A trio of anniversaries bespeak the life of Fr. Michael Ryan, pastor-emeritus of Seattle’s St. James Cathedral. He has witnessed the Catholic Church come full circle, from reformer (St. John XXIII) to dogmatism (Benedict XVI).
Ryan is 85 years old, having spent 27 years as pastor of the imposing Cathedral on First Hill, after being ordained in the waning days of the Second Vatican Council. In Rome last week, Ryan conversed face-to-face with Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope. The two men took up the plight of immigrants and refugees, demonized by the second Trump Administration.
Ryan described the conversation in an email: “I got front row treatment. I thanked him for his strong moral leadership in a world devoid of such, and then thanked him for keeping the (Second Vatican) Council front and center — mentioning that I was a child of the Council having studied in Rome throughout.” Ryan sensed in Leo a papacy “very present and focused,” a Pope “very grounded spiritually and already at the helm.” So went a “memorable minute.”
During a lengthy tenure, unusual in the Seattle archdiocese, Fr. Ryan refurbished St. James, banished guitars at Mass, brought in a women’s’ choir, and GLBTQ activists took the pulpit at the Catholic cathedral to read scripture. Fr. Ryan would be archbishop of a large diocese in any competently run church, but instead his ministry has enriched the city.
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Good for you Joel Connelly!
Father Mike Ryan has been the soul and care-giver of the Seattle Archdiocese. Few priests bring praise to the calling as he. I already grieve at his inevitable passing, but what a legacy! More important are the lessons he lives and teaches and the love he manifests. He has kept the promise of the Second Vatican Council alive for us who grew up as its witnesses. It is sad that there seem to be so few like him in the Church, but what else is new? Thanks for writing this fine piece about him. David M. Buerge
Hear, hear! Joel and David
Thank you Joel.
Michele Hasson
Many years ago, in an American news world far away, I was in the front row, hunched down in front of a journaist-pack (I’m short, and my competitors were kind) with my microphone at a news conference when Seattle’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Hunthausen was dealing with tough questions. He was in hot water for not paying his taxes (must have been peanuts!). It was an anti-war protest.
At the unconventional archbishop’s side was Fr. Michael Ryan, his young “public relations” guy who managed us all with great respect. Theirs was an ecumenical leadership of their church’s denomination, and supported by Christians generally around our region. God bless Fr Ryan and his ministry.
In 1984 I came to Seattle and the Archdiocese as a resigned priest and gay man; after a canonical review I was hired to manage the Archdiocesan cemeteries and worked with both Archbishop Hunthausen and Fr. Mike Ryan. I was from ‘the east’ and a foreigner to the Pacific Northwest; I learned from both Fr. Mike and the Archbishop. Together we authored and he promulgated the first post-Vatican II mission statement for Catholic cemeteries. I often raised questions when he came back from the Fall US Bishops meetings. When his ‘troubles’ surfaced I was fortunate to be able to request the intervention of retired Cardinal John Dearden at a Fall USCCB meeting. My motivation to my friend the Cardinal was to let the rest of the bishops know that if they didn’t stand up and for Dutch they could easily find themselves in a similar situation. I can’t count the number of diverse requests that I responded to – developing George Kotalaris’ photos, getting a group to help clean George’s apartment with the Archbishop, hiring a pedophile priest awaiting sentencing, taking in another priest in ill health. And I was always gifted: Dutch came to see me in the hospital prior to a surgery to assure me that he underwent the same and it was no big deal. My last encounter was in Saginaw when I picked him up at the airport for Bishop Ken Untener who had invited him to teach in that diocese. Giants like the Archbishop and Mike Ryan do not come together often in this life, and when we are blest by their lives and work, we need to both acknowledge their contributions and sing their praises!