By Gretchen Keiser

Father Jack White, the pastor of a large parish in one of the poorest areas of Kingston, Jamaica, was found beaten to death in his rectory last week.

Father White, who was 39 years old, had come to Kingston in September 1981 from the Boston archdiocese as part of a program that lent priests to areas of need. At St. Richard’s parish in Kingston, where he served for little more than a year, he was the only priest in a parish of 700 families, probably the largest parish in the Kingston archdiocese to be served by a single priest.

He was known personally to several people in the Atlanta archdiocese connected to the work of Food for the Poor, Inc., a Florida-based organization trying to make links between the church in the United States and parishes in Jamaica and Haiti. A friend of Ferdinand Mahfood, the Catholic layman who heads Food for the Poor, Father White had helped to guide people from Florida and Atlanta who went to Kingston to see the needs of the area firsthand. During those trips, including one which I participated in last October, the safety of the group in certain dangerous areas was assured because of the presence of priests like Father White, whose work among the poor was known to the people and respected. Twice in the neighborhood of Father White’s parish, we were stopped by police who questioned our safety there, but because of his presence let us stay.

A burly and gregarious man, he was reserved about himself during the trip, saying only that he was a late vocation to the priesthood after working for the John Hancock life insurance company in Boston. News accounts of his death revealed that he was a cousin of Boston Mayor Kevin White and a 1965 graduate of Holy Cross College who had worked in three suburban parishes near Boston before receiving permission from Cardinal Humberto Medeiros to serve in Kingston. The church, school and rectory where he was working had been built with the aid of Cardinal Richard Cushing, Boston archbishop who died in 1970.

Father White’s body was found at the rectory the morning of Feb. 2 by an altar boy and a housekeeper. A bloodied sledge hammer was found in a room near the body, police said. Investigators said a motive for the killing was unclear.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Feb. 7 for Father White at St. Christine’s parish in Marshfield, Mass. where he had served before going to Jamaica. Cardinal Medeiros and Archbishop Samuel E. Carter of Kingston concelebrated the mass. A memorial Mass was celebrated at the Kingston cathedral Feb. 9 Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga said he was “shocked and grieved” by the slaying.