Rev. Ed Hird sat down with Rev. John Horgan from St. Pius X parish to learn more about how he arrived in the Seymour area from the East Coast and how he hopes to build up a sense of home and community here.
Ed Hird: What led you to your calling as a priest?
John Horgan: I grew up in Cambridge, Mass., in an Irish Catholic family. Both of my parents had grown up in the Depression and knew what it meant to be poor. This made them both very generous people, which was very inspirational to me. My vocation was very precocious; I knew I wanted to be a priest when I was four. My room became so full of religious pictures and statues that my mother complained that she didn’t known whether to dust or genuflect when she entered. After high school, I attended Harvard where my grandparents had been in service after immigrating from Ireland. I graduated with a degree in Comparative Religion in 1980. That same year, I began my studies for the priesthood in Rome; while there, fellow students from Vancouver recommended I volunteer for service here, which I did in 1985. I was ordained in Rome by Pope St. John Paul II in 1986.
Ed Hird: Where did you serve before being at St. Pius?
John Horgan: For my first 10 years of priesthood, I served as a hospital chaplain throughout Vancouver. I was assigned to St. Paul’s Hospital during the AIDS epidemic from 1989 to 1996. I learned a great deal from ministering to the sick and their families; and from the wonderful dedication of doctors and nurses. In 1996, I returned to Rome to continue my studies in moral theology. After that I became parish priest at Sts. Peter and Paul’s in Vancouver for 15 years. Along the way, I have done a good deal of lecturing and teaching in medical ethics, moral theology, and also in the area of saints and potential cases of sainthood which is another one of my major interests.
Ed Hird: Tell us about your coming to St. Pius and how it began.
John Horgan: I came to St. Pius in 2013. I was drawn to it because Saint Pius X, who was Pope from 1903-1914, was my favourite saint from childhood. The parish began some 70 years ago, when priests came out weekly to celebrate mass for Catholics living in the Deep Cove area. During those early years, mass was celebrated in the community fire hall, which some of my parishioners still remember. Later a permanent parish was established here at the foot of Mount Seymour. The first building was a combination church, meeting hall and priests’ residence. The present church and rectory were built in 1984 in the Romanesque style. St. Pius is now a parish of approximately 400 households, most of whom live within the Seymour/Deep Cove area. About 700 people attend the three Sunday services, as well as weekday services. We also host a Korean Catholic Mission community, which has some 200 people who attend their own masses and other weekly services here.
Ed Hird: How is the school doing?
John Horgan: My predecessor, Msgr. Pedro Lopez Gallo began to plan a parish elementary school soon after he arrived as pastor in 1986. We now have a thriving kindergarten through Grade 7 school with a student population of roughly 225, including 25 per cent non-Catholic students. The school is known for its excellence in language arts, and its theatre and music programs. Together with the other six North Shore parishes, we are also committed to a wonderful renewal and rebuilding project for Saint Thomas Aquinas high school. The first part of the project involves a $12-million new classroom block and will serve our communities for generations to come.
Ed Hird: What are your hopes for St. Pius’ future?
John Horgan: I hope to build up that sense of home and community that I experienced in the parishes in which I grew up in Massachusetts, when the church was a living part of family and neighbourhood life in joy and in sorrows. I have a great love for my church‘s faith and teachings and I love to share those gifts in the form of beautiful liturgies and worship, thought-provoking adult education classes and consistent witness for people exploring the Catholic church or who are reverting to Catholic practice after time away.
Ed Hird: Tell us about your outreach to Kiwanis Care Centre.
John Horgan: Parish volunteers regularly visit the local Kiwanis Care Centre, where I celebrate Mass for the residents. At Christmastime, we work with the help of the social work and nursing departments, to provide needed gifts of clothing and other things to those who have no family members to look after them. The gifts are chosen by staff who know them best and care for them each day. The gifts vary from chocolates and books to “adaptable clothing “and other items for the patients’ comfort and dignity. Our parishioners shop for the gifts and wrap them as if for family members. It is a little way of affirming that we are all one family in Christ.
Rev. Ed Hird has been the rector at St. Simon’s Church, 420 Seymour River Pl., since 1987. stsimonschurch.ca
