgr. Criscuolo, who praised Father McKee as “a good priest, a good uncle, a good friend, and a gentle representative of the Lord.”
