In Memoriam: Fr. John Lavin, C.Ss.R.
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April 6, 2022Fr. John wrote a book, “Recognizing Lazarus at our Door” which had as its subtitle, “Reflections of a Priest with Forty Years in Hispanic Ministry.” And if you read the book, you could easily say, “I read this before,” And in a sense you did because it reads so much like the book of Acts by St. Luke. Luke’s book is almost all about St. Paul and his long years of ministry in the Mediterranean Basin and Fr. John’s book is all about his 40 years in Hispanic ministry.
St. Paul and John even begin their ministry the same way. Both were headed in one direction and God sent them on a completely different path. Paul was going to Damascus to capture Christians to bring back to Jerusalem and John was set on getting a Master’s Degree in Education until his Vice-Provincial (which I was at the time) suggested, knowing his real interest and love, that it would be better for him, not to go to Boston, or wherever, but to go to Medellin, Colombia where the Latin American Bishops had set up a Pastoral Center to prepare their missionaries to deal with the pastoral reality of Latin America. So, ever obedient, off John went in 1974 on the journey that shaped his life.
John was an excellent student in the seminary and all his life. Not only did he have a fine mind, but his heart was in it. He put faces on everything he learned, and he loved these people, especially the poor and needy. And he also formed life-long friendships with his mentors, some of the greatest scholars and apostles in Latin America at that time, the Chilean Theologian, Segundo Galilea, and Gustavo Gutierrez from Peru, the father of Liberation Theology, and Jose Marins from Brazil who taught him how to organize a parish into a “community of small Christian communities” (CEB, “Comunidades Ecclesiales de Base).
Marins was considered the father of this pastoral approach. In 1975, John returned to Boston to attend to a personal matter, but it had always been in his mind to learn about the pastoral reality of Latin America so that he could minister to the thousands of “Latinos” that he encountered in the States, in places like Boston, New York, Baltimore, Annapolis, and again in Boston.
He brought the wealth of his knowledge from Puerto Rico and Columbia north and shared it generously with the people he loved. Boston had also another blessing for him. He worked for a while at the “Alianza Hispana” a multi-service center for Hispanics. But most of all he got to meet and admire Fr. Ed McDonough, the “Healing Priest” who had a similar history of working for the poor, first among the African Americans in the South and then in the “Irish Getto” of Roxbury. He, like John, also continued his studies and earned a master’s degree in Sociology at Boston College to help him in his ministry.
Also in Boston, John was reunited with Fr. Vincent Kelly, a remarkable parish priest whom he likened to Father O’Malley, the role that Bing Crosby played in “Going my Way.” Both these priests, and others, had a great influence of John. They showed him how a priest could make a real difference, socially and religiously, in the reality in which they lived and served with love.
As I say, John’s book is like the book of Acts and tells of his time in the “Barriada Morales” in the poor section of Caguas, Puerto Rico, of his time in Latin America where he met his “mentors.” And then in St. Cecilia’s, New York and as rector in St. Michael’s in Baltimore and later as parish priest in Annapolis, Maryland, and finally back home to Boston.
In between, like St. Paul, he made his missionary journeys all over the United States with Fr. George Drew, as a Parish Missionary. All the time his aim was to find and nourish basic Christian communities. And at the same time, he never stopped learning about nor loving those for whom he gave of himself so generously.
His book tells of his insights into many different pastoral realities that he encountered in his 40 years and tells of his dedication to the people he served and loved. He was a true follower of St. Alphonsus and rightly deserves the reward in heaven that the Saint promised to all his followers. May John’s spirit live forever among us all.
Happy to have been God’s instrument who knocked John off his horse heading to academic scholarship and set him on the path of a missionary that he walked so well for the good of our Latin bothers and sisters especially the poor and abandoned.
