J&P Commission congratulates Fr Joe Ryan on 40 years of priesthood

Fr Joe (2nd right) at celebration dinner

Father Joe Ryan, Chair of Westminster Justice and Peace, celebrates the 40th anniversary of his ordination this month, and the Commission celebrated with a meal that included old and new members. Fr Joe took over supervision of Justice and Peace seven years ago from Fr Pat Davies, promising to do it for a year, till a worker was found. Typically, he is not only still the Justice and Peace Chair, seven years later, but is also a very active player in many areas.

Fr Joe's large parish, St John Vianney's, in West Green, Haringey, is home to Justice and Peace, but Joe's involvement goes back much earlier. In 1985 he visited the Phillippines with the Catholic Institute for International Relations and experienced at first hand the poverty of ordinary families. He learnt of the impact of deforestation on subsistence farmers, and on global warming giving him a lifelong commitment to caring for the environment.

In one of his first parishes, St Aloysius, in Somerstown, Fr Joe gave sanctuary to a refugee family for nearly a year, so that they would not be deported. At one point, an area of the church was curtained off to provide accommodation. Recently Fr Joe has renewed active support of refugees by helping to secure the nearby premises of St Augustine's for a night shelter for asylum seekers to be run by the London Catholic Worker.

In the recent past Fr Joe's presbytery has been home to a series of African student priests, and he had his first very joyous visit to Africa in 2010, for the ordination of Nigerian Deacon Samuel who had earlier worked at St John Vianney's.

A more challenging journey was undertaken early in 2011, when Fr Joe visited Turkey for a trial of Kurdish dissidents, as an international observer. Haringey has a large population of Kurds, and Fr Joe was anxious to understand the political tensions caused by the suppression of Kurdish culture in Eastern Turkey. One of the charges against a Kurdish democratically elected mayor was that he had been abroad to speak at the Town Hall in Haringey!

Fr Joe has also become very knowledgeable and interested in the last few years in the Israel Palestine conflict, and recently led his parish on a visit to the Holy Land, which did not avoid the notorious separation wall.

The Commission expressed its gratitude to Fr Joe for his support and witness to Justice and Peace. Members noted his characteristic willingness to question unnecessary rules, his huge capacity for hard work, and his unfailing kindness to the many from all walks of life who cross his path.