It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Fr Michael Nealon who died in Calderdale Royal Hospital on the afternoon of Thursday 8 December, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Please pray for the repose of Fr Michael’s soul and for his family and friends at this time.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS
Monday 19 December 6.30pm, Reception into Church of Fr Michael’s body and Mass at St Theresa’s Church, Queensbury (Russell Road, Queensbury, BD13 2AN).
Tuesday 20 December 12 noon, Requiem Mass for Fr Michael at St Malachy’s Church, Halifax, (Nursery Lane , Halifax, HX3 5NS) followed by burial at Queensbury Cemetery.
Fr Michael Nealon RIP
Fr Michael Nealon was born in Leeds on 16 August 1938. He came from a well-known family in the parish of St Joseph, Hunslet. His parents were Maurice and Kathleen Nealon, and he was the second of their six children – four girls and two boys. His younger brother Peter would also become a priest of the Diocese of Leeds. At the age of ten Michael joined the Guild of St Stephen and took on the role of Altar Server at St Joseph’s.
Fr Michael was educated at St Joseph’s School, Hunslet before entering the Junior Seminary at Ushaw College in County Durham in 1952, where he undertook his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained at Leeds Cathedral on 12 June 1965.
His first appointment was as Assistant Priest at St Marie’s, Sheffield but after a few months he was transferred to St Joseph’s, Bradford where he remained until 1971. In that year he moved to St Patrick’s, Huddersfield. In 1979 he became a Parish Priest when Bishop Wheeler appointed him to St Joseph’s, Pontefract. In 1986 he became Parish Priest of St William’s, Bradford where he served until 1994 when Bishop Konstant appointed him to the parish of St Theresa at Queensbury. Fr Nealon was to remain there for the next twenty-two years until his retirement from active ministry in 2016.
By then such was his attachment to Queensbury that Fr Nealon decided to retire there and continued to reside in the presbytery after the amalgamation of St Theresa’s with the parish of St Bernard, Halifax. He died in hospital in Halifax after a short illness, and just a few weeks after attending the annual Mass for deceased bishops and clergy at the Cathedral, along with his brother Fr Peter Nealon.
Fr Michael was known throughout the diocese as a dedicated priest, and a good and gentle man. He will be mourned by his family and friends and by the people of St Theresa’s, Queensbury, to whom he was their priest and their friend for more than two decades. At the same time, he never forgot his roots in Hunslet, and the parish of St Joseph. Writing in 2004 he recalled growing up in a community instilled with the spirit of generosity and welcome, that was nourished and encouraged in particular by the Sisters of Mercy. It was a spirit, he said, for which he was profoundly grateful and he was deeply indebted to all those who fostered that aspect of his early life, not least his own parents and his family.
May he rest in peace.
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