When John Macauley joined the novitiate in 1950, he was following the same path as his brother Desmond, who was eleven years his senior. Desmond had, by a rather perverse quirk, taken John as his monastic name. So there were, briefly, two John Macauleys in the monastery, until the real John was clothed as Br Charles.
Two Macauleys represented quite a formidable double presence. Fr John had acquired (strictly within the circle of his monastic friends) the nickname of ‘Deus Omnipotens,’ the implication being that he was temperamentally inclined to think that, on any given topic, he had all the answers, which he would deliver in a somewhat lordly and definitive way. He was, at the same time, a ‘good community man’ - loyal, good-humoured, gregarious and actively concerned for the well-being of his brethren and of the boys in his charge.
The medley of qualities was a robust one, and it soon became clear that Br. Charles was not at all unlike his brother. He was one of a large group of novices, most of whom scarcely knew each other before joining, and several of whom were a good deal older. The process by which such a group, living in the context of a ‘closed’ novitiate (i.e. with little day-to-day contact with the rest of the community) becomes a relatively harmonious unit is always an interesting one. Charles was quick to become engaged in the social dynamics of the group. He related to others in a sociable, lively and very direct way. The niceties of diplomacy were never much to his taste. He was impatient with anything he considered to be false or insincere, and he was not slow to speak his mind. This meant that the strong friendships which he formed, not only in the novitiate but throughout his life, tended to be punctuated (and also tested) by challenging confrontations. It was almost as if he set out, in the course of getting to know people, to be, from time to time, brusque, dismissive or intolerant, in order to test the firmness and the authenticity of the relationship.
This approach had its drawbacks and its victims. There would always be some who, having encountered a withering Macauley broadside, would feel permanently estranged by what appeared to be yet another example of clerical intolerance. This was unfortunate, because it was a perception that stopped short of the truth. Behind the mask, which could be so disconcertingly confrontational, there lay a somewhat different person - perceptive and generous in his concern for others, and with an unusual gift for communicating the values of the Gospel across a wide range of pastoral contexts. This was to become apparent, time and time again, throughout his monastic and priestly life.
After the novitiate, Charles spent three years at St Benet’s Hall, Oxford, studying English. He did not complete his degree (academic examinations were not his forte) but he gained much from the experience - in particular a warm and very hands-on sympathy, as tutor and teacher of less able boys, a life-long friendship with his university tutors and (something he rarely drew attention to) an enduring love of poetry.
His contribution to the school and to the resident community, from 1956 to 1993 was, in one particular respect, altogether remarkable. Apart from a limited involvement in academic teaching and games, it consisted almost entirely of a deep and exacting commitment to a group of overlapping roles ‘behind the scenes’.
To say that this work was ‘extracurricular’ is to miss the point. In a rural boarding school like Ampleforth, the boys spent a great deal of time outside the classroom, and (if they were lucky) found a great deal of delight and pastoral support in the company of the monks who inhabited these largely informal zones, in which the hierarchical structure of the school was not very evident. Charles taught carpentry for 26 years: he was a skilled craftsman in the Thompson tradition of English oak, and he imparted these skills to generations of boys, who carried forward into their future lives both a capacity to be extremely useful around the house and a good deal of homely wisdom as well. He was at the same time Manager of the School Shop, which became a second home for a succession of teams of dedicated assistants. In both these areas, Charles became mentor, guide and lifelong friend of many boys. He had a natural gift of humorous courtesy in his relations with the young, conferring on them a sense of unstrained equality, and abstaining altogether from the more conflictive aspects of his character to which his monastic brethren were occasionally subjected. He had a particular sympathy for boys who were not ‘high-flyers’ in the more public areas of school life, partly because he always accepted, with self- deprecating serenity, that he was not a high-flyer himself.
For 32 years he was assistant Secretary of the College Beagles. This gave him a rich contact, not only with another group of very committed boys, but also with the extensive and beautiful ‘Ampleforth country’ and the remarkable people who lived in it. He and Fr Walter were hugely loved by this special community This was a pastoral outreach which Charles cherished with particular warmth.
This was not the only bridge between Ampleforth and the local community for which Charles was largely responsible. As Fire Officer (also for 26 years), he may have been viewed by the brethren as something of a martinet, arranging spectacular practices at inconvenient times, but he made the Ampleforth Fire Brigade into a much respected local institution, establishing warm relations (which obviated many potential difficulties) with the County Services. The occasional incidents which required calling them out were cheerfully transformed by Fr Charles into opportunities for cheery hospitality.
There were two other areas in which Charles made a special, if unspectacular, contribution to the community and to the school. In his early years (during the completion and consecration of the Abbey Church) he was assistant Master of Ceremonies. The MC (Fr, later Bishop, Ambrose) remembers not only his commitment to liturgical detail but also his ability to enliven complex rehearsals with shafts of wry humour. In his later years he willingly (but at some cost) gave up his pastoral work in the school in order to become School Guestmaster. Working closely with the Headmaster’s Department, he became an expert at putting prospective parents at ease, charming their nervous sons and making the school guestroom a welcoming haven for Old Boys and for a host of other visitors. But he also (once again behind the scenes) took on the responsibility for the pastoral care of the staff of the Upper Building. He knew them all as friends, helped their children with their homework, and took endless pains to make everyone feel part of a living community.
This was a quality which he took with him when, in 1993, he was again uprooted and sent to the Ampleforth parish in Leyland. He spent only three years there, but in that short time he made an immense impact, especially perhaps as Chaplain in St Mary’s School, whose headmaster was almost at a loss for words when he attempted to recall a pastoral involvement which high-lighted Charles’s cheerful and unselfconscious grasp of the link between things sacred and secular: ‘Hospitality, laughter, conversation, dedication, caring, fruitcake, friendship, Mass, theology, walled gardens, beagles, fire engines, prayer .... etc.’ This informal tribute captures particularly well the essence of a pastoral vision which was rooted in the celebration of a divine love which reveals itself both in the Eucharist and in the delights of ordinary life.
In 1996, he succeeded his brother, Fr John, as Parish Priest of Easingwold. He was sad to leave Leyland, and always retained close links with many parishioners; but, as always, he was quick to accept a fresh challenge. He made light of the fact that, by now, he was quite a sick man. He had suffered a major heart attack whilst beagling on the Moors in 1988. His reaction had been to sit on a clump of heather and light a cigarette, before returning to his work as Guestmaster. In 1992 he underwent double by-pass surgery, and from then on his visits to hospital were frequent, not only for heart-related problems but also for viral pneumonia and for injured limbs.
Twice, he was a reluctant but cheerful patient in the monastic infirmary, but always returned with renewed energy to Easingwold, where he was very active, not only in the parish but also ecumenically. Between 1998 and 2002 he was Chairman of the Easingwold and District Christian Council and of the Easingwold Town Churches. Charles’s ecumenical instinct reflected a complexity in his theological roots which often surprised those who did not know him well: he was at one level a ‘traditional’ Catholic, very much at home with the piety with which he had grown up; but he was well-versed in the main theological thrust of Vatican II (particularly with regard to the role of the laity) and he was very open and non-judgmental among those from different traditions, with whom he found yet another opportunity to exercise warm hospitality.
This hospitality, through these years, extended to many outside his immediate area of responsibility, including (in a very special and loving way) to his own family and to several couples whom he had prepared for marriage. His American niece, Andrea, remembers the ‘marvellous combination of humour and gravity’ of their theological pub lunches and his concern to familiarise her and her American husband, not only with the mysteries of God but with those of cricket, complementing his reflections on the marvels of the Mass with the gift of a book entitled What is a googlyT. Unlike most men, he was a very thoughtful shopper when it came to selecting the right gift for the right occasion.
Many of his close friends have commented that even his flaws - his occasional cantankerousness, his tendency to lay down the law and to see things in black and white when others saw shades of grey, his over-hasty judgment of complex issues - made him all the more human and accessible: ‘he was not perfect, but he was such fun to be with...’
He was diagnosed as suffering from lung cancer shortly after spending some time in the Monastery infirmary with a broken wrist. He had hoped to convalesce in Leyland, but instead returned to the Abbey to face death with great tranquility. When the District Nurse visited him as he was dying, she remarked breezily as she was leaving, ‘Well, I’m off then’. Charles smiled and said, ‘So am I’. May he rest in peace.
John M CHARLES Macauley
1932 January 27 b. London
Ed. Ampleforth & Gilling (1942)
1950 September 24 Habit at Ampleforth - Abbot Byrne
1951 September 25 Simple Vows Abbot Byrne
1952 January 3 Tonsure " "
1954 September 25 Solemn Vows " "
1956 December 31 Minor Orders " "
1957 January 2 Minor Orders " "
1957 July 21 Subdeacon Bishop Brunner
1958 July 20 Deacon " "
1959 July 19 Priest " "
1953-1956 St Benet's Hall, Oxford
1956-1967 Assistant MC, Fire Squad
1960-1984 Manager School Shop
1956-1988 Ass. Sec Beagles
1959-1985 Fire Officer
1962-1983 Master in charge of Carpentry
1983-1993 Member North Yorks Fire Liaison Committee
1986-1993 Chairman North Yorks Fire Liaison Committee
1984-1993 School Guest Master
1988-1993 Hon Sec Beagles
1988 October 12 Coronary Heart attack
1992 February 20 Coronary double by-pass operation
1993 October Leyland
1996 April Endoscopy Chorley Hospital. Three stomach ulcers.
Cured by 19th April second endoscopy
1994-1996 Leyland Deanery Priest on Archdiocesan Pastoral Council
1996–Apr 2008 Parish Priest - St John's, Easingwold
1997 Jan 2 Angioplasty Killingbeck Hospital, Leeds
1997 Jan 23 Stent Operation Killingbeck Hospital, Leeds
1998 Jan - 2002 Chairman Easingwold & District Christian Council
February Chairman Easingworld Town Churches
2000 Aug Ankle fusion
2002 Oct 15 Viral Pneumonia
2004 Apr 11 Minor Coronary Thrombosis & Pneumonia
2005 Mar 15 Angiogram
Jun 16 Coronary Thrombosis
Jul 13 Nuclear Scan
2008 Feb Broken wrist – spent some time at the Abbey
Apr Resident at St Mary's, Leyland
May Diagnosed with lung cancer
Jun 17 21.45: Died at the Abbey in the Infirmary