File 9 - General Chapter of 1941: Letter of the Newly-Elected Superior General

Monsignor John Edward McRae was born April 9, 1875 at Moulinette, Ontario. After schooling and further studies at Cornwall, St. Michael’s College in Toronto and at Montreal’s Grand Seminary, he was ordained July 17, 1898. Once he had acquired a Roman doctorate in Canon Law, Fr. McRae served as an assistant and later as pastor of parishes in the diocese of Alexandria, Ontario. In 1922 he became rector of St. Finnian’s Cathedral in Alexandria and Chancellor of the diocese.

In August, 1924, he accepted an invitation from the governing bishops to assume the post of president of the China Mission College in Scarborough. The next month, September, 1924 the newly relocated college – now called a “seminary” - was formally opened with McRae in charge. For the next 17 years, he remained in this position. In 1939, in recognition of his labour, McRae was named a “Domestic Prelate” by Rome with the title of “Right Rev. Monsignor”. At the first General Chapter of the newly autonomous Society in 1941 he was elected by his peers as the first Superior General, a position he occupied until his retirement in 1949.

From 1949 onwards, McRae lived in retirement at Scarboro. Despite the eventual loss of his vision, he continued to celebrate mass until his death on February 5, 1955 in his 80th year. Monsignor McRae is buried in St. Andrew’s R.C. cemetery, St. Andrews West, Ontario, in the diocese of Cornwall-Alexandria.