In 1995, Father MacDonald was assigned to the newly-created St. Clare Parish, where he was appointed parochial administrator, serving in that role until he was appointed pastor in 1996. He served there from 1995 to 2007, during which time he coordinated the building of St. Clare Church and witnessed the tremendous growth of he parish community.

When he arrived, the parish, which serves the western part of Roseville and Antelope areas, was in the midst of plans to build a new church. “We had a very young community with about 200 attending Sunday Mass,” he recalled in a story in The Catholic Herald in July 2007, when he retired from active ministry. “Watching the community grow was an incredible experience.”

In the years prior to the dedication of the new St. Clare Church in 2002, Masses were held at various times in a tent, a school, a community church and members’ homes. When the 28,000-square-foot church of Spanish-colonial mission design was dedicated, the parish had grown to more than 800 families.

Prior to becoming a priest of the Sacramento Diocese, Father MacDonald a member of the De La Salle Christian Brothers, serving in their educational ministries for 22 years. He first served in the Diocese of Sacramento in the 1960s, and later as assistant principal of Christian Brothers High School during the 1969-1970 school year. After serving for four more years at Christian Brothers’ high schools in Milwaukee, Ore., and Concord, Calif., he followed a desire to celebrate Mass and administer the sacraments and discerned a vocation to the priesthood. In 1977, he entered St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park for studies until September 1981.

Following his ordination to the priesthood at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in 1981, he served as parochial vicar of St. Rose Parish in Sacramento from 1982 to 1987, and then as parochial vicar of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Roseville from 1987 to 1990. His first pastorate was at All Hallows Parish in Sacramento, from 1990 to 1994.

Fr. macDonald died Feb. 22, 2013 at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael. He was 74.