March 11, 2026

By Darcy Fargo
Editor

“(Msgr. C. John ‘CJ’ McAvoy) was a very pastoral man,” said Bishop Douglas J. Lucia, bishop of the Diocese of Syracuse. “I was always impressed by how he was very much one who wanted to encourage the laity to get involved. And he was involved; he didn’t sit on the sidelines. He was very active as a parish priest. He was down to earth, and very much about serving the people. That was his whole priesthood.”

Msgr. McAvoy died Thursday, March 5 at St. Joseph’s Home in Ogdensburg. He was 88.

Bishop Lucia said he served as parochial vicar in Plattsburgh for three years when Msgr. McAvoy was pastor there.

“I remember sitting at the breakfast table with him one day, and I told him I was born in 1963,” Bishop Lucia recalled. “He told me he was ordained in 1963. He used to say I knew how to make him feel depressed. I always knew how long he was a priest, and he always knew my age.”

It was during Bishop Lucia’s time as a parochial vicar in Plattsburgh that Msgr. McAvoy was named a Prelate of Honor with the title monsignor.

“He was so embarrassed about receiving that title,” Bishop Lucia said. “His idea was that he was just doing what he was called to do – service. He served at St. John’s in Plattsburgh, but he also served and was very involved in Plattsburgh. He was involved in Rotary, and he was very civic and community minded.”

Bishop Lucia said Msgr. McAvoy, originally from Madrid, “never forgot his roots.”

“He spoke lovingly of his parents and all that he learned on the farm, the family homestead,” he said. “And he lived that out. He was always close to his family and really wanted his parish to be that – a family.”

Jim Dowdle, a childhood neighbor of the McAvoy family, said it was that family connection that he also recalled fondly.

“He was a kind man,” Dowdle said. “A very, very hardworking man to my recollection.”

Dowdle said he grew up on a farm a short distance from the McAvoy farm.

“The McAvoys were neighbors,” he said. “We were all dairy farmers. He was the youngest of the family. I remember (Msgr. McAvoy) working on the farm – doing chores and haying. It was hard work.”

Dowdle said he fondly recalled the time around when his neighbor was ordained to the priesthood.

“After he was ordained, he had his first Mass in Madrid,” Dowdle said. “I was only 5 or 6 years old. I remember going to the McAvoy home for a celebration after, and his chalice was on the table. That stuck with me. He was a very faithful man. He was a caring man – just a nice man.” A complete obituary was not available ahead of NCC press time. It will be in next week’s edition.