Ruadhán Jones
Fr John Bracken Personal Profile
Fr John Bracken is the parish priest of Holy Cross Church, Dundrum, but much of his ministry is devoted to helping people look beyond his office, and that of the other clergy. “It’s one of my great annoyances, that people “see” the priest. I mean, obviously there’s a difference, but there’s not a difference in the person.”
Fr John’s awareness of the necessity for an expanded notion of “Church” springs from his own life path, and the experiences that shaped him and his path through life. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fr John shared the genesis of his priestly role:
“I grew up in Beaumont and after leaving school in 1989, I went into college to study for Business Administration. I was an altar server growing up and my parents would be involved in the parish. I then got involved in the St Vincent de Paul for a little while, but then, during that year at college, I was very taken hearing the call. The call to explore priesthood. And I was in a Carmelite parish so I discerned between Carmelite and diocesan priesthood, but I chose to go into Clonliffe in 1989. Seven years of formation, finished with two years working as a deacon in Ballymun Parish – Holy Spirit in Ballymun.”
During this time, Fr John worked a stint in St Patrick’s Institution, a juvenile detention facility in north Dublin. The chaplain, Fr Liam, made a deep impression on him as they worked side by side.
Prison
“It was his way of being with the lads in the prison, and also his sense of liturgy, and just learning, you know? It was a tough experience, but good experience.”
However, despite the value of this ministry, his most formative experience was still to come. “I got sick about three years after I was ordained. I became ill with depression. I spent four months in Saint John of God Hospital, which actually was the best formation that ever happened to me,” he says.
“Certainly, for me that experience was dark, but certainly it helped me to find a whole part of myself that I hadn’t really discovered, and that came out of being broken,” Fr John admits.
“There were remarkable people there, but also the remarkable Willie Nugent. He’s dead years now at this stage, he was a Holy Ghost Priest, but he was the most amazing person I ever came across. I just found a whole different side to myself, a creativity. Also, while I was sick, rather than despairing – well there was despairing – but it was the remarkable support you received from people. And how people, kind of, form and shape us too.”
Transformative
This transformative season of life sent Fr John back out into the world with a greater understanding of the role of the priest, and the role we each have to play in each other’s lives. Fr John makes this point in a way that seems tangential initially as he explains, “ I mean, we’re all the same…if I went hoovering the church tomorrow, someone might stop me and say, “Fr, you’re not to – I’ll hoover.” Because her perception is that it shouldn’t be me who’s hoovering, you know?”
This relates back to one of his greatest struggles in the Church today, which is helping people to understand what and who exactly the Church is. Fr John’s own experiences and struggles helped him to see everyone as standing on the same level in life and warned him of the dangers of clericalism. He shares an anecdote to reinforce this point:
“One of the greatest challenges is how people see or define what “Church” is. By that I mean, I remember back five or six years ago when Pope Francis was doing this engagement around the families. Asking families in local parishes – there were certain questions you were asked to work out with a group and see what the response was. And one woman, she stands out, I still remember she was talking about the Church and I remember saying, “What do you mean by “the Church?” And she says, “You guys!” It’s so easy – you hear the language we use today about the Church and it does become very clerical. It’s always the bishops or the priests. Even in your own newspaper, for this kind of article – have you done many women? Have you done many non-priests? Because it’s how we define Church. So I, more and more, try to say, “the Church community”, because it brings it back to people. Whereas if I say to nine or ten people in my church, “Who’s the Church?”, they’ll say, “It’s the building,” or “It’s you,” or “It’s the bishops””.
A wider vision of the Church goes hand-in-hand with an experience of suffering. Through his own battles, Fr John has found it easier to relate to the people that his parish nets have caught.
Experience
“I wouldn’t hide my experience. You know, I think it’s very important that people hear public figures because, like, in a church like Holy Cross Dundrum, at least 20 or 30% of people have experienced issues with their own mental health, and certainly a higher percentage when you include family. It’s so important for people to see that people can journey through it and get well, and also, there’s an understanding – people sometimes sense something and they come to you for conversation or just because they, kind of, sense something from you,” he explains.
This shared sense of understanding lies at the root of Fr John’s ministry and compels him to share a vision of the Church and the Gospel that truly has a place for everyone.