Interview with Diamond Jubiliarian Fr Bev CSsR...
Fr Bev Ahearn CSsR,
Diamond Jubilee of Priestly Ordination.
The following article was prepared by one of our Postulants, Br Michael Taylor.
Why do we make the life-changing decisions that we do ?
How do we get to where we are ?
These where the questions in my mind when I ( a thirteen-week old postulant ) was asked to interview Fr Bev Ahearn ( celebrating 60 years of ordination ).
“I wanted to become a missionary” is Fr Bev’s simple answer.
And so began a lifetime’s journey, the majority of it “ lived out” in the Redemptorist Congregation…or to be more precise, the Redemptorist family.
Indeed, when Fr Bev’s time (5yrs.) in the Junior Seminary was drawing to a close, his family were war-requisitioned to Australia because of his father’s profession and Fr Bev had to choose…he stayed with his Redemptorist family.
However, we get ahead of ourselves. Let’s start from the beginning.
Early years.
Born in Liverpool, Fr Bev was the first of four children, with two brothers and one sister.
At 5 he began school, Convent of Mercy (which later became Bishop Eton school) and then at 7 went to the Vincentian school in Gateacre. It was here, just before the school closed and he transferred to St. Edward’s at 11, that he met his first Redemptorist – Fr. Edmund McHugh C.Ss.R. It was his personal example that sowed the seed of Fr Bev’s desire to be a missionary.
Junior seminary.
The desire to be a missionary continued to grow, and having spent a couple of years at St. Edward’s, Fr Bev applied to and was accepted, with the encouragement of his parents, for the Junior Seminary at Bishop Eton. Fr Bev described this “as the right thing to do, and whilst strict, he was happy”. Happy despite the almost military precision of the timetable that he lived out. The war necessitated the evacuation of the junior seminary to Hawkstone (1941-1943). By 1946, Fr Bev was back in Bishop Eton and his time in the Junior Seminary was drawing to a close. This coincided with his father’s call-up and the family transfer to Australia – because of his father’s essential war skills as a pharmacist. Fr Bev had a life-changing decision to make – to stay or go. He decided on staying.
Novitiate.
So the next stage in Fr Bev’s life began with the novitiate in Kinnoul, Perth, of 12 months and 1 day. With his five other novices, he remembers there being virtually no studying (forbidden) and the focus being on spirituality and meditation, and work in the garden. In retrospect, Fr Bev would have liked the Junior Seminary to have gone on, but not the novitiate.
Student.
At 18, Fr Bev’s novitiate ended and he took his temporary vows and so began 6 years of formation at Hawkstone. As the canonical age for ordination was 24, the preceding six years were designed for structured learning ( 2yrs. Theology, 2 yrs. Philosophy, 2 yrs. Moral Theology ) and as the accepted path for training to be a Redemptorist. Fr Bev remembers the strict isolation (particularly from the locals) but this seemed “normal”.
Ordination.
Fr Bev’s ordination (with two other Liverpudlians) took place at Bishop Eton on 7th April, 1953, in a service that lasted one and a half hours, conducted totally in Latin.
He remembers the trepidation of the night before but also celebrating his first mass the next day, after ordination, under the watchful eyes and scrutiny of the prefect of students !
Working life.
Post-ordination, Fr Bev’s first posting was to be sent to Rome to begin higher studies – a doctorate in philosophy. That completed, he was sent to Hawkstone, to begin a period of eight years of teaching scholastic philosophy. Another eight year period of teaching followed at a school in Birmingham, the Redemptorist’s Minor’s Seminary.
In 1972, Fr Bev was back at Bishop Eton for a 3 year stint to manage and develop the Retreat House.
He was then elected to the OPC / EPC, spending 3 years at Clapham as 2nd. Consulter and then a second 3 years in Canterbury, supporting formation.
By 1981, Fr Bev was called back to Bishop Eton as Rector, to “wind-up” the Retreat House (because of falling retreat numbers and dry rot !) that he had been asked to promote back in 1972.
Having demolished the Retreat House, Fr Bev became Vicar in Kinnoul, Perth, with the brief of supporting the mission community and pastoral house, work he undertook for 6 yrs.
In 1990, he was appointed Bursar, back at Hawkstone, helping to run courses and giving spiritual direction.
By 2004, Fr Bev was in his latest (and current) posting in Clapham, helping and assisting in the running of the house.
Congratulations.
Fr Bev is a tangible example of the Redemptorist charism. A man of humility, humour, obedience and an unwavering belief that it was a Redemptorist life that he was called to lead.
Fr Bev joined the Redemptorists to be a missionary and bizarrely this is the very thing that he was never appointed to be. This was a recurring theme throughout the interview, Fr Bev always thinking that his next appointment would be that of a “missionary”. He laughs at the irony, but is stoic and not resentful.
Redemptorists “mission” in many ways and whilst Fr Bev was never given that formal title, his skills were an indispensable support to the missionary work of the congregation.
Sixty years on, Fr Bev’s enthusiasm for the Redemptorists and the life he chose, is undiminished. I respectfully take my postulant’s hat (no longer the Biretta) off to him !!!
Fr Bev - Vivat in aeternum!
Thanks to Br Michael Taylor
