It is with great sadness that we announce that Fr Paul Reid died unexpectedly in Airedale Hospital yesterday morning, Monday 8 June.
Please pray for the repose of Fr Paul’s soul and for all his family and friends at this time.
Details of the funeral arrangements will be available here in due course.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
Rev Fr Paul Reid RIP
Fr Paul Reid was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire on 11 December 1947. He was the fifth of ten children born to James and Bridget Reid. At the age of twelve he left his hometown to join the Junior Seminary at Ushaw College in County Durham. It was here that he studied for the priesthood. He was ordained on 9 June 1973 at St Malachy’s Church at Ovenden in Halifax. He never lost his attachment to his place of birth, exemplified above all by his life-long support of Halifax RLFC.
Fr Paul’s first appointment was to St Patrick’s parish, Leeds where he served as Assistant Priest from 1973-79. He then took up a temporary post as Secretary to the Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain, Archbishop Bruno Heim, at the Apostolic Delegation in London. He returned to the diocese in 1980 and spent a year at St Joseph’s, Bradford before studying at the Liturgical Institute of St Patrick’s College, at Carlow in Ireland.
Between 1982 and 1987 Fr Paul undertook a series of short-term appointments at parishes in Elland and Goole, and at St Nicholas’ parish, Mount St Mary’s and St Anne’s Cathedral in Leeds.
In 1987 Fr Paul became the Parish Priest of St Anne’s at Thornhill, Dewsbury. From 1990 to 1997 he was Parish Priest of St Joseph’s, Barnoldswick. He moved to St John’s, Normanton in 1997 and finally, in 2004, to the parish of Our Lady Immaculate, Pateley Bridge. His time there was brief, cut short by ill-health, and he was obliged to retire from parochial ministry in 2005.
Aside from his parish ministry Fr Paul made other significant contributions to the life of the diocese. He worked for the Diocesan Marriage Tribunal from 1979 until his death; he edited the Leeds Diocesan Directory from 1990 to 1999, and for many years he was Secretary of the Diocesan Liturgy Commission.
In retirement Fr Paul lived first at Moortown in Leeds before taking up residence at Mount St Joseph’s, Headingley in 2015. The closure of the home in 2024 led to him moving to Ellerbeck Court in Skipton. Throughout this time, he continued to exercise his priestly ministry, albeit in different ways: assisting at the Immaculate Heart Church, in Leeds; hearing confessions at the Cathedral; providing pastoral care at St Gemma’s Hospice; and joining wholeheartedly in the community life at Mount St Joseph’s and then at Ellerbeck Court.
Fr Paul was taken ill during the first week of June and admitted to Airedale Hospital on 5 June. It was here that he died suddenly on the morning of Monday 8 June, the day before the 53rd anniversary of his priestly ordination.
Following his death, one of his closest friends has said of Fr Paul, “Above all he loved being a priest and loved people. It was a sadness to him that his parish ministry could not be for longer but the Lord, who he was close to, found other work for him when he could not be in a parish. As he would say, Praise the Lord, for a life in His service”.
Fr Paul Reid was a beloved priest and a dear friend to many. As they mourn his passing, they will remember him with deep affection and with thanks to God for over half a century of devotion to the sacred priesthood and to the People of God.
May he rest in peace.
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