Father John Brosnan SJ passed away in 2003 and he was given a state funeral at St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne. Fr Brosnan was one of the most notable priests in Australia's Catholic community due to his campaign against the death penalty and his contact with Ronald Ryan, the last man to hang in Australia.
Peter Norden AO, then Policy Director for Jesuit Social Services gave the eulogy. He makes some interesting comments about Fr Brosnan's philosophy. This is invaluable to our understanding of the flaws in the Code of Conduct (CoC) gaslighting phenomena.
‘I was in prison ……. and you visited me’.This must be the most succinct description of the pubic life of Father John Brosnan.
As Australian of quite remarkable qualities, who spent thirty years ministering to those on the other side of the walls: The walls of Pentridge Prison, Coburg.
Those thirty years earned Father Brosnan the reputation of being ‘The Knockabout Priest.’
A priest who walked with a dignified and grace-filled presence the corridors of the most notorious prison in recent Australian history.
A pastor who combined Christian compassion and worldly wisdom as he advised and counselled thousands of inmates in their prison cells.
An advocate for human rights and civil liberties who undertook this task with discretion and subtlety and good humour.
A leading opponent of capital punishment, who knew from first hand experience the essential inconsistency of upholding the value of human life, by taking the life of another.
But there was much more to the life of Father John Brosnan than the thirty years he spent ‘in the nick’.
John Brosnan was born on 12 April 1919, at Keilambete, a small town between Terang and Mortlake, in the Western District of Victoria.
He was the third child of four children, the second of three sons, of Jeremiah Joseph Brosnan, a railway fettler, and his wife, Mark Jane, known as Jenny. Jeremiah Brosnan was born in County Kerry, Ireland, and migrated to Australia in 1886.
John Brosnan grew up in the small town of Cudgee, near Warrnambool, with is sister, Mary, present here today, and his brothers, Denis and Jim, both now deceased.
John was educated at Cudgee State School and later at Assumption College, Kilmore.
His early years at Cudgee, he often recalled in later years, growing up largely with Baptist families rather than a Catholic environment, prepared him for later life, where he moved easily in circles outside of the more sheltered Catholic Church network.
He often said that they had discovered ecumenism in Cudgee long before the Second Vatican Council and before it became fashionable!
Young John Brosnan later boarded at Assumption College for four years from the age of fifteen, from 1934-1937. He played one game with the First XVIII of Assumption College, but was carried off with a corkey ten minutes into the first quarter.
Geelong Football Club won the premiership that year in 1937, and his devotion to that other form of religion was well established, even in those days.
Late that evening, young John Brosnan led an enthusiastic celebration march down the main street of Kilmore with fellow students. The Marist Headmaster at the time, Brother Hilary, suggested that it might not have been appropriate for a young man with intentions to join the seminary the following year!
Stopped by people in the street in later years, who began their conversation with: ‘Father, I am not of your faith, but …’, Father Brosnan would interrupt them and say: ‘You mean you don’t follow my beloved Cats?’
Last August, the Geelong Football Club was preparing a public tribute to Father Brosnan, at their last home game, to be played at Colonial Stadium. The tribute was postponed, after Father broke his hip a few weeks before.
Discussing the preparations for this event with the young marketing officer from the club in recent days, I asked him: ‘Do you know who Father Brosnan was?’ He admitted he didn’t. I told him: Father Brosnan was effectively the marketing man for the Geelong Football Club around Australia, before the term ‘marketing’ was even invented!
As a student of Assumption College, young John Brosnan did apply for the seminary, to Bishop Daniel Foley of Ballarat. Many years later, Father Brosnan still remembered the curt letter in reply: ‘Dear Mr Brosnan, we have no vacancies for students for the priesthood in the Diocese of Ballarat. The religious orders are always anxious for suitable candidates.’
His personal and spiritual references from Assumption had been first class, even if his academic achievements were not, and after failing Latin of all subjects in his first year of Matriculation, he repeated the year and was accepted into the Archdiocese of Melbourne by Archbishop Mannix the following year, in 1938.
In 1945, John Brosnan was ordained a priest by Archbishop Mannix, here at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, at the age of twenty-six.
The next two years he worked in Geelong, as chaplain to the Saint Augustine’s orphanage. Then as assistant priest at Saint Joseph’s Church in Collingwood for two years. Then he was stationed here at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral for a further five years, until his appointment to the position of Chaplain to Pentridge Prison in 1956.
During the years as Assistant Priest here at Saint Patrick’s he came to know and admire deeply Archbishop Mannix. Much of his astute capacity to move so effectively in public life came from the lessons he learned watching and listening to Mannix during those years.
In his biography, Father Brosnan explained the impact that Mannix had on him:
‘Dr Mannix was the only person, man, woman or child, I have known in my life I couldn’t take my eyes off. His every movement was worth watching, his every word worth hearing. I could watch Don Bradman bat, I could watch Reg Hickey or Polly Farmer move on a football field and I could watch Dr Mannix drink his soup! Every movement of the man was worth watching. You realised you were in the presence of greatness.’When he arrived at Pentridge Prison as Chaplain in 1956, at the age of thirty-five, John Brosnan was both astonished and disturbed to find so many of his former junior football players from the inner-city parishes and from the orphanage at Geelong serving time. Before the psychologists had worked it out, he spoke about ‘kids’ futures being written on their faces before they were born.’ The ten years of priestly ministry before his assignment to Pentridge had prepared Father Brosnan well for his assignment to those sentenced to Her Majesty’s prisons.
His priesthood was one deeply inculturated in the lives of ordinary people. He was as much at home in Hardiman’s Pub, on Flemington racetrack or at the dogs on Monday nights, as he was in the church buildings. But he was always the pastoral man, offering a word of recognition or encouragement when it was most needed.
A man with a big heart for those in real need, offering a generous and practical response when called for. But this was balanced by an honesty and an insight into human behaviour which was hard to parallel: ‘Nurse a mug long enough and he will die in your arms’ was one of his sayings.
His great love of people, his incredible knowledge of family trees, and his memory for names and places, remained with him through to the end. His last thirteen years of ministry after retirement from Pentridge in 1985 were spent in the parishes: firstly, at Glenhuntly, then eleven years as Parish Priest at Holy Redeemer Church in Surrey Hills.
At Glenhuntly, one of his pastoral responsibilities included the care of those who attended the nearby Caulfield Racecourse. At Surrey Hills, his involvement with the local families watching their children progress through primary school was one of his delights. He knew each child by name and would reward many by a little treat at the end of the school day, usually a Mars Bar! Late last year a Year 8 student at Saint Kevin’s College asked me to send his regards to Father Brosnan: ‘Tell him, from the punter.’
But Father Brosnan’s public persona was formed during his thirty years as Chaplain at ‘The College of Knowledge’ in Sydney Road, Coburg.
There were many thousands of people assisted by Father Brosnan’s presence within the walls of Pentridge Prison during those years. When opening a new site for the Brosnan Centre, then in Sydney Road, Brunswick, former Premier John Cain quipped: ‘Father Brosnan worked with a terrible lot of people.’
However, this generous hearted man, with such a wonderful insight into human behaviour, pastored not only to those behind the walls of the prison, but to many thousands of others, in particular their wives, their children and their friends, many of whom could be regarded as victims of crime.
For the first twenty years of his prison ministry, Father Brosnan lived in a little cottage in Abbotsford, provided by the Good Shepherd Sisters. Here a procession of friends and prison acquaintances would visit him after hours, especially on Saturday mornings. Supported in a practical and generous way by the Sisters, Father Brosnan operated one of the then most effective after-care services, from his own residence.
He was pleased to see this early work as the forerunner of the Brosnan Centre established by the Jesuits in 1977, and later named after him, on his retirement from prison ministry in 1985.
In his last ten years as prison chaplain, he lived in a centrally located flats behind the old Saint Vincent’s hospital, provided by the Sisters of Charity. Throughout his working life, he appeared to have just one pair of shoes, one suit, and a sports jacket. What he was given as a gift was generally passed on to someone in need.
Saint Vincent De Paul prison visitors and VACRO, assisting the families of prisoners, were key collaborators in his ministry.
VACRO’s former manager, Matt Derham, used to refer to Father’s ‘old boys association’ as ‘Bros’s menagerie.’
Just as the time with Archbishop Mannix was a formative period in his priestly life, so was his ministry to Ronald Ryan and Ryan’s family. The public campaign against capital punishment with which he was so centrally involved in late 1966 and early 1967, was in one sense a failure.
But Ryan’s last words before his execution, directed to Father Brosnan, tell another story: ‘Never forget, no matter how long you live, you were ordained for me.’
Father Brosnan’s involvement with Ryan was one of the clearest, and certainly the most public, forms of witness he could give to the unconditional love of God.
Many Christian people mistakenly believe that this love must be earned or deserved. Father Brosnan had learned through his own life experience, especially through 30 years of prison ministry, that it is freely given.
It is significant, and a tribute to Father Brosnan’s involvement in the campaign against capital punishment, that Ryan was the last person executed by the State in Australia’s history and that capital punishment has now been removed from the statutes of every State and Territory in this country.
One of the most endearing qualities of John Brosnan was his refusal to sit in judgement on others. When it was suggested that one of his friends had been found to be involved in some form of dubious or illegal activity, ‘so they say’ he would comment.
While traditional in his theological beliefs, he had an enormous pastoral capacity and personal freedom to respond creatively to the circumstances of the person seeking his advice or guidance.
He moved with grace and with dignity across all levels of our society, and was well received by persons of all political persuasions and religious beliefs or ideologies.
The demand for his presence in public forums and as an after-dinner speaker was unbelievable and his capacity for this did not diminish with the years. He was often asked how he survived 30 years in the Nick. He would refer to four ancient documents that were a big help, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He would also quote words of wisdom from Henry Lawson.
John Brosnan was able to speak on sensitive issues, such as the need for prison reform, in a way that was hard to take offence, even in an entertaining but always respectful manner. Through this means, he was able to help the wider community consider and reflect on the complex issues of crime and punishment.
A notable example was when he was invited by the then Minister for Prisons, Pauline Toner, to join her in addressing an angry crowd of more than a thousand local residents opposed to the construction of Barwon Prison at Lara.
Father Brosnan was, as always, the essence of diplomacy and a builder of bridges between different points of view.
Many people will be affected by the departure of Father John Brosnan: Mary, his sister, the foremost, of course. And the members of Father’s Brosnan’s family.
Throughout this Cathedral today many people, from many different walks of life, will shed a tear as they reflect on the impact that this remarkable priest has had on their lives.
It may have been a quiet word of encouragement at a time of personal crisis. Or a contact made that led to a job opportunity or a decent place to live. Or his presence in court, when it seemed little could be said on one’s behalf. Or a quiet word of advice to a politician or public servant.
This legacy of Father Brosnan will live on in the centre that bears his name: The Brosnan Centre.
But what we will miss most of all is his friendship.
I can just her John Brosnan ask the question, at the pearly gates, with some wonderment:
‘Lord, when did I see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty and give you drink? When did I see you a stranger and make you welcome; sick or in prison and go to see you/’And the Lord will answer him:
‘I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it to me.’Father John Brosnan, a faith-filled life that brought hope and encouragement where it was most needed.
A life of respectful and committed service, with much to say to our divided world at the present time. Father Brosnan, we thank you!
Please see the Catholic.community site for more interesting stories.