Fr John Hegerty SSC. Photo: St Columbans Mission Society
An ordination day is one to look back on, but a 50th anniversary demands more than a cursory recall. While neither the beginning nor the end of a dream, 14 August 1971 was a day that set a course for John Hegerty that defined the term of his natural life.
John looks back on his half-century as a priest with a profound sense of gift and challenge. He cherishes his upbringing on a farm in provincial Victoria. “I have deep gratitude for the people and the nature that surrounded me,” he says. “The people that showered me with great love and the nature that embraced my senses both helped me face the challenge of accepting the many blessings offered in later life.”
He reflects on being a Columban as a major part of that blessing. “They provided me with all I needed to understand what God wanted for me,” he reflects, calling it a time of learning to return the love that had been so freely given to him since his childhood. During a life lived between Peru in Latin America and his homeland of Australia, John touched and was touched by many people. After years of formation in the seminary at Sassafras in the Dandenong Ranges and then the outer suburbs of Sydney, he was ordained in Melbourne prior to setting sail not just to the other side of the world, but to a new culture, language and way of life in surrounds he could not have imagined.
Columban commitments in Peru lie in the squatter settlements huddled around the capital city of Lima. Crowded with desperate people seeking to eke out the living their rural surrounds had denied them, John was surrounded by a poverty he had never witnessed, with a language he had never spoken and challenges he had never faced. Much was being demanded of the newly ordained priest.
He believes it is the gift of his upbringing; the gratuitous love he had been showered with that steeled him to meet these challenges and armed him with the ability to accept the love offered in a different way by the people among whom he found himself. “We lived, danced, sweated and struggled together,” he recalls. “I am forever grateful I was able to appreciate and respond to that love. In many ways, my early life made it easy.”
Having experienced his student days with gratitude, he deeply appreciated his own opportunity to guide students in their early years in the seminary in Sydney during the 1980s. He describes this time of walking with young men in their own search for what God wanted for them as one of intimate freedom in the spirit of prayer and discernment.
He then took on the same challenge back in Peru, but this time in his adopted Spanish language within the milieu of his adopted culture, but in the same intimacy with God’s spirit, as his new charges dived into the challenge of seeking what God wanted for them. It was not without its human satisfaction. It was a time when accepting students for the Columbans from the countries of commitment was a controversial issue. It arose from the belief that the mission lands had reached a maturity, and the time had arrived when they should send their own missionaries, but as with all breakthrough decisions not all were in agreement.
It worked, and John describes it as a time when the ambiguity and richness of cross-cultural mission were on full display, a rare privilege to have been involved in. A further experience as the director of the Columban region in Peru brought challenges of leadership, with his greatest satisfaction seeing a new parish being totally founded by lay people, for lay people. “It was wonderful to witness the great courage of those who volunteered to take on something they had never done before, as well as the generosity of those who accepted their outreach with great trust and the courage to be involved in what they had never seen,” he reflects.
This highpoint indicates how much has changed during his 50 years as a priest, but the love and generosity of people, the beauty and life-giving power of nature and the openness to accept and enjoy both has seen his ministry develop as a blessing for many that is well worth celebrating and giving thanks for. Congratulations John!
This article was written on behalf of St Columbans Mission Society.
Listen to "A blessed life"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - August 2021
