Despite sharing a rather popular name, Fr John Ryan is one of a kind and his is a story which will be told. Enjoy Fr John’s speech which he wrote for his diamond jubilee.
By Fr John Ryan
While I was working in Wangaratta, (before going into the seminary) I met a Hungarian refugee called Bella Brestovski. He was an architect who had come to Wangaratta after being in several refugee camps in Europe and beyond. He took a shine to me, and I to him, and he had a considerable impact on my life. One day we were walking along Murphy Street on market day, down the road from here, when he stopped and said to me, Jorn (he always called me Jorn) look at all those people. In all of them there is a story. Some will be told. Some will be written, and some will never be told. That encounter has stayed with me, even to today.
Whichever way we look at it, whether we appreciate it or not, whether we know it or not, in faith we have a story within us and ultimately it is the story of God in our lives.
Today I want to share something of my story. I am known as John Ryan. My mother's name was Alice Johnson known as Johno by some of her friends, so I'm told. When I was born someone suggested that I be called Johnson. We were a fairly insignificant family in the desert on the edge of the Mallee, so imagine how different my life might have been if I had been called Johnson and not John! It goes without saying that my parents were not particularly imaginative. They named their three children Mary, John, and Bill, but it kind of fitted the ordinariness of our lives.
When I was ten, we moved to Yarrawonga and I still remember the surprise among the local boys when I met them and they said, “You can't be John Ryan, we already have a John Ryan.” He was known as Oscar, so I became Oscar II. For the first time I was becoming aware of how problematic my name could be.
At age 13, I was launched into boarding school and there I had five years of many transforming experiences. During those years there were at least four or five John Ryans and some were in the same year! This was a problem on many fronts, not the least being laundry bags, so that's where I became John E. Ryan, the E stands for Edward which was my father's name although interestingly he was always known as Ned.
Following boarding school, I went to university with many of my friends. This came to be a time of deep questioning concerning my future, concerning becoming an engineer, or a priest. Ever since I was 11, I had known that one day I would have to test the call to the priesthood.
Eventually I went to the Seminary for the Diocese of Sandhurst. Here the name Oscar followed me because some of the guys from school were at the Seminary, too. At my first appointment as a curate at Yarrawonga, there were three or four John Ryans in the parish! Believe it or not!!
However, there was another John Ryan in the Diocese, he was John S. Ryan. He was very significant because he was, amongst other things, the Inspector of Schools. (He would never tell his confreres what the S stood for, so they decided it probably stood for Sennacherib, so he became known as Snaky. In fact, it stood for Simeon but for some reason he was reluctant to tell them that.)
While I was in Yarrawonga, I had done some work with young people on, shall we say, the wrong side of the law, and so I developed a reputation for working with troubled young people as well as alcoholics in the area.
When I was at the Cathedral in Bendigo, I happened to be in a group one day and was taken aback to hear Snaky exploding about the police knocking on his door looking for Fr John Ryan. I didn’t realise my reputation has followed me. However, this did not please him at all. I received a huge amount of angst from him about the confusion of our names. So once again my name was becoming an issue.
Early on in my time in Bendigo, I came to believe I was destined to become the Bishop’s driver/secretary, although the thought scared the pants off me. That was until I backed the Bishop’s car into a tree on our first outing! Things changed dramatically from then on, thanks be to God!
Later, as a student in Rome, the director was keen to know what my Saints name was for my feast day. I didn't have a clue so all I could suggest was John the Apostle as my feast day.
When I came back from America it was assumed that I would take up a specific situation within the Diocese, but that situation had changed by the time I returned.
Being a part of this Diocese meant that I absorbed Bishop Bernie Stewart’s, vision for the Diocese. He always had a vision for the larger church or the global church. He allowed his priests to go out when they felt called and welcomed priests who wanted to come into the Diocese.
After coming back from overseas I was appointed to Myrtleford – a great time as well as a time of personal challenges and huge upheaval. In my story, chapters came thick and fast. After a year and a bit, I was appointed to Wodonga.
After a year in Wodonga, around 1977, I was invited to go to Sydney by Cardinal Freeman via my bishop, to work with David Walker (now Bishop David Walker) to establish the Centre for Spirituality.
Then in 1980 I came to Canberra to research and establish the St Peter Centre. On each of these journeys I was commissioned by my Bishop at the time, and I always felt I went with the Bishop's blessing. Wherever I went I felt very welcome and forged relationships within those dioceses, but I always said I belonged to Sandhurst. At times there were invitations to become incardinated elsewhere, including overseas, but that was never an option for me. I never ceased to be a priest from the Diocese of Sandhurst.
1985 through to 1993 was a tumultuous time, a time when I dreamed of programs, places and people who could help assist the lives of the diocesan priests in Australia by providing resources of all kinds. At times it seemed as if we were almost there, then it seemed as if we weren’t!
Firstly, there was Vince Dwyer’s Centre for Human Development, during which programs were introduced into the dioceses who chose to take part, programs like the one-to-one, and support groups (many of which are still going today). This morphed into the Ministry to Priests Program. During this time Directors for Continuing Education were appointed in nearly every Diocese and they would meet regularly to discuss the issues they faced. Jim Gill SJ (an American psychiatrist) came to Australia and would talk to us about all the issues we were facing. These were heady days and it seemed as if my dreams were taking shape. Then in 1993 the Bishops took over this vibrant going concern and as often happens in such cases, it seems to me the movement has slowly died on the vine and my dreams with it. Perhaps it was inevitable, perhaps not!
Eventually I became ill and was forced to retire, but my life was prolonged way beyond what was expected. But no matter where I was, or what I was doing, my identity, my heart, was always with Sandhurst. I may have lived elsewhere much of the time, but I always was and always will be, John Ryan (if need be John E.), a priest from the Diocese of Sandhurst.
In the words of the great Dag Hammarskjold, “For all that has been, Thanks. To all that shall be, Yes.”
