Thomas Buckley, 73; priest served many parishes

REV. THOMAS J. BUCKLEY

A mother whose child died offered the ultimate tribute to Amesbury priest the Rev. Thomas J. Buckley in a book of condolences, his family said.

"He was so kind and compassionate when we lost our son Peter at the age of 7. He is the very reason that I did not lose my faith during this difficult time," wrote Mary Audley of Lynn.

Peter was diagnosed with leukemia. Rev. Buckley helped him receive his first communion at St. Pius the Fifth Parish in Lynn before he was given a bone marrow transplant, Audley recalled.

"Then he came up to the hospital to visit him. He was just a truly wonderful man," she said last night. Peter died in 1984.

Rev. Buckley, a Somerville native and Boston area priest for almost a half century, died at his home in Alton Bay, N.H., on Oct. 2, from a blood clot, his family said. He was 73.

His sudden death shocked his siblings and friends who marveled at Rev. Buckley's physical fitness.

"He was in such tremendous physical shape," said his brother John of Cotuit.

Two days before his death, Rev. Buckley had been mountain biking with other priests near his home. In August, he biked almost 500 miles along trails from Buffalo to Albany, N.Y,, and went skiing more than 50 times last season.

Rev. Buckley, a 6-foot-4-inch former All Scholastic football star at Matignon High School in Cambridge, turned down many scholarships to enter the priesthood, his family said.

He was slated to attend Holy Cross when he came home one day with the news, his sister Madeline McMahon of Bridgewater recalled. "My mother and I were in the living room, and he said, 'I'm not going to Holy Cross. I'm going to the seminary.' My mother got up and hugged him."

Recalled as a humble man who relished ski trips to Austria and biking in Italy, Rev. Buckley also was an avid reader. He enjoyed the historic novels of James A. Michener and had recently finished the author's 900-page saga of the West, "Centennial."

Rev. Buckley's sister recounted a favorite family story of her brother's early compassion. She was a naughty 2-year-old ordered to stand in a corner when Tommy came inside for a drink of water and questioned her punishment.

"I don't remember what I did to deserve it, but his reply to my mother was, 'But Momma, she's only a baby,' " McMahon said. "He was our rock."

In 1961, Rev. Buckley was ordained by Cardinal Richard Cushing at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. His first assignment was at St. Mary Parish in Chelmsford.

In 1965, he went to St. Columbkille Parish in Brighton, where he stayed for 10 years.

And then Rev. Buckley returned to his roots. He was associate pastor of St. Francis of Assisi in Medford from 1975 to 1981, and he went to the neighboring parish of St. Clement in Somerville until 1983.

Rev. Buckley spent the next 12 years at St. Pius the Fifth Parish in Lynn.

His final years of team ministry - working in conjunction with another priest - were at Holy Family Parish in Amesbury after 1995. Since 2000, he worked with Rev. John "Jack" Gentleman. Rev. Buckley retired in January 2007 and was a senior priest for the parish.

"He was most proud of participating in team ministry," his brother John said. "That was the highlight of his life, being able to minister to the people of the different churches he was assigned to over the years."

Rev. Buckley was honored by the Holocaust Committee of the North Shore for his work to improve relations between the Jewish community and the Catholic Church. He also was a past president of the Lynn Clergy Association.

Sandra Jutras of Amesbury called him "one of the kindest people on the planet" who always made others feel important.

"He was gentle toward others, because he knew that no matter how outrageous their behavior, it was caused by a pain, a cross, they carried," Jutras said.

Recently, his brother asked him which parish had been his favorite. "He stated that he loved every one of them just as much as the other," John Buckley said.

Besides his brother and sister, Rev. Buckley leaves aunts Gertrude Lawler of Somerville and Dorothy Sullivan of Marshfield; and many nieces and nephews.

Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley presided at Rev. Buckley's Mass in St. Francis of Assisi on Monday. He was buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Medford.