Diocese_Of_Sandhurst_YearInReview_2021

53 IN MEMORY Rev. Fr John Harold Ware was a priest of the Diocese for 66 years. His first appointment as Parish Priest was to Corryong in 1972, followed by appointments in Chiltern, Cobram, Wangaratta and finally Rutherglen, where he served until his retirement on 31 December 2014. The RequiemMass for Fr John was held at St Mary’s Church, Rutherglen. “I’ve never spent more time in my life anywhere as long as I have in Rutherglen, so the town and this parish hold a special significance to me,” Fr John once said. Fr John was born in Shepparton on Christmas Day. He started his education with the Sisters of Mercy in Shepparton. He was a boarder at St Patrick’s College Ballarat for his senior high school years (where he was on the First cricket team and first Football team); then studied at Corpus Christi College, Werribee and Propaganda College, Rome, where he was ordained a priest in 1954. “John was an avid reader, which gave him a vast vocabulary. His homilies were generally brief and pungent, with interesting references to current affairs or a piece of literature that he was reading.” “He was a Priest ‘of ’ and ‘for’ the people and very much a pastoral Diocesan Priest whose ministry was in the beautiful North-East deanery.” Monsignor Peter Jeffrey Fr John Ware 25 December 1930 – 9 July 2021 Fr John Ware spent four years as a seminarian at Propaganda College in Rome. During this time, he never saw his family. In 1954, his parents, and younger brother Gerald, attended his ordination – their journey by boat took three months. “How I loved to dream of going home. When I was in Rome, I never sawmy parents for four years. You never got out, never spoke to them. I had a letter every week. They were different times back then.” Fr John Ware