31/05/2026
It is with sadness that we report Fr Paul Hackett SJ died in the early hours of Tuesday 26th May. He was 96 years old and in the 80th year of religious life. May he rest in peace.
Paul was born in Boscombe on 20th February 1930 to his father, Arthur, and mother, Anne Mary, and was baptised at Corpus Christi, Boscombe. After school in Southbourne, Paul entered the Society of Jesus in 1946 at Roehampton in London. He was one of three brothers (including Peter and Mark) to enter the British Province.
After a Juniorate also at Roehampton, Paul studied philosophy at Heythrop in Oxfordshire, followed by a teaching course. He then worked in Regency as a teacher at St John’s Beaumont and at St Michael’s College in Leeds. Theology studies followed at Heythrop where, as was common then, he was ordained deacon and priest in quick succession in 1961.
Paul’s tertianship was at Paray-le-Monial in France in 1963. He then went to work for several years at the Holy Name in Manchester, before a spell as Superior and priest in Boscombe. In 1977, Paul took his final vows in the Society.
In the early 1980s, Paul went to the university chaplaincy in Cardiff where he studied the Welsh language and did supply work. After another spell in Manchester, he began his long period of service in Scotland, starting at St Aloysius Church in Glasgow and then at various places including Stornoway, Oban, Lochgilphead, St Andrew’s and as parish priest at Kingussie.
The final move of his long life as a Jesuit was to Preston in 2018, where he assisted in the parish until infirmity no longer allowed him to do so.
Please pray for the repose of his soul and for those who mourn his passing.
