Fr William Broderick, Jesuit priest, was born on September 11, 1928, and died on August 3, 2005, aged 76.
William Broderick was born in Listowel, Co Kerry. He first studied at the Catholic College in Preston, Lancashire. In 1947 he joined the Society of Jesus, studying at the Juniorate in Roehampton, Heythrop College in Oxfordshire and Campion Hall in Oxford.
From 1958 he lived for two years in Africa, teaching at St George’s College in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe), and at St Aidan’s College, Grahamstown, South Africa.
After returning to Britain he studied theology at Heythrop. He was subse quently ordained a priest in 1963, spending his tertianship at St Beuno’s in North Wales, to which he would later return. He was a teacher at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, from 1965 to 1970, and a rector there from 1977 to 1980, spending the interim period as rector to St Ignatius College in Enfield, Middlesex. Upon moving back to St Beuno’s in July 1981 Fr Broderick specialised in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola, becoming director of the retreat house by 1983.
In 1990 he was appointed director of the Craighead Spirituality Centre in Scotland and sat on the Scottish Conference of Major Religious Superiors, representing the Jesuit Provincial.
In 1997 he continued his Spiritual Exercise ministry when he moved to St Bede’s Pastoral Centre in York, and in his later years at the Mount Street Jesuit Centre in London.
Fr Broderick will be warmly remembered as one of the leading exponents of Ignatian spirituality.
Canon Herbert Veal, priest of the Archdiocese of Westminster, was born in December 1920, and died on July 22, 2005, aged 84.
Bert Veal was born near Harrogate and grew up there and later in Mill Hill. He became an officer in the Royal Navy, receiving a Distinguished Service Medal for his wartime activities.
After the war he attended Beda College in Rome and was ordained a priest on March 17, 1956. Following his first appointment as an assistant priest to St Peter and St Paul, Northfields, he became a chaplain at the cathedral. He was then appointed the headmaster of the Cathedral Choir School.
By 1968 he had been appointed a diocesan director of Catholic schools. Fr Bert was appointed a member of the Chapter in the summer of 1976. Later that year he became the parish priest of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St George, Enfield. At this time, he established Katimavik, a weekly prayer and social outreach group for young people.
From 1981 he spent 10 years in Freetown in Sierra Leone, founding a diocesan youth programme. He then returned to Britain, becoming the parish priest of St Mary’s, Cadogan Street, Chelsea. Canon “Bert” retired in 1996 but continued to minister at several churches. His final appointment was at St Joan of Arc, Highbury.
He suffered from motor neurone disease and was admitted to St Joseph’s Hospice, Hackney, and Nazareth House, Hammersmith, where he spent the final months of his life.
He will be remembered as a strong and hardworking priest who showed great solidarity with the poor and affirmed the laity in their ministry.