Brief History:

In 1967, Richard Cardinal Cushing invited Rev. Francis Li from Hong Kong, who was fluent in several Chinese dialects, to St. James Church as Assistant Pastor. This formalized the Archdiocese's mission and plan to include immigrant and native-born Chinese as an integral part of its ministry. Fr. Li was BCCC's leader from 1967-1970. His pioneering work was succeeded by Fr. Walter Martin, SJ, Fr. Tom Szeliga, SDB, Fr. Stanley Pavlin, SDB, Fr. Lucas Leung, OFM, and Fr. John Hines, MM. From 1992 to 2002, Fr. Denis Como, SJ, served as the chaplain of BCCC and the Director of the Chinese Catholic Pastoral Center. From fall 2003 to spring 2006, Fr. Anselm Lam was the Spiritual Advisor of BCCC. From Oct 30, 2007 to Aug 23, 2009, Fr. Thomas Kopp was the Pastor of St. James. From Aug 24, 2009 to Sep 18, 2019, Msgr. Kevin O'Leary, Rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, was the Administrator of St. James. Fr. Peter Shen served as the Parochial Vicar of St. James and the Spiritual Director of the BCCC from Jun 1, 2010 to May 31, 2018. On Jun 1, 2018, Fr. Joseph Zhang, AA, was assigned the Parochial Vicar of St. James and the Spiritual Director of the BCCC. On Sep 19, 2019, Fr. Joseph Zhang, AA, became the Administrator of St. James.

The BCCC serves all Chinese Catholics from the Archdiocese of Boston even though its hosts/anchor church is at St. James the Greater, Boston (Chinatown), Massachusetts. The majority of BCCC members come from the Greater Boston area, but some live as far south as Mansfield, Brockton, Randolph and Rockland; as far west as Marlborough, Framingham and Sudbury; and as far north as Lowell, and Nashua, New Hampshire.

BCCC has a registered membership list of over 300 families consisting of more than 1,000 people. The predominant dialects are Cantonese and Mandarin, followed by Fujianese and Toishanese.