Dozens of priests and a gathering of friends and family today joined Bishop Malooly in the Mass of Christian Burial for Father Paul Campbell, pastor of St. Christopher parish in Chester, Md.
Father Campbell, 66, a Wilmington native, died Feb. 3 after a brief illness.
Father Christopher Hudgin, OSFS, delivered the homily at the Mass. The bishop, brother priests and deacons sang Salve Regina, priests’ song of farewell, at the conclusion of Mass.
Father Campbell graduated from Christ Our King and Salesianum schools. He entered the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales and attended De Sales University and De Sales Theological College in Washington, D.C. He was ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia in June 1982.
In 1995, Father Campbell was appointed associate pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Wilmington. The next year, he was received into the Diocese of Wilmington and was transferred to Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Easton, Md., as associate pastor. He also served in the same role at St. Francis de Sales in Salisbury, Md., and St. Joseph, Middletown. In 2006, he became the pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Chestertown, Md., where he remained until his move to St. Christopher in 2015.
Father Campbell, the son of the late Clarence Paul and Helen Theresa Tucker Campbell, is survived by his sister Claire Stecher and her husband John of Wilmington; brother David C. Campbell and his wife, Karen of Carmel, Indiana; three nieces Jennifer and Maria Stecher and Anne Marie Campbell; and nephew David Campbell.
Interment is 10:30 a.m. Feb. 11 at Cathedral Cemetery, Wilmington.
