Deceased: 2026-03-21
Diocese: NASHVILLE
Seminary Graduation Year: 1967
Father James K. Mallett, a retired priest of the Diocese of Nashville, died on Saturday, March 21, in Signal Mountain, Tenn. He was 84.
During his 59 years of priestly service, Father Mallett served the diocese in numerous appointments, including chancellor, director of vocations, moderator of the curia, vicar general, judicial vicar, judge of the tribunal, college of consultors, presbyteral council, coordinator of formation for the permanent diaconate, and pastor of Christ the King Church from 1987 to 2007, among others.
Father Mallett was born on April 24, 1941, in Chattanooga, Tenn. He attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help School and Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga, before attending St. Bernard College in St. Bernard, Ala., and the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
Father Mallett was ordained a priest on Dec. 17, 1966, at the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome. After completing an additional year of studies in Rome after his ordination, he began his service in the Diocese of Nashville, which, at the time, included the entire state of Tennessee. He served as assistant pastor of St. Louis Church in Memphis, part-time professor at Catholic High School in Memphis, and associate editor of The Tennessee Register for Chattanooga. He later returned to his alma mater, Notre Dame High School, serving as a full-time professor from 1969 to 1971.
From Jan. 27, 1971, through Nov. 1, 1975, he was appointed the diocesan director of vocations. He also served as chancellor of the diocese from Sept. 1, 1974, through Nov. 1, 1975.
It was during Father Mallett’s time as vocations director that Father Ed Steiner said he started to more seriously consider the priesthood. One evening he received a call from Father Mallett.
“He was going up to St. Meinrad to visit our seminarians that were up there, and he asked me if I wanted to go. I said sure,” Father Steiner recalled during an interview for his 40th anniversary of priesthood in 2022. “I loved Father Mallett. He and my father were great friends.”
During that trip, Father Steiner spent time with two of the diocese’s seminarians, and before he knew it, “I hung a U-turn and, all of a sudden, I’m going to St. Meinrad,” he said. “I told Father Mallett I wanted to go, and he started the process.”
Father Mallett also helped inspire Deacon Bob True’s vocation to the diaconate as well.
“At age 61, I really felt the calling and Father Jim Mallett, who was my spiritual director and mentor for the diaconate, said it was time. I slipped in just under the wire and was 65 when I was ordained,” said Deacon True, during a 2024 interview for his Silver Jubilee as a deacon.
After being relieved from his duties as vocations director and chancellor, Father Mallett was released to study Church Law and Administration at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in September 1977. Upon completing his studies, he was appointed vicar for administration for the diocese in 1979, moderator of the curia and vicar general in 1982, and judicial vicar of the diocesan tribunal in 1985. For the next two years, while also continuing studies at Vanderbilt University, he served at St. Patrick Church in South Nashville and St. Henry Church, before being assigned to the longest pastorship of his presbyterate.
Father Mallett was assigned as the fourth pastor of Christ the King Church on July 1, 1987, as the parish celebrated its 50th anniversary. During his two-decade tenure, he oversaw much growth at the parish.
On the 60th anniversary of the parish, during a Mass celebrated by Bishop Edward U. Kmiec, 10th Bishop of Nashville, Father Mallett announced a capital project and fund-raising campaign to improve the facilities of the church and school campus. After six months of campaign preparation, parishioners pledged more than $2.75 million by the Feast of Christ the King in 1997. The new Parish Center and extensive renovations to the school were dedicated on the Feast of Christ the King, Nov. 21, 1999.
Father Mallett retired as fourth pastor of Christ the King Church on July 1, 2007, after serving the parish for 20 years. Father Mallett returned to his native Chattanooga, where he taught courses in International Law at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and served as Catholic Campus Minister there for the Diocese of Knoxville.
Father Mallett’s funeral Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Mark Beckman of Knoxville at 11 a.m. (EST) on Wednesday, April 1, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Chattanooga, Tenn., (501 S. Moore Rd.). Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville will serve as concelebrant. A visitation will precede the Mass at 10 a.m. (EST). Following the Mass, Father Mallett will be interred at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Chattanooga.
A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. (CST) Friday, April 17, at Christ the King Church in Nashville (3001 Belmont Blvd.). Bishop J. Mark Spalding will celebrate the Memorial Mass, with Father Dexter Brewer, former pastor of Christ the King, serving as homilist.
