Scottish Catholic Observer

WHEN a young man from Clydebank took leave of his happy home to enter St Peter’s Seminary, Cardross, to answer the call to test his vocation, he was unsure where it would lead him.

Little did he know five decades later he would be celebrating Mass with the Holy Father in the Vatican.

Undecided which path to take when he left St Patrick’s High School in Dumbarton, Mgr Jim Ryan signed on for National Service.

Then, and later during a foray into quantity surveying, an incipient vocation was taking root. Eventually, relatively late for the times, he entered the seminary at 24 years of age.

Five of the seven Ryan children tested their vocation at one time or another. Unlike two of his three brothers, he chose not to go to Blairs College. It was, he says, the right choice, as it was at home that his vocation was fostered.

“Perhaps I was too attached to my mother to want to go to Blairs College like my brothers. Instinctively I always knew that if you had a vocation to the priesthood the best seminary was in the warm, nurturing daily contact of the family, not in junior seminary of which I was never a fan,” he explained.

“Priests of the period were frequent visitors to our home and one of them had the wisdom and courage to tell me I was fighting a vocation to the priesthood and wouldn’t settle until I had tested it.”

He recalls his introduction to St Peter’s in Cardross as ‘dismal.’

“First years were housed in the steadings nearly half a mile from the main house. That first night in my little cell, as our rooms were known, I looked up to the skylight which I shared with the student next door and as I listened to the thunder and lightening I wondered what I had got myself into,” he said.

In time he settled in to seminary life and after ordination in St Peter’s, Cardross on June 29, 1967, he was appointed to Our Lady of Consolation in Govanhill.

A temporary church was established in an old cinema called The Majestic. Of the 5,000 parishioners in the newly formed parish, half were from Donegal. Connections were made with Donegal in those years which remain today.

The parish priest Fr Fred Rawlings and assistant priest, Fr John McAveety, were to be lasting influences on his life and vocation, and he would later be principal celebrant at Fr Rawling’s funeral Mass.

The friendships Mgr Ryan has made among brother priests have sustained him through the years. “It’s important that we have groups of like-minded priests getting together regularly. We have to look after each other and ourselves.

“It might be through a shared interest in golf, the theatre or tennis that priests form a group and in that supported environment we can talk and share as a group or one-to-one,” he said.

“From my own ordination, there is only myself and Fr Joe Mills left. We might not see a great deal of each other but we can pick up the phone to each other and the bond is always there.”

Sad as he was when the time came to leave Govanhill, he found fulfilment in school chaplaincy when Archbishop Tom Winning appointed him to Notre Dame High School in Dumbarton and as assistant priest at St Patrick’s Church. With the implementation of Vatican II yet to make itself felt, the Sisters of Notre Dame were ahead of their time, according to Mgr Ryan.

“The Sisters had frequent liturgical conferences in Mount Pleasant in Liverpool, and in school we were the beneficiaries of these inductions,” he said. “I will always be indebted to the Sisters of Notre Dame; they must take credit for some of the happiest times of my priesthood.”

After a year of further study at Loyola University of Chicago, he took up the post of spiritual director of the Royal Scots College in Valladolid, and later in Salamanca when the college transferred there on the closure of Valladolid.

On his return he was appointed assistant priest at Christ the King where there was no need for introduction since the parish priest Mgr James McMahon had been his tutor in St Peter’s Seminary. That short period led on to many years as parish priest in St Peter’s, Partick.

“I accepted the role with relish and some trepidation as it was my first appointment as parish priest. That was in 1990 and I had two assistant priests and a hospital chaplain. By the time I left in 2007 it was just the hospital chaplain and I. With two primary schools and a secondary, it was a busy pastoral programme,” he said.

“Those were very happy years in the midst of an eclectic community which included the University of Glasgow.

“I was sad to leave but grateful Archbishop Conti understood my desire to give up the responsibility of a parish priest while continuing in active ministry which I have done now for 12 years in three parishes including St Andrew’s, Bearsden, where I am currently.”

Mgr Ryan found himself in Casa Santa Marta earlier this year concelebrating Mass with Pope Francis. Having celebrated his Golden Jubilee, he was encouraged to write to the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Edward Adams, for permission to say Mass with the Holy Father. An invitation was duly received and a date set. However, the extreme wintry weather earlier this year prevented Mgr Ryan from travelling and the visit to Rome had to be postponed.

When the day finally arrived, it was an early start as popes traditionally offer Mass around 7am. In the informality of Casa Santa Marta, which is Pope Francis’ preference, Mgr Ryan concelebrated Mass with the Holy Father.

Born within a few months of each other and ordained 18 months apart, their ministries have been long and fruitful. Mgr Ryan had the opportunity to speak with Pope Francis after Mass and, having brushed up on his Spanish, he was able to talk to the Holy Father in his mother tongue.

“I told him I had celebrated my 80th birthday and, less than a month later, my Golden Jubilee. He took my hands in a pastoral gesture and, when I told him since I stepped down as parish priest I have been an assistant priest for 12 years now and happy contributing in any way I can, he laughed and said: “So we’re both still working!”

The answer to God’s call led to a varied and fulfilling life and, demanding though it is, one that Mgr Ryan heartily recommends.

As to how he would advise a man considering a vocation to the priesthood, or indeed anyone considering religious life, Mgr Ryan said: “It is worth presenting yourself to God, from whom all vocations come. I would say go with your heart, offer yourself to God and see where it leads you. For myself, I give thanks to God for being with me in the years of service to his people.

“Priesthood is a gift. In the ordination service, which was in Latin in my day, we were ordained propter homines, on behalf of the people.

“On my ordination card is the quote from 2 Timothy 1: 10-11. I have tried, sometimes to a greater or lesser extent, to make that the motto which defines my ministry: ‘Christ Jesus abolished death and He has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News; and I have been named its herald, its apostle and its teacher.’”