Thursday, December 29th, 2005...2:13 pm
Monsignor Edward Ryle
We beseech thee, Master, to be our helper and protector. Save the afflicted among us; have mercy on the lowly; raise up the fallen; appear to the needy; heal the ungodly; restore the wanderers of thy people; feed the hungry; ransom our prisoners; raise up the sick; comfort the faint-hearted.
St. Clement of Rome
Monsignor Edward Ryle died last night after a month long hospital stay. He was called the “conscience of the legislature.”
Shortly after my brother was appointed to the state house, Ryle noticed that he had an image of St. Jude on his desk. For some rather strange historical reasons, St. Jude is the patron of hopeless causes. Ryle turned to my brother and said, “At least you know what you are up against.”
I worked with Ryle once. Many years ago, I travelled to Phoenix with a group called the Catholic Legislative Network. I barely remember what particular bill we were lobbying on, but I remember Ryle to be extremely friendly and engaged with the issues.
Ryle subscribed to a political vision that some in the Catholic social justice movement subscribe to called the “Seamless Garment.” This is also sometimes called the “Culture of Life,” a phrase that unfortunately too many of us Catholics have allowed the right to co-opt. Yes, Ryle was against abortion, but he was also against the death penalty and wanted society’s priorities rearanged in favor of the downtrodden and forgotten. It is a Christian vision that is a far cry from people who seem to parse scripture to look for excuses to hate people that they aren’t inclined to like in the first place.
See, there I go again: being all bitter the way Monsignor Ryle never was.
1 Comment
December 31st, 2005 at 11:29 pm
I’m not a Catholic myself, but I’ve always admired priests like this (and for that matter like Pope John Paul II) who really seemed to be standing up for what Christ taught. There always has been a lot of bad press about faulty behavior in priests (i.e. Bishop O’Brien) but I’ve known enough good Catholic priests (even in my Jewish-turned-to-Mormon life) that I really believe that the ones who get all that bad press are only a rare few.
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