Fr Paul Connor CJ RIP
The Josephites regret to announce the death of Fr Paul Connor cj, at 7.30 pm on Saturday 20 March 2010 at Sunbury Nursing Homes in England. His two sisters were holding his hands at his bedside as he took his last breath.
Paul’s death comes one year and one day after his heart originally stopped for 45 minutes in Torbay Hospital from which he never fully recovered.
Before his death, Paul received all that the Roman Catholic Church could offer him to prepare him for his death.
Fr Paul, an Old Georgian, was the first Old Boy of Barrow Hills (our former Josephite Boys’ Boarding Prep School) to be ordained as a Josephite Priest. He was also for a time the Regional Superior of England and a Governor of St George’s College and the Junior School.
Fr Paul was involved in pastoral roles in the College. He was one of the few Josephites to have been Housemaster of the White House, Red House and Kean House at St George’s College, Weybridge in England. He also served as Chaplain to the College.
He excelled as a sports’ coach at the College. Apart from coaching all age groups at the College in rugby and hockey, Paul was, for a time, an England Schoolboys’ hockey selector.
He served twice in the Army as a Chaplain including tours to Northern Ireland during the height of the troubles.
More recently he has been serving as a priest in the Diocese of Plymouth, initially setting up our Josephite community in Kinson, Bournemouth and then later in the Parish of Brixham in Devon.
Fr Paul had a great love for Lourdes and the work of the ‘Across Trust’ and led many pilgrimages to Lourdes including the SGC ‘Across’ Easter Pilgrimages to Lourdes by Jumbulance. (This tradition continues with the Lower Sixth at the College who now go to Lourdes with the HCPT pilgrimage). He was also very much involved with ‘Wogle’ (Weybridge Old Georgians’ Lourdes Experience) which still takes a group of handicapped pilgrims to Lourdes each July.
The funeral of Fr Paul will be held at St George’s College, Weybridge Road on Friday 26th March at 2pm.
Please pray for Paul, his family and the Josephites.
