Memories of Fr. Joseph Jones C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Fr. Joseph Jones or Joe Jones as he was usually called, he died in Plymouth in 1976.

Joe was ordained at Hawkstone in the mid-30s, and he went out to Rome immediately to study canon law.  He came back from there and taught on and off at Hawkstone for the next 10 years until 1948.

He was then moved to Clapham, his successor having already begun studies in Rome, Fr. Gerard Sugden and Joe Jones had two jobs in Clapham. He was working part time as advisor to the apostolic delegate in the delegation there, as a canonist, and the other part of the week he would be working on the parish.

 It was while a member of the community in Clapham he had one way of catching out young members of the Province if they were appointed to the community or if they visited for a few days and happened to be sitting opposite him at table.  He had a way of saying with a dead straight face; well you’re getting to know me a little bit now would you say on the whole would you say I live a couple of the vows all right? And invariably the young man would respond being a bit shy – Oh yes I think so, and with a quick retort Joe would come back with well which one am I not living? Give me an example of why you think so.

Part 2

Joe Jones again

Joe Jones was very much appreciated by the apostolic delegation for the work he did, and for his knowledge of canon law. He was equally appreciated by the parishioners in Clapham and was very well known especially in the district or part district that he looked after himself so carefully.

He continued his work in the delegation and so in the parish for a little over 20 years and when it came to an end he thought it time to move from Clapham and make a new beginning and he was asked would he go to Plymouth.

It was interesting that in reflecting upon his work, first of all in Hawkstone lecturing on canon law, and secondly as using canon law in advising the apostolic delegate, he very often said that despite his study in Rome, despite his lecturing at Hawkstone, on looking back he felt that he only began really to understand canon law when he started work at the delegation.

Part 3

Joe Jones again

A little while after Joe moved to Plymouth, I Beverley Ahearn was visiting Plymouth and one morning at breakfast Joe asked if I would give him help. At the time I had been in charge of our retreat house in Liverpool, I had been giving various retreats around the county and Joe asked me if I would give him a hand and in particular he had finished one talk, that he was preparing retreats and he had finished one talk, which he hoped to give in a retreat and he would like to go over it with me.

So a little while later we went over that talk together and discussed it, and when we had finished he said to me oh in a little while I am going out to give communion to a sick person, and I said “do me a favour”, I said” if you come across I’ve been looking for a reference in St Paul, I live no longer do I live but Christ lives within me. I said if you come across that reference please let me know”, and with that I went back to my room, and opening my door just a little later I heard a shout from down stairs it was Joe Jones just going out of the house with communion, he shouted up to me “Is that you Bev”, I said “yes” he said “Galatians 2:20”, so I went back into my room and made a note of that reference Galatians 2:20. 

About an hour and a half later, maybe two hours I went out of my room, and on the corridor in those days we didn’t have phones in our rooms, but there was an extension at the end of the corridor and lying on the floor with the phone in his hand, in his outdoor clothes was Joe Jones. He had come in from bringing communion, gone to make a phone call, collapsed and died.

I couldn’t remain in Plymouth for the funeral because I had a retreat arranged, the Provincial though arranged for him to be buried away from Plymouth because we didn’t have a cemetery in Plymouth, we weren’t looking upon Plymouth very much as a permanent foundation. And so rather than buying a plot in the cemetery the Provincial decided he should be buried in Teignmouth  in the Notre Dame convent cemetery, because back in the 1880s we owned Teignmouth, it was our house of studies for the combined English and Irish Province. And we had several Redemptorists buried there, so the superior was quite agreeable that Joe Jones be buried with the Redemptorists in that part of their cemetery in Teignmouth. May he Rest in Peace.

Memories of Fr. Wilfred Hughes C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Fr. Wilfred Hughes who died in 1977 in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia what is now Harrare Zimbabwe.

When Wilf Hughes was first ordained he was sent to Rome to study Moral Theology, and coming back from Rome just before the war he taught morals in Hawkstone before the war and during the war. He then became Parish Priest and Rector of Erdington, Erdington Abbey, our foundation in Birmingham, and he was there till 1950 when in those days of course the appointments were still being made by Rome, by the General Government. He was appointed Provincial Superior and he was reappointed three times so that altogether he was Provincial from 1950 until 1962.

One of the things he introduced towards the end of his time as Provincial was an annual holiday and how it was arranged was you could have three weeks in another Redemptorist community, but if you had family, you could go home to your family for half that time, and then go to a Redemptorist community for the other half.

If your family lived very near a Redemptorist community you could spend the three weeks in the Redemptorist community visiting the family each day.

Fr. Hughes came off Provincial in 1962, and that’s the year that the second Vatican council began its deliberations, and this was a difficulty for Fr Hughes ‘cause he was very much at home in the Tridentine church. He knew his morals, he knew his canon law and he knew the whole set up and when and how to seek exemptions from the law and he was quite forward looking.

But once the documents of Vatican 2 became known and he was reading those he didn’t feel at all home in the church that was being proclaimed through that council, and he was very much for keeping everything as it was in the old style – the Tridentine rite and he found  it very difficult in the last few years of his life during that time he was in Rome for a short time as Rector for the general house and then he went to Rhodesia as it was then, Zimbabwe as it is now and it was there that he died.

Memories of Fr. John Howard C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording.

Fr. John Howard died in Erdington, Birmingham in 1960.

He had been appointed to Hawkstone when Fr. Haig was getting old and weak in health. Fr Haig had been students’ confessor, and so Fr. Howard was sent there as students’ confessor to help and eventually take the place of Fr. Haig.

He made a big contribution outside his work as confessor, by the beehives that he kept and multiplying the number of beehives we had, and teaching students how to look after the bees so that when he got tool old, someone was able to take care of the bees.

He stayed in Hawkstone until about mid-1960, when work was going to begin on the old Hawkstone as we had it then, converting some of the inside and rebuilding the north wing. Some of the community was moved away and Fr. Howard was moved to Birmingham, where he did not last very long, but he died very suddenly, just found dead on the Feast of the Holy Innocents 1960.

Because of the nature of his death the police had to make enquiries and a police constable and a woman police constable arrived during dinner looking for the Rector, to take a statement and to examine Fr. Howard’s room.

And while they were doing this the woman constable was querying Fr. Chris Harris, who was the Rector, about enemies that Fr Howard might have had. And he was puzzled because he said Fr. Howard didn’t have any enemies. And she said well it sounds very much like it, I mean just listen to the sound, the sound of a party going on in the background. All they all having a meal and drinking and he only died this morning. It would seem rather they were rejoicing at the death of an enemy.

So Fr. Harris was at pains to point out the notion of death, that we could celebrate a man’s life, and celebrate a man’s life with joy, that it wasn’t a question of rejoicing over an enemy but rejoicing over a life well lived.

And so he avoided arrest by the two police people and they went off satisfied.

Memories of Fr. John Hodson C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of Recording

Fr. John Hodson who died in Bishop Eton in 1990.

As a much younger man during the war, John was in Liverpool, in Bishop Eton, and he would help the cook there if shopping were needed. It was during the war and John got very much involved in the black market in down town Liverpool. So much so that for his own safety he had to be moved to a community away from Liverpool - he went to Perth.

He did a lot of maintenance work in Perth on the building. He would be cleaning windows, and painting windows on the top floor with a rope around his middle, a rope that he thought was tied to the central heating radiator inside the room. But on more than one occasion was found to be just lying on the floor.

John spent quite a number of years in Hawkstone assisting Brother Sebastian on the farm, and I suppose it was more in his time at Hawkstone than elsewhere that John became known well, for having discussions with himself. He would talk to himself out loud using two different tones of voice, as if it was someone else another confrere and John who were having the discussion.

But he was noted, whatever he did, whether it was working on the farm in Hawkstone, or after that the last job that he had was sacristan at Bishop Eton, he always gave of his best doing jobs, whatever  he was asked to do. And He died when he suffered from cancer for some time being in hospital for treatment. He died at Bishop Eton and is buried there.

Memories of Brother Nicholas Higgins C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording.

Brother Nicholas Higgings, he died a member of the Hawkstone community in 1952. He died in hospital at Cheam.

Brother Nicholas was born in Ireland and grew up in Dublin and long before independence he became a policeman a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary. And his claim to fame is, he is said to have cautioned Matt Talbot for being a nuisance and threatening if he didn’t move on and behave himself he would arrest him. Matt Talbot later of course was the founder of the pioneer movement. And for a long time before his death Brother Nicholas was sacristan at Hawkstone, and once a year he used take a walk up the drive it was his only time of going out once a year in his big boots. I am sure his boots were left over from his policeman days. He would walk up the drive to Marchamley where there was a cobbler who had a little shed outside his back door he’d go in there take his boots off have them resoled. He’d pay him, and then go back to Hawkstone. That is the memory of Brother Nicholas.

Memories of Fr Martin Hayes C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording.

Fr. Martin Hayes died in 1958 at Bishop Eton.

He belonged to a time when there were a lot of Confessions on call at Bishop Eton, particular in the days before it was a Parish, and people could come, press the bell and the confessor of the day would come down, or they could wait and ask the sacristan for a particular priest.

And I remember the time the sacristan Brother Stanislaus saying,  telling me, how many people, about 80% of those who asked for a particular priest  asked for Fr. Martin Hayes in his old age. And it fitted in I think so much with what he said about himself.

 He said one thing he regretted in life was that he didn’t understand the love and mercy of God as a young man in the way he did as an old man, as if he had his preaching would have been far different.

He had the reputation of being a full blood and thunderer preacher of missions but he said he wished he could have preached much more about the love of God and the benefits, the fullness of Redemption.

Part 2

Transcription of recording.

Fr. Martin Hayes, talking about Confession reminds me of Fr. Martin Hayes in the latter years of his life. He had spent all his life giving missions and retreats and he was well known as a blood and thunder preacher through most of his life. But in the last few years of his life when he was at Bishop Eton – he was always available for Confession and brother sacristan, Brother Stanislaus said that about 80% of people who rang the bell looking for a confessor asked for Fr. Martin Hayes.

And he said himself not long before he died that he wished that he had learnt in his young life the mercy that he had learnt in his later life. That his preaching and care of people would have been so different but he thanked God that towards the end of his life he did understand God’s mercy and God’s love much more fully and was able to communicate it through the penitents who came to seek his help in the sacrament.

Memories of Fr. Francis Hawkins C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Fr. Francis Hawkins died in Bishop Stortford in 1972.

When you mention the name Francis Hawkins to most of the older members of the Province, they would immediately say do you mean Pod, Pod Hawkins. A nickname spelt “POD”, and it came from his time before the novitiate actually, when he was at the junior seminary at Ushaw and there they had a pudding known as pod, and he was one of the few who ever enjoyed it, and he enjoyed it so much that they gave him the name Pod, a name that came with him to our novitiate and stayed with him throughout his life.

Part 2

Transcription of recording

Francis Hawkins again or Pod as he was better known, had great difficulty at times in saying the words correctly, one famous occasion on reading the account of the denial of Peter, he finished up with the words  “and the cock threw chrise”

Part 3

Transcription of recording

Pod Hawkins again. 

After his ordination in the early 30s, Francis Hawkins went to Rome to study scripture. He came back at least during his second summer but on the way back to Rome, he asked the Provincial if he could stop a couple of nights in Florence, because he had read so much about it, and the Provincial said certainly.

So he wrote to Rome telling them when he would be back and that he was stopping in Florence.

So when he travelled back he arrived in Rome two days earlier than they were expecting him, someone said to him we thought you were spending a couple of days in Florence on the way. And he said well I wanted to but the train didn’t stop there. They said all the main line trains stop there. He said well the only place even starting with the letter F was Firenze. Poor Pod.

But then he taught scripture when he returned from Rome through the ‘30s, did a little parish work and was then back in teaching scripture again and became Rector of Hawkstone from ‘47 to ‘53 and during that time Fr. Bernard Keating had been brought back from South Africa. So Fr. Keaton took the Old Testament and Pod Hawkins lectured on the New Testament. Soon after that he was appointed to Bishop Stortford, and soon after that went to Rome for the chapter and was elected then consulter general.

Part 4

Transcription of recording

Fr. Francis Hawkins.

When I Beverley Ahearn was in Rome studying after ordination, Francis Hawkins was elected to the general council and he came to Rome whilst I was there, and on one occasion he spoke to me about travelling, and he said that one of his objections as consulter general was having to travel by Italian Airline Alitalia. The reason for that was ,they got, the general council got a discount from Alitalia. He said he would much by British Airways, when I asked him the reason he said well in an emergency an Alitalia captain might be much more inclined to throw his arms in the air and make an “act of contrition” preparing for death whereas a good British Airways non-believer would put all his strength and all his vigour into landing the plane as well as he could, but he still had to travel by Alitalia.

Memories of Fr. Christopher Harris C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.SsR

Transcription of recording

Fr. Christopher Harris who died in Bishop Eton in 1966.

Very shortly after his ordination in 1939 Fr. Harris went under an operation to have a diseased kidney removed, and the surgeon made the terrible mistake of removing the remaining good kidney and leaving him only with the diseased one. His life expectancy was fairly short after that, but thanks to treatment that he received he was able to work for more than 25 years as a Redemptorist priest in our Province.

He became Vocations Director, he became Rector and Parish Priest in Birmingham and he helped in the newly, fairly newly established priest in Bishop Eton Liverpool, but he died in 1966 just a little over 25 years after his ordination. He had two nephews in the Province at that time, but both of those later left the Province.

Memories of Brother Wilfrid Hallett C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Brother Wilfrid Hallett who died in Machynlleth in 1965.

He spent his last few years in our community at Machynlleth. One thing about Wilfrid he came from the North East of England and he never lost the accent he grew up with. So much so that when he was standing at the bus stop in Machynlleth one day he turned to ask one of the people in the queue waiting what time the next bus was due, and this person in a strong Welsh accent said sorry I only speak English I don’t speak Welsh.

At this time Brother Wilfrid’s nephew had joined us and was a student at Hawkstone later being ordained and his name is Brian Russell.

Memories of Fr. William Haig C.Ss.R   

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Fr. William Haig who died in Hawkstone in 1951.

A Scotsman, Fr. Haig was a convert, who then joined the Redemptorists and was ordained.

His name is familiar to people of his generation, because his cousin was General Haig, later Field Marshall Lord Haig, who took over command of the British Army in France during the First World War.

Fr. Haig was Novice Master for a short time in the 20’s, and he spent the latter part of his life with a weak heart in Hawkstone, where he was confessor to many generations of students.

He died there on the feast of the Epiphany in 1951.