Jubilee of a ‘loving and caring priest’

Sydney
24 August 2003

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Jubilee of a ‘loving and caring priest’

By Marilyn Rodrigues

Marist Fr Paul Glynn, the author of A Song for Nagasaki, has recently seen his golden anniversary of priestly ordination.

The anniversary fell in the same week as those of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Fr Paul (pictured) spoke to The Catholic Weekly about a range of issues that are close to his heart, from global social justice concerns to the individual human need for contact with God.

He spent 25 years in Japan - from 1955 - and has devoted much of his efforts to post World War II reconciliation between the Japanese and Australians.

There is still plenty of work to be done, he says.

“The West has never apologised for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” he says.

“And the Japanese still get bad press about the war.

“Now through our (Marist) mission in Japan, we’ve done a lot of work for reconciliation between the Japanese and the Australian soldiers over the war.

“The great message I have got is that if you work for reconciliation (you have) a great peace, and most people want reconciliation.”

Fr Paul wrote his first two books about Japanese individuals who showed great faith and courage during World War II: A Song for Nagasaki (1988) and Smile of a Ragpicker (1992).

Those books plus his two others, Psalms - Songs for the Way Home (1996) and Healing Fire from Frozen Earth (1999), have raised more than $97,000 since 1989 for education in East Timor, which his order also supports.

“In East Timor, 65 per cent of women and 51 per cent of men can’t read or write,” says Fr Paul.

“When I was a young priest the United Nations asked all the wealthy nations to give five per cent of their annual income to the impoverished nations. People laughed at that idea, but it can be done.

“People, if they want to, can do a lot for the Third World; if they start to think it’s part of our Christian duty they can do things like save money from luxuries on Friday, and use that.”

Such a responsibility could be driven by prayer, he says, especially contemplative prayer, which needs time.

Fr Paul has noticed a significant shift in Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals. More recently, he says, the Pope has been continually stressing the importance of contemplative prayer.

“There have been so many failures in society now he’s coming around to say the solution is not in better schools or political interventions and the like,” says Fr Paul.

“If you want to change the world, he says, become holy, do contemplative prayer.”

“We’re all baptised into the people of God and we’re called to holiness, that’s our real vocation. Now to become holy we need contemplative prayers.

“It’s not deep difficult stuff, it’s giving time to the Lord, being conscious of his presence, of his love, making space for him to talk to you and preparing for this by doing some spiritual reading that touches your heart. It becomes a joyful time.”

Fr Paul’s suggestion for parents with children who are uninterested in their faith is to give them some spiritual reading matter to counteract the message they get from the secular media that the visible world is the only real world, and that enough money will make them happy.

He believes that such misconceptions can lead some young people to disillusionment, anger, and even suicide.

“Don’t be scared of doing something spiritual like giving them a Catholic book for their birthday or Christmas,” he says.

“Then you’ve infiltrated their room with the love of God.

“They might turn their nose up at it, but be patient and read it yourself in case they start to talk about it.

“And parents should also be learning deep prayer, prayer of the heart.”

He offers the same direction to priests.

A priest who is a man of prayer, he says, will be happy and “a better and better priest”.

Fr Paul completed his secondary education at St John’s Marist College, Woodlawn, in his home town, Lismore.

He joined the Marists at 24 because at Woodlawn “the Marist priests just attracted so many of us because they were happy priests. Woodlawn got many vocations”.

He was ordained at St Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore, on July 19, 1953.

Thirty of his former classmates from Woodlawn joined him for luncheon at the Sydney Catholic Club to celebrate his golden jubilee.

And at Fr Paul’s request, instead of giving him gifts, they gave $400 for the Josephite Sisters’ work in East Timor.

Also present at the lunch were the Marist provincial, Fr William Ryder, himself an old boy of the college, and the present chaplain at St John’s College, Fr Paul Pidcock.

Ronald Holmes, a friend of 60 years, describes Fr Glynn as a “humble and shy man” and a “very loving and caring priest”.

Fr Paul quotes Pope John Paul II: “Don’t try to win people with arguments, but by the testimony of your own happiness, your own experience.”

You can help support the Josephite Sisters’ efforts in East Timor through the Mary MacKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies, PO Box 299, St Mary’s NSW 2760 or by calling (02) 9623 2847 or faxing (02) 9623 1573.