Australian Dictionary of Biography entry: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hackett-william-philip-6515

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

Teacher, social researcher, librarian; born Kilkenny, Ireland, 2 May 1878; died Melbourne, 9 July 1954, aged 76.

William Hackett came from a large family in Kilkenny. His father, a doctor, was a friend of Charles Stewart Parnell who had been in trouble with the Irish clergy for his radical politics. Together with his five brothers, William was given a free education at Clongowes Wood College. He entered the Jesuits at Tullamore, Dublin, 7 September 1895, studied philosophy at Vals, France, and taught at Clongowes, 1902-09. After theology studies at Milltown Park, Dublin, 1909-13, he taught at Belvedere College, Dublin, until 1922, when he was sent to Australia.

He performed parish duties at Richmond, Melbourne, 1924-34. From 1934-40 he was rector of Xavier College, Kew, founding Kostka Hall, Brighton, in 1936. Work in the Hawthorn parish followed, 1940-1942.

From 1943-52 he lived at Xavier College and Kostka Hall, but his main work was as founding director of the Central Catholic Library, which began in 1925. This locale became the meeting place for those associated with the Catholic Worker, a newspaper founded in 1936 influenced by the social teaching of the Church, especially Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII, and campaigned for the rights of workers. Hackett became the ecclesiastical assistant to the Secretariat for Catholic Action and the Movement in those years, roles that meant attendance at meetings, and advise given to those who sought it, but an appointment that never implied clerical control. Later, Hackett was elected a trustee of the Melbourne Public Library and National Gallery in 1942, and also became a foundation member of the Aisling Society, an Irish Australian cultural society whose main interests were the study of the history, life and culture of Ireland, and of the effect of Irish heritage on Australian life.

A lecturer and writer on a wide variety of subjects, Hackett contributed to Studies, The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Twentieth Century, the Advocate, and other periodicals. He became Director of the Institute of Social Order at Belloc House, 1952-54, which was established by Archbishop Mannix as a centre for the education of trade unionists. Not only was it a place for training Bob Santamaria’s Movement personnel, but also for anyone interested in exploring Catholic teaching on social justice. Hackett living at Belloc House meant that he became an important observer of Movement activities for the archbishop. Unfortunately, he had a sad end, dying ten days after being hit by a taxi crossing Cotham Road on a dark rainy night. At his funeral Mannix spoke fondly of his friend of thirty years. It was a sad loss to Mannix.

Oral history has perpetuated the myth that Hackett was deeply involved with the Republican faction in Ireland that led to the civil war in 1922. He was a friend of Erskine Childers who was later executed, and Michael Collins who was later murdered. Irish Jesuits claimed he would have been imprisoned for activities that included being a courier for an illegal newssheet edited by the rebels, as well as hearing confessions of ‘irregulars’. It was said that these were some of the reasons for his move to Australia. All through his life he kept correspondence with former Irish colleagues, usually writing in Gaelic. It was these activities in Ireland that drew him towards the Archbishop of Melbourne, who also kept a close watch on political activities in Ireland.

A close personal friendship with Dr. Mannix developed, with Hackett becoming his companion every Monday evening at Raheen, the archbishop’s residence, during which he reported to the archbishop any news, local or from Ireland, from the previous week. Hackett’s companionship at Raheen with the archbishop became particularly important when Mannix entertained some important dignitary. Mannix did not like to be alone with such people, and relied upon Hackett’s charm and wit to help entertain his guest. This companionship also extended to accompanying the archbishop during his four-week annual summer vacation at Portsea that in later years stretched to seven weeks, a task that did not bring cheer to Hackett. Brenda Niall in her biography of Mannix wrote of Hackett that he ‘was the diplomat, mediator, envoy, entertainer and candid friend to the archbishop’, as well as ‘an essential link between Mannix and a new generation of young Catholic intellectuals’ that met at the Central Catholic Library. This resulted in Hackett becoming the principal adviser to Frank Maher in founding the Campion Society, the real beginning of lay Catholic Action in Australia.

Hackett was delighted when appointed rector of Xavier College, but others were not so pleased either at the beginning or at the end of the appointment. He was assigned probably because of his high degree of personal charisma and apostolic zeal.

During the course of his five years as rector, Hackett presided over the disenchantment of teachers, parents and old boys, as well as the entrenchment of the school in the position of financial insolvency which, in the wake of the Great Depression he had inherited. In fact, the school probably needed a man of less vision; a man quite focused on problem solving. His vision for Xavier was the personal formation of a Catholic intelligentsia for the purpose of rescuing the nation from the encroaching forces of evil, of which he was acutely conscious. He wanted the boys to assimilate Catholic social principles.

The intellectual and physical formation of his Volunteer Cadet Corps formed the essence of his initiative as rector of Xavier College.

He was disappointed that Xavier College was not producing more political and cultural leaders. He was aware that most Xavier boys preferred a career in medicine, law or business. Xavier's ends, Hackett insisted, were not his own, but those of society in general, and the Church in particular. He singled out the Old Xaverian Association for criticism, suggesting that they should involve themselves in Catholic Action, and not just in sport and social activities.

His general lack of reverence for the traditions they valued manifested itself in particular actions such as his interference with the membership qualifications of their sporting teams, and his uncritical application of a directive of Mannix banning the serving of liquor at Catholic social functions. This last action was instrumental in dividing the organisation, rendering it virtually inoperative for several years.

Hackett had a vision of intellectual Christianity for the school, and his spirituality demanded strength not of performance, but of mind. He established the Bellarmine Society, a junior Campion Society in which the students were given an intellectual introduction to modern sociological trends and to Catholic culture. The subordination of free logical thought to ideology or rules was unacceptable to him. He scorned unthinking observance of positive laws, and did his best to ensure that responsibility was the keynote when it came to the observance of rules and regulations at Xavier. He even allowed senior boys to smoke on certain occasions. His interest in debating was strong, and he introduced the Oxford Union or Parliamentary form. His primary concern was in fostering the art of public speaking rather than the dialectic itself.

Preferring a spirit of truth to a spirit of competition, Hackett ridiculed emphasis on competitive sport and disputed the identification of good education with good examination results. Education, which, he believed, had little to do with passing exams, occurred, more often than not, outside the classroom. It was a luxury that involved financial cost and sacrifice, and was available only to the privileged, even if it was intended to benefit the whole of society. He frequently annoyed prefects of studies when he displayed a lack of deference for formal studies. He thought little of either abandoning his own classes, or taking students out of other classes, for purposes, which he, but clearly not to many of his colleagues, thought, were more important.

His emphasis on responsibility was a manifestation of Hackett's adventurous bent of character, an attribute that did not lend itself to skill in administration. He had an enquiring mind, an exotic sense of taste, and often-curious judgment. He managed to endear himself to many people in the school, even some of those with whom he clashed. And he was also a favourite of the other heads of the Public Schools, who could appreciate his personal qualities, which included his sense of humour and breadth of interest, without having to work under his less than efficient administration.

His adventures with his senior boys were not exclusively intellectual. Fond of bush-walking himself, he would take them on expeditions into the country, and occasionally, camping, on the South Coast of NSW. He enjoyed the company of the boys, and they appreciated his humour, his lively mind, and unexpected comments. They respected him, but did not hold him in awe. He sent boys to Somers Camp to learn to know those from other schools and from different walks of life.

His financial administration was not successful. It was apparent that by the end of this term as rector, that he was out of place at Xavier College. He was certainly visionary, but this was not needed at the time.

As a man and priest, he was always most courteous and showed genuine charity to all people. He was a man of deep and wide learning, but had also intelligence and sensibility: an artist as well as a scholar. He was also a man of action. Besides founding the Catholic Library, he started in connection with it the 'Catholic Evidence Lectures', which later grew into the radio 'Catholic Hour'. He also helped with the National Catholic Girls' Movement. With all these activities, he was most unassuming and kind; and he was noted for his exemplary example of personal poverty. He was certainly one of the more influential Jesuits who worked in Australia.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)