Parish priest reflects on 'Sermons on steps of St Pauls'

Fr Joe Ryan (right)

The phone rang on Friday morning, 28 October, the caller said, ‘this is Tanya from Occupy LSX, can I speak to Fr Joe Ryan?’ Speaking! Can you repeat who you are? Which she did … We are organising a multi-faith 'Sermons on the Steps' at St Paul’s Cathedral tomorrow. Oh yes! I thought quickly: how am I going to get out of this one: A Saturday – no wedding today; a funeral, not today; First Communion or Confirmation groups meeting … no its half-term… What about my promotional prospects, if I get involved here (all this in three seconds flat).

She continued: "We are trying to widen the spread of people involved and need a Catholic voice in the group." "Could you not get somebody else and maybe more expert in this task”, I said. I felt a little bit like the prophet Jeremiah who tried to resist the Lord’s call.

Tell me more! "The 'Sermon on the Steps' will have a theme of love, peace and dialogue; you will have five minutes to speak."

I knew immediately what needed to be addressed. The question on one of the tents which we all saw on TV reports, “What would Jesus do?” I thought if I could answer that, I would be well on the way. And then as luck would have it, because I am Chair of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission, I had been looking at the powerful statement on 24 October from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The 41 page document is entitled: “Towards Reforming the International Financial and morality systems in the context of Global Public Authority”.

This was exactly what the organisers of the ‘sit-in’ at St Paul’s had in mind. What an opportunity to publicly display the Vatican’s ideas on the matter of financial responsibility.

I couldn’t stop thinking about other demonstrations I’ve been privileged to be part of; all in different ways involving peoples’ lives; political, spiritual, financial and social concerns. In my mind, Gospel values and Catholic Social Teaching permeates into all aspects of human existence. Some would like to remove us from any political involvement, sorry, that is not how life works!

So I wandered back to the mid 1980’s in Manila in the Philippines, where I witnessed the 'Parliament of the Streets', where Cardinal Sin encouraged people to take to the streets in a fight for justice during the Marcos regime; and then to the Peace Walk in Kaduna, Nigeria in 2009; and a year later in Diyarbakir, Turkey where we demonstrated against the illegal detention and trial of the 151 Kurdish prisoners … (they are still in jail – untried) and the number of street demonstrations here in London over the years which I have attended. … not to speak of the demonstrations taking place at present in New York, California, Rome, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, to name a few. All of these events were crystallised in my mind as I prepared my few words for the ‘Sermon on the Steps’ at St Paul’s.

I felt privileged and obliged to be part of the Multi-Faith group involved in 'Sermon on the Steps' of St. Paul’s on Saturday 29 October. There were speakers representing the Church of England; Methodist, URC, Jewish Synagogue; Pax Christi, Catholic Social Worker, Unitarian Church, Catholic Church and many others. All had a clear message of Love, Concern, Peace, negotiation and dialogue.

So in my few words I was able to cover these aspects.

Firstly: Greetings of solidarity from the Vatican as I mentioned the statement from the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace. This statement needs, to be heard since it spoke of the fact that the financial crisis, characterised by 'selfishness, collective greed and the hoarding of goods, on a great scale is one devastating effect of these ideologies'. It continues: ‘It is important the church continues to engage with vital issues such as economics, and financial crisis, affecting people around the world with the aim of encouraging a better future for all people.'

Secondly, ‘What would Jesus do?’ In my mind, he would have been here in the middle of the demonstration – ‘He came with Good News to the poor’ – the chasm between rich and poor today is widening, this is what this gathering is about – so Jesus would be here.

Thirdly, do not allow yourselves to be side-tracked or diverted. Do not allow health and safety issues; or internal difficulties with St Paul’s authorities or the Highway Code for public places or for the pending High Court decisions, or the possible missing occupants of the tents at nights, to distract you from the essence of this demonstration.
Thanking you for listening and every success.

I had spent the first hour of my arrival on the scene, moving about speaking to people as if I were a reporter. I was most impressed with what I heard and saw. There were all sorts of opinions expressed and people with several agendas; but all converging: “There is something wrong on our world of finance and social cohesion, so we need to be in dialogue with the relevant people concerned; so as to improve our human destiny”.

I was amazed and frightened how the media had given a different slant on the scene. By visiting, seeing and hearing you get a very different experience.

Previously, my impression formed, at a distance by the media was of riffraff motley gathering of do-gooders out to make some trouble, nothing better to do than clog up the pavements around St. Paul’s and with something to criticise about the financial district of London from which they had been removed.

But what did I find: An open-air conference; a seminar, where people of all walks of life were able to share and express opinions and plan further action to better our human condition.

I saw a group of many people who had given their time and expertise to look at the social and financial implications of our bankers, financiers, investors and how we together can move forward to solve some problems.

I saw the ‘Parliament of the Streets’, where ordinary people were giving a lead because our existing Parliament are not exactly leading the way; where those looking after our finances have been dishonest, reckless and irresponsible; so we need to regain some of that ground before they take us to total disaster, if we are not already there.

Our churches too have been lacking in transparency and leadership in many areas.

A further voice can help all of us to re-examine certain issues in a democratic way; hence the ‘Parliament of the Streets’ surrounding St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Next day, Sunday 30 October, I re-visited St Paul’s in the afternoon. The buzz was still there. People were speaking on the public address system; each had one minute to have their say, on what they thought important and offering a variety of solutions to all our problems. It was an extended version of Speakers Corner at Hyde Park. There were some gems of philosophy and some ideas just a bit obscure. There was a relaxed atmosphere this Sunday afternoon. It was like any of the squares in Europe’s cities, a Plaza in Rome … people gathered chatting … setting the world right; I had vision of philosophers in ancient Greek cities exchanging ideas and concepts in the market places.

I also had a unique vision only seen in Ireland at half-time in Gaelic games; young and not-so young take over the pitch and show their skills of hurling in an informal setting. All of this on the hallowed turf of Semple Stadium, Thurles, Co. Tipperary (like Wembley) … each having this moment of glory, but yet very much part of the major event taking place.

I enquired from people around as to how the discussion early in the day went, when Richard Chartres, Bishop of London and the Dean of St. Paul’s, Graeme Knowles spoke to the demonstrators. The replies varied: “It was good that they had spoken together”; “There were very few answers given”; “No response as to possible reaction if the group were to be forced off the steps”. So we watch this space.

I then attended Evensong and Sermon at the Cathedral. The First Lesson was Daniel 7:1-18 and the Second Lesson was St. Luke 6: 17-31. These readings are pre-set in the lectionary; what a coincidence that the Gospel was St. Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount! The sermon was given by Canon Giles Fraser, the Cathedral Canon who resigned as a result of how matters were handled between St Paul’s and the protectors. He mentioned about the intensity of events over the past days; there is no cost-free wisdom in the complexities surrounding events at St Paul’s; there is no easy solution and if anybody thinks otherwise – they are mistaken.

It would seem that the international coverage of Occupy LSX is somewhat limited. But when the police move in to remove the demonstrators, THEN there will be plenty of coverage of any possible disturbances.

There was still a buzz and a lot of people about as darkness fell. I hope to make other visits to keep up with events.

One final point: all of this demonstration could turn sour depending on the outcome of negotiations on Sunday 30 October with the Bishop of London and the demonstrators. The outcome of the High Court decisions will have a significant impact. Whatever happens, the events of these past days must be maintained as momentous in the field of democracy, organisational skills and the search of resolutions through dialogue. These days must not be sullied by any future nasty outcome. It must not be a question of “I told you so”!!


Signed: Joe Ryan
Monday 31st October 2011