Fr. Robert Ignatius Bradley, SJ, died December 20 at the Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, Calif. He was 89. A longtime reader and supporter of The Wanderer, Fr. Bradley spoke at the Eighth Annual National Wanderer Forum, 1972, on “The Sacrament of Penance and the Immutable Truth of the Catholic Faith.”
Born May 15, 1924, in Spokane, Wash., he was the son of Joseph Bradley and Muriel (Wicks) Bradley, one of eight children in a Catholic family that produced four priests. He served in the Diocese of Austin, Texas, from 1996 until November 2013, when the Society of Jesus moved him to California.
Fr. Bradley graduated from Gonzaga High School in Spokane in June 1941 and immediately entered the Society of Jesus at their novitiate in Sheridan, Ore. He studied at Mount St. Michael’s, earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and master’s in history.
From 1949 to 1950, Father Bradley taught history at Gonzaga University, where he coached the debate team and was yearbook adviser. From 1951 to 1952, he taught Latin and history at Gonzaga High School, served as director of forensics and yearbook moderator and led the debate team to win three statewide championships.
Fr. Bradley was sent to Louvain, Belgium, for theology studies and was ordained to the priesthood August 15, 1955. He received a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University and taught history in the College of Arts and Sciences at Seattle University and also served as dean of that college. Later, he accepted a position as professor of theology at St. John’s University in Long Island and became chaplain for the newly founded Catholics United for the Faith (CUF), serving for 30 years.
Fr. Bradley left St. John’s in 1981 to teach theology at the Notre Dame Institute in Arlington, now the Graduate School of Christendom College in Alexandria. Every summer he directed the catechetical institute at Our Lady of Peace Monastery in Beaverton, Ore.
In addition to serving as chaplain to the Poor Clares in Alexandria, Va., he worked with the Legion of Mary.
After a year in Rome, he received a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in 1988.
While in Virginia, Fr. Bradley coauthored a translation of The Catechism of the Council of Trent with Msgr. Eugene Kevane. He is the author of The Roman Catechism in the Catechetical Tradition of the Church published in 1990. Fr. Bradley wrote dozens of magazine articles for Lay Witness and Homiletic and Pastoral Review, as well as articles in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
In 1996 he accepted an adjunct faculty position at the University of Dallas Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies and taught there for several years while serving as a priest in the Diocese of Austin.
Fr. Bradley retired from active ministry in late 2011 and worked as a spiritual adviser until his transfer to California.
During his years in Austin, Fr. Bradley inspired six young men to enter the seminary and helped many young people enter the Church, drawing them from the University of Texas to his Sunday Latin Mass liturgies at St. Mary’s Cathedral.
A fourth-degree Knight of Columbus, he conducted lectures on theology and worked as a volunteer chaplain for 13 years with the Texas Crime Stoppers Council, most recently serving with Hill Country Area Crime Stoppers.
A vigil service was held January 8 at the Jesuit House Chapel at Gonzaga University in Spokane, with the funeral Mass following January 9. Burial will take place in the Jesuit cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Fr. Bradley’s name to the Monastery of the Poor Clares, 2505 Stonehedge Drive, Alexandria, VA 22306.
May this servant of God rest in peace.
(Slightly different versions of this obituary appeared in The Arlington Catholic Herald and in The Austin American-Statesman.)
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