DEATHS & OBITUARIES Obituaries Fr Rodger Charles was born on 11 October 1929 in Leeds and went to school at St Michael’s College in the city. His National Service in the Royal Artillery was cut short by his father’s ill health so he worked in his father’s building business for two years before he applied to study at Campion House in Osterley. In September 1953, he entered the Society of Jesus at Harlaxton in Lincolnshire, continuing his studies at Roehampton and Campion Hall, Oxford, where he achieved a Diploma in Politics and Economics. His theology studies were followed by a Doctorate in Industrial Sociology. From 1968, Fr Charles taught at Heythrop College which, at that time, was in Oxfordshire. He founded the Institute of Social Ethics in 1970 and taught the postgraduate diploma in Social Ethics at Campion Hall and Plater College. By this time, he had already had two books published – Man, Industry and Society and The Christian Social Conscience. He would go on to write a further seven volumes, largely on Catholic Social Teaching and Christian Ethics. Writing became one of Fr Charles’ main activities during his time at Campion Hall, Oxford, and in the USA where, between 1987 and 1992, he also taught at the St Ignatius Institute in the University of San Francisco. Fr Charles’ latter years were spent in Bognor Regis and Mount Street in central London, before he retired to the Corpus Christi Jesuit Community in Dorset. He died there on 27 May 2012, at the age of 82. Br Bernard Elliot SJ was born in Macclesfield on 20 May 1929 and went to school at St John’s, Alton, and then Cotton College in Staffordshire. On leaving school, he served his National Service with the Royal Artillery, largely as an instructor of radar, before working in marketing and advertising in the
confectionery trade. Bernard entered the Society of Jesus at Harlaxton, Lincs, in 1963, at the age of 34, and studied administrative skills and economics at Campion Hall in Oxford; both his father and younger brother had been accountants. After taking his vows as a brother in 1965, he spent four years at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire as sacristan, and returned there in 1973 after his tertianship at Corby Hall in Sunderland. From 1976, he was Master to the Lower Grammar boys at Stonyhurst, before being appointed to work in the Jesuit parish of St George’s in Worcester. After a brief term at the Community Centre in Boscombe, Dorset, Bernard moved in 1979 to Heythrop College in London, where his collaboration with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) began. For the next 32 years, he was to assist, work with and listen to refugees, detainees and asylum seekers through JRS, based first in Brixton, then Osterley, near Heathrow; and then in various parts of London Stamford Hill, London Bridge and finally, at the Hurtado Jesuit Centre in Wapping. Bernard’s final years were spent as a member of the Wimbledon Jesuit Community, living in Feltham, Middlesex. He was admitted to St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey on 19 March 2012 and died there on 2 April 2012. Fr Bernard Parkin SJ was born and died in North London. The two events were 90 years apart but between them Bernard lived a full and active ministry in Jesuit parishes and schools, as well as being involved with the province administration and archives. He was born in Tottenham on 25 May 1922, the only boy of three children. His first encounter with the Jesuits was at St Ignatius College in Stamford Hill, where he spent seven years as a student. On leaving school in 1940, he took up studies at University College,
London, and was awarded a degree in electrical engineering with first class honours. This led to him spending three years as an electrical officer in the Navy. After the Second World War, Bernard was employed in development and research in applied physics, first with His Master’s Voice (HMV) and then in the Scientific Civil Service. He spent 10 years in this line of work before applying to enter the Society of Jesus, which he did in 1956. His studies in philosophy and theology took him not only to Heythrop College in Oxfordshire, but also to Warwick University. During the early years of his formation as a Jesuit, he taught physics and chemistry at St George’s College in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and on completion of his studies and his ordination to the priesthood in 1964, he spent five years as Chaplain at Keele University in Staffordshire. Bernard served as Socius (Assistant) to the British Provincial between 1972 and 1979, during which time he was also Vice (or Acting) Provincial on several occasions. He was appointed parish priest at Symonds Green in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in 1979 and was chaplain to two schools during this period. The following year, he moved to Brixton in South London, where he was parish priest at Corpus Christi Church until 1988. During his six years as Rector at St Wilfrid’s Church in Preston (1988 to 1994), Bernard was Chairman of the Governors of Stonyhurst College in Lancashire. For the next 14 years, he resided close to his place of birth – at St Ignatius Church in Stamford Hill, where he worked as librarian, writer and archivist. In 2008, he moved to St Anne’s Home in Stoke Newington where he was cared for by the Little Sisters of the Poor. He died there on 5 April 2012.
Please pray for those who have died recently. May they rest in peace. Mrs Joan Mary Hanlon Mrs Rosemary Ash Mr Terry Weiler Mrs Louisa Pimentel-Pinto Ms Maura Scannell Mrs Elizabeth Montgomery Mr Joe Gilhooly Mrs Mary Lou Humphries Mr John Ward Sr Eilish Curristin Mr John MacGinley Mrs M Swinnerton Miss Catherine Walsh 22
Mrs Joyce Lankester Mr Leo Jacobs Mrs Eileen Clews Mrs Eileen Smolira – mother of Fr David Smolira SJ Mrs Rosemary Read – sister of Fr Brian Enright SJ Mr Joseph Gaughan – cousin of Fr Peter McArdle SJ and Br Vincent McArdle SJ Mr John Granger-Banyard – brother of Fr Peter (Bertie) Granger-Banyard Mrs Catherine Harrison – mother of Philip Harrison SJ
Jesuits & Friends Summer 2012 www.jesuitsandfriends.org.uk
Inacio De Mello – brother of Fr Joachim De Mello SJ Mrs Helena Randall – mother of Fr Peter Randall SJ Mr Charles Mitchell – brother of Fr Gerard Mitchell SJ Fr Rodger Charles SJ Fr John McQuade SJ Brother Bernard Elliot SJ Father Bernard Parkin SJ Father Jacob Srampickal SJ