Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017:
Steele, Peter

Academic, poet, administrator; born Perth, Western Australia, 22 August 1939; died Melbourne, 27 June 2012, aged 72.

Peter Daniel Steele, one of three brothers, received primary education from the Sisters of Mercy and completed his secondary education with the Christian Brothers at the Terrace, now known as Trinity College, in Perth, being co-dux of his final year, with Michael Fitzhardinge, later a well-known local architect. His was a religious family, and Steele grew up intending to become a priest, and from his early teens showed himself a lover of books. His Christmas present for years was a subscription to the Central Catholic Library. The works of GK Chesterton in particular, left an indelible imprint upon his imagination and literary style.

It was upon the encouragement of one of the Christian Brothers that Steele thought about joining the Jesuits, men who began to appear to him to know 'what they were about. They seemed to be informed, intelligent and dedicated, and they seemed to want to be useful on a generous scale'. The pamphlets of Daniel Lord SJ were influential. He eventually entered the Jesuit noviciate at Loyola College, Watsonia, on 1st February 1957, with thirteen others, the college at the time having 84 Jesuits. He entered fully into all the experiences of the noviciate, especially enjoying long walks with similarly minded confreres, during which much sharing took place.

Philosophy studies followed vows, 1959-61, and although this was not his favoured discipline, he achieved excellent results, finding time in-between philosophical enquiries catching up on his reading of literature. He thought of his philosophy studies as 'an intellectual way of keying the heart more decisively into God, and a God engaged with his world'. It was also at this time that he was writing poetry and prose contributions, published in in-house journals.

It was when he attended the University of Melbourne, 1962-1965, studying for an arts degree, majoring in English, that his life work and outstanding academic achievement began. This university was to be his milieu for the rest of his life. Having graduated with first class honours as an undergraduate, the English Department asked him to be a tutor in their department. During this period of regency, he experienced the tension of being a 'good tutor' with being a pastoral support to struggling students and needy academics. He realized the opportunity to be available and open to others, even in demanding human situations. He learnt early on the challenge for any Jesuit to bring together two worlds, the secular and the sacred. This he eventually learnt to do in a most radical way, engaging people in the depth of their humanity, and offering support and encouragement in their struggles, a task he found both physically and emotionally draining.

At this same time, unlike some of his contemporaries who followed the policy 'to attend classes, use the library and otherwise to have as little as possible to do with the university', Steele joined an essentially lay Catholic movement within the university called the Newman Society, entering enthusiastically into dynamic conversations on the role of the Catholic in a secular academic setting, together with Vincent Buckley 'who licensed his muse, fostered his talent and shaped some of the enduring features of his imagination', claimed Michael Kelly.

Theology studies followed, 1968-71, first at Canisius College, Pymble in 1968, and then at Jesuit Theological College, Parkville. These were exciting years, as the theologians moved from institutional living at Pymble, to more homely accommodation in group living in terrace houses at Parkville. This move enabled Jesuit scholastics to collaborate with Protestant and Catholic seminarians. Ecumenical education was considered important by the Jesuit theological faculty in the light of Vatican II. On 12 December 1970 Steele became the first Jesuit to be ordained in Perth, and at his old school.

After theology Steele was appointed a lecturer in English at the University of Melbourne, and started doctoral studies on Jonathan Swift. In 1973 he was appointed rector of Campion College, the undergraduate house of studies for Jesuit scholastics. He also became a province consultor and spiritual father to the scholastics at the Jesuit Theological College, and finally, assistant to the delegate for education. While remaining on the staff of the university, his workload was reduced. These years of his rectorship were challenging ones, as many scholastics needed support and guidance, a time he described as 'strenuous'. In this role Steele gave leadership by word, by care of his community and by the example of his own academic career. His capacity for hard work was a constant in his life.

In 1984 Steele had a sabbatical at Loyola University, Chicago. Later in that year, he gave the Martin D'Arcy lectures at Campion Hall, Oxford, later published as The Autobiographical Passion: Studies in the Self on Show (1989).

Having shown success in leadership and appreciated in administrative tasks, Steele was appointed provincial of the Australian province in 1985. This was at the time that the university was about to give him a professorial chair in English. Not wanting to lose him, they agreed that he remain as a part-time member of staff.

One of his first acts as provincial was to institute an enquiry into 'Belief and Unbelief' in Australia. A committee, headed by Fathers Ian Howells and Adrian Lyons, produced a report in two large volumes. The province aboriginal apostolate was expanded. In 1988 a Social Institute was set up and later moved to St Canice's, Elizabeth Bay, and named 'Uniya' after one of the mission stations conducted by the Austrian Jesuits a century before. The Society took on the parish of St Canice's as a basis for its work in that part of Sydney, including work with the homeless. In 1989 a province assembly, the first of its kind, was held at Riverview, and in 1990, William Hackett House was established in Richmond as a base for province publications and media work.

The first editor of Eureka Street, Morag Fraser, remembered Steele as 'priest, poet, teacher, essayist, homilist and friend'. The only instruction she received from him as the provincial was 'to publish the very best writing you can lay your hands on'. She spoke about Steele's own poetic contribution to the periodical as an 'immaculate copy, always on time, to length, and according to his brief…He was a driven craftsman. Technique obsessed him, but technique always as the conduit of meaning. He knew the soarings and harrowings of human experience, but how to shape that in words'. He was always looking for order.

Speaking about Steele's time as provincial, Brendan Byrne reflected that he was much loved and respected because of his kindness, humility and unfailing patience. 'He met everyone on this simple human level'. No one 'ever felt the weight of his words or put down by his learning'. Steele's brilliant use of words had no equal in the province. He was 'a blessing for us to have…who could sit alongside us in our humanity and use his great intelligence, wisdom and articulacy, simply to help us name accurately and so render more manageable our hopes, our fears, our sorrows and our aspirations'. Steele, himself, believed that he gained much from the experience of being provincial. He found the office daunting and lonely, 'expectations are pitched high even while energies may be low'. Being provincial was 'a messy business', but he often enjoyed it, being the best thing that had ever happened to him. He knew that his appointment was a popular one, and felt that he had done 'a good job'.

In 1991 Steele took up residence at Newman College as 'Scholar in Residence', and returned to full-time teaching at the university where he had been 'Reader in English', and in 1993, was made professor with a personal chair. Apart from occasional sabbaticals, he taught English literature there from 1966 until his retirement at the end of 2005, when he was given the title of professor emeritus and honorary professional fellow of the University of Melbourne. While teaching he worked in collaboration with other departments where he helped to generate new interdisciplinary programmes, such as the study of the Eighteenth Century. He also taught new courses in the studies of autobiographies, travel writing, 'Zones of the Imagination', and 'Imagining the city', as well as supervising sessions at honours and postgraduate levels. Since his tenure of the Lockie Fellowship in Creative Writing and Australian Literature in 1972, a stress on Australian writing, especially contemporary poetry, was a constant theme in his teaching both in Australia and in America. He was always in demand as a teacher and student assessments were consistently high. He also regularly supervised honours, MA and PhD students.

Steele made a substantial contribution to academic administration over his long university career. It included responsibility for undergraduate courses at second, third and fourth year levels, chairman and deputy-chairman of department, coordinator of graduate studies, and acting head of the interdisciplinary Australian Centre. At faculty and central university levels, committee membership included research and graduate studies, visiting scholars, the Lockie Bequest, and various chair selection and promotion committees.

He was made a fellow in the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1997, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Melbourne in 2007. Further honorary doctorates came from the Notre Dame University (2010) and the Australian Catholic University (2011). He was also visiting professor at Jesuit universities overseas, notably Loyola University, Chicago, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., Fordham University, New York, Queen's university and University of Alberta, Canada, and inaugural scholar in residence, University of Armidale, NSW. He was also province consultor, 1998-2003, for a second time. The Australian Federal Government awarded him a Centenary Medal in 2001, and made him a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia in June 2012 for service to the Catholic Church and to literature and higher education as a poet, author, scholar and teacher, just before his death.

Steele's published major works included, An Air of Truth Apparent: A Study of Gulliver's Travels, in 1968, on the Irish satirist and Anglican cleric, Jonathan Swift, and then a longer book with Clarendon Press, Jonathan Swift: Preacher and Jester in 1978. He also wrote studies of contemporary poets, both Australian and others, Expatriates: Reflections on Modern Poetry (1985) and Peter Porter (1992), as well as a short study of Samuel Johnson and Dante Alighieri, Flights of the Mind: Johnson and Dante (1997).

He wrote two illustrated books of poems prompted by works of art: Plenty: Art into Poetry (2003) and The Whispering Gallery: Art into Poetry (2006).

There were other published volumes of poetry: Words from Lilliput (1973), Marching on Paradise (1984), Indivisible Riders (1999), and The Gossip and the Wine (2010). White Knight with Bee-Box: New and Selected Poems, which appeared in 2008, was awarded the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for excellence in literature in 2009. In April 2011 he received the Christopher Brennan Award given by the Fellowship of Writers for 'Lifetime Achievement in Poetry'.

In addition to these volumes, Steele contributed poems to many magazines and journals, and had poems appearing in many anthologies.

Other professional and community contributions included reader for manuscripts for various presses, including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Melbourne University Publishing. He was a member of press boards, including Eureka Street, and Australian Book Review (1996-2007). Being a judge of literary prizes included: Victorian Premier's Prize (1993), RACA Prize (1997); The Age Book of the Year (1995); Vincent Buckley Memorial Prize for Poetry (1997,1999); and the Wesley M Wright Prize for Poetry (1999-2000).

He contributed to conferences on English literature and poetry, participated in radio discussions of literature and cultural life, contributed to creative arts festivals and poetry readings. He was a regular contributor to the Public Outreach Lecture Program at the Academic Centre of St Mary's and Newman Colleges since its inauguration in 2004, and wrote numerous reviews in the daily press, including The Age and The Australian.

For many years Steele preached the Sunday homily, whether at Newman College, at Georgetown University or elsewhere in the world. Gerald O'Collins commented that, 'meticulously crafted, these homilies offered a feast of insight, tackling universal questions and issues' of life and faith through literary allusion, anecdote and recondite fact, fruit of his prodigious knowledge and memory. Steele published 86 of these homilies in Bread for the Journey in 2002, and A Local Habitation: Poems and Homilies in 2010. He had been an insightful spiritual director and retreat giver of the Spiritual Exercises throughout his priestly life.

While teaching in the United States in 2006, Steele was diagnosed with cancer. The province and his academic friends received this news with sadness. Brendan Byrne spoke of his attitude to this condition: 'We can only admire the resignation, the peacefulness, the humble trust and unfailing hope that you throughout it all have displayed.' Steele continued to write, teach, preach and celebrate up to the last weeks of his life.

Of his poetry, Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, in Australian Poetry since 1788, wrote in their introduction: 'Steele's unique voice is detectable in his earlier volumes, but only in his later work does he display the elegant, calibrated syntax which allows him to express nuanced content freshly and vividly and with warmth…His work is influenced by Peter Porter, but the voice is mellower, less anxious…'

Shortly before he died, Steele published a final book, a collection of poems and essays entitled Braiding the Voices: Essays in Poetry, launched at Newman College by Andrew Bullen on 12 June 2012. In his address, Bullen praised Steele for being 'master of us all in getting his knowledge to work and to the point…that (he) can round up so much into his work, ordering recondite references and fabled names into place, lining them up, with the gentle nudge of his voice, sonorous and quick.' He believed that Steele would argue that these recondite references deserve preserving, 'being brought into the big conversation we call culture', and which ultimately connected with God. His poems 'send sudden and often oblique glints, candescent moments, of what, of whom, (he) has seen glowing in the depths, the core, of things'. The Australian poet, Peter Porter described Steele's verse as 'wisdom, wit, whole parklands of Edenic language, presented in a technique bettered by no one writing at the century's end'. Assessing Steele's writings will be a work in progress for some time.

On the occasion of his 50 years in the Society, Father General Kolvenbach wrote, 'you have been always a friend in the Lord, a delightful companion, a thoughtful superior, a support in difficulties and you concoct delicious soups and stews. You have been a defender of the faith, a great educator, a Christian humanist like St Thomas More, whom you mentioned in one of your early poems. Your contribution to the Australian Province has been outstanding'. Steele's own reflection after 50 years was to publically thank the Society in the way it 'has consistently challenged me to attempt to grow as a human being and as a Christian believer: has challenged, but has also encouraged, embraced and forgiven'.

Michael Kelly perceived Steele's life as knowing 'the pain that challenges love and kills trust: disappointment with his brothers; frustration with his own limitations; indulgence of his considerable passions; the Cross of the unstinting love of his many friends, some of whom didn't reciprocate. But no matter what the fare, Steele was always ready to take it because for him, it was the path to something better'.

Companion from his earliest days in the Society, Andrew Hamilton, in his vigil Mass homily, spoke about Steele as 'chivalrous, knightly, courtly and courteous'. He recalled that Steele was blessed with so many friends. He spent his life celebrating the infinite variety and beauty in the world. 'For Steele the world was shot through with the glory of God. His reading was gargantuan, his recall extraordinary, and his ability to find words enchanting. The oddest of things were tiles in the mosaic of a world that coruscated with light'.

He continued that Steele 'treated the world with respect. In his student days he learned to bind books. Later when he cooked he always wore an apron, set out his knives neatly, measured and sliced his ingredients exactly. And in his poems he finds the right word fastidiously.'

In his funeral homily, another original companion, Brendan Byrne, choose as his theme, 'the eloquence of God'. Byrne reflected that he and his colleagues always admired Steele for being 'a remarkable and loving companion' for all the years shared in the Society. In addition, he believed that Steele looked 'at the world and acquired from his voracious reading an incredible knowledge of anecdotes and facts – quaint, technical, arcane - most of them remote from anything overtly religious or theological, and found in them a spark of the divine glory'. Byrne's final comment was that Steele's 'vowed life as scholar, teacher, poet, priest, wit and friend has wreathed its way through our hearts –hearts that so keenly feel his loss. His immense legacy, in memory and print, will ensure that his eloquence about God remains'.

Celebrating Mass in all its actions was central for Steele. In a Radio National 'Encounter' interview he said that 'what the priesthood has in common with poetry is that each of them has to do with celebration'. It is celebrating and thanking God 'for being God and for sending his Son Jesus to be both God and a human being.' In his countless poems and sermons, Steele celebrated the joy and splendor of the Incarnation and Resurrection. 'The path from Incarnation to resurrection led through the divine vulnerability that climaxed at the cross.' Steele himself had felt 'the brunt of human alienation and despair. He was no stranger to depression, and could swiftly oscillate in mood between high and low'. This experience helped him accompany many through tragedy and loss in a deeply human and priestly manner.

Joanne Lee Dow, long-time friend, spoke of Steele's 'wise loving-kindness…He's one of the best, in good times and bad times: loyal, appreciative, astute but not judgmental, compassionate, intelligent; so congenial and convivial, witty and quick to laughter – and such fun, such good company.' With these many accolades, it is obvious that this loving, talented man's passing was much mourned.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)