Fr Isaias Gerard Capaldi SJ 1910 - 2002
Isaias Capaldi Was born in Glasgow in 1910 in a Scottish-Italian family. At the age of 18 he decided to become a Jesuit and joined the Naples Provine of the Society of Jesus. He did most of his studies in Italy, as well as working for a time at Vatican Radio, presenting English and French programmes.
He completed his Jesuit training in England just before the war, and became "applied" to the British Province of the Society of Jesus. His first appointment was in 1940 as a curate to the Sacred Heart Church, Lauriston, Edinburgh, to which he added many other activities, including his work as a chaplain to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and as a chaplain to the prisoners of war located in East Scotland.
In 1957 Fr Capaldi was appointed superior of the Jesuit staff at the parish of St Mary's on the Quay, Bristol: and six years later in 1963 he began what was to his major apostolate, a 28 year period as parish priest in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. Here he built on the pioneering work of his predecessor, Fr Joseph Ryland-Whittaker SJ, served a small Catholic community in a strongly Protestant environment, conducted a liverly correspondence on the claims of the Catholic Church in the Stornoway Gazette and did much to improve ecumenical relations. The climax of his work was the opening in May 1991 of a new church of the Holy Redeemer for the now flourishing Catholic parish in Stornoway.
The following year Fr Capaldi, now aged 82, returned to his first apostolate, the Sacred Heart in Edinburgh, where he had already served 16 years. Here he helped occasionally in the church until his health deteriorated and last year he moved to Nazereth House, where he was dovotedly looked after until his peaceful death on 13th June 2002, aged 92.
In addition to his apparently boundless apostolic energy, Fr Capaldi possessed notable artistic gifts, shown in his founding and directing for four years the Endinburgh amateur dramatic company, the Della Strada Players (dedicated to Our Lady of the Wayside, the first Jesuit Church in Rome), and by his various writing , notably a life of the foundress of the Helpers of the Holy Souls, Blessed Mary of Providence, and an imaginative biography, Andrew of Galilee.
The Requim Mass for Fr Capaldi, at which Archbishop O'Brien presided took place in the Sacred Heart Church, Edinburgh, on Friday 20th June. His remains were laid to rest in Mount Vernon Cemetery in the Jesuit section.
Fr Capaldi lived a long and very active life in the service of his lord. Requiescat in pace - rest in peace!
"Lord, teach me to be generous; To serve You as You deserve;
To give, and not to count the cost; To fight, and not to heed the wounds;
To toil, and not to crave for rest; To labour, and not to look for any reward,
save that of knowing that I do Your Most Holy Will."
St Ignatius of Loyola