We share with sadness that Fr Bernard Charles SJ died on Sunday, 14th September, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. He was 82, in his 56th year of religious life.

Bernard was born in Leeds on 21 April 1943 and attended St Michael’s College. He studied at St Andrew’s University from 1962 to 1966 before entering the Jesuit novitiate in Edinburgh. While he could not continue at that time, in 1970 he re-entered the Society in Australia as a second-year novice, where his companionship and listening ear left a lasting impression. A fellow novice in Melbourne remembered: “At that time, novices were wont to break the demanding major silence at night by chatting with one another, but whenever I knocked on Bernard's door, a welcome awaited me – and sometimes a cigarette!” He is still warmly remembered in the Australian Province.

In 1972, Bernard returned to the UK to take his first vows at Loyola Hall, Rainhill. His studies in philosophy and theology at Heythrop College in London prepared him for a life of service. In 1976, he was sent to St Mary’s Seminary in Wau, Sudan, and then to St Xavier’s College in Kathmandu, Nepal. Later, after studying community development at Sussex University, he was missioned to the Friary in Liverpool in 1982, working in the Jesuit Centre for Faith & Justice. A companion from those years recalls Bernard’s extraordinary gift of presence and how he met young people on the streets and visited care homes, bringing a genuinely open, free, and attentive approach to everyone he met: “He had a remarkably good, open and free presence with people.”

In 1985 Bernard completed his tertianship in the Philippines and made his Final Vows in St Francis Xavier, Liverpool in 1990. After some years celebrating Mass there, he was amused to receive parishioners’ kind cards congratulating him and his companions on their ordinations, as Jesuit milestones are often opaque to those outside the Society.

He often had a bruised, melancholic aura, yet suddenly his mood could lighten, brightening a room with wit and anecdote. A fellow Jesuit who made Final Vows with Bernard remembers he loved to mimic a certain style of academic debate in an Oxbridge tone, where exaggerated courtesy failed to mask bitter rivalry: “Oh, how very true! On the other hand, one might say that…”

Yet beneath the humour, Bernard carried a deep attentiveness to what truly mattered and a steady moral compass, always attuned to the needs of those around him: “I have the sense that Benard struggled often enough with 'actuality' and constantly came through steadily on the side of the truly 'real', a fellow Jesuit reflected. “The few homilies I heard him give were remarkable pieces of well-connected wisdom - once in Stamford Hill and occasionally in Boscombe. And connected wisdom is a good reality!”

From 1991 to 1998, he served in Bristol and Stamford Hill. A fellow Jesuit at Stamford Hill recalled a memorable deanery outing to France that perfectly captured Bernard’s unhurried approach to life: “As we approached Dover I said to the people in my car, ‘Can I have your passports please?’ and Bernard replied, ‘Passports?’ So we all enjoyed a nice meal in France while Bernard had a pub lunch in Dover.”

In 2002, Bernard moved to Blackpool, where he and a fellow Jesuit were the last two to serve Sacred Heart parish after 150 years. His companion remembered: “Bernard had a beautiful gift of being alongside broken folk. The next time we were under the same roof was almost twenty years later here at the Corpus Christi Jesuit Community”. He returned to Stamford Hill in 2004.

Towards the end of 2016, Bernard moved to the Corpus Christi Jesuit Community in Boscombe, where he remained until his passing. Even as dementia advanced, his serene presence, impish smile, and sense of humour endured. In his final months, swallowing became difficult, but he was still able to receive the Eucharist, carefully prepared, until just days before his passing. Those who were with him remembered the privilege of his company and faith: “I was privileged to spend hours with him, anointed him a week before his death, and said my final, grateful goodbye the evening before he passed in the early hours on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.”

Fr Bernard Charles SJ will be remembered for his warmth, humour, and extraordinary gift for walking alongside people wherever they were in life. He touched lives across continents, and his memory will continue to inspire and comfort all who knew him.

May he rest in peace.

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Service information

Details of a memorial service for Fr. Bernard Charles SJ will be shared in due course.