Priest Courageous in the AIDs Pastoral Ministry in the 80’s
Henry Bizien, Vancouver, BC
Volume 37 Issue 10, 11 & 12 | Posted: January 4, 2023
A REMEMBRANCE
Father John Horgan: my Priest, my teacher, my friend.
As the fine rain mists the flowers on the tomb of Fr. John, the day after the funeral in the Garden of Gethemani, I can but feel the pain of the separation with which death, so alien to our being, inflicts on us. Yet, here lies my friend.
I recall first seeing him in the rectory of the Cathedral of the Holy Rosary in the mid 80’s. I asked him if he was a new priest. He lowered his gaze and said: “only a deacon.” The humility of his answer struck me as did this wonderful infectious smile, a hallmark of his personality. As an occasional reader at the Cathedral, we met again after his ordination in Rome by Saint John-Paul II.
The promising young priest was moved to St. Paul’s hospital in Vancouver. I followed him in his new function. As the AIDS epidemic bloomed in the late 80’s, this hospital bore the blunt of a generation of young men afflicted by this scourge. Shunned and often abandoned by family and friends afraid of ‘contamination’, the staff noted this new priest often holding the hand of a dying individual in the middle of the night.
After 10 years, he was transferred to Sts. Peter and Paul in Vancouver. He rehabilitated the whole sanctuary, and instilled a new vigour in the congregation. A lover of beauty, the new stain-glass windows are a testament to his love of the Creator. Under his tutelage, many a vocation came to fruition. He skilfully guided my Master’s studies at St. Mark’s College. But the Beast always lies in the darkness. In a pure and zealous effort to help a new priest’ study in Rome, he did some fundraising.
As fate would have it, this individual was embroiled in vile activities, unbeknownst to any one at the time. But a mere association will not prevent scandal in our days anymore than in the witch-hunts of the past, he suffered the innuendoes heroically through it all. The dampness of the climate in North Vancouver at St. Pius X, his next parish, did little to improve what, beyond a solid figure, was a fragile health. The recent transfer to his last parish, a move he wanted out of his great love for Our Lady, revealed a cancer which finally took him. The 14000 books, in many languages of his private library offer a glimpse in mind of the Harvard Graduate, Summa Cum Laude, and many other degrees from Rome, all at the same academic level. This tremendous intellect is reflected in his sermons, online, his book, his work with EWTN, his Chaplaincy to the Knights of Malta, The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, and many other religious organizations.
But the most telling trait of this intellectual giant is steeped in the humility of his favourite prayer: “Jesus, I want what you want for me.”
My Priest, my thesis advisor, my friend bore many crosses with heroic virtue. Rest in peace, faithful servant, our loss is Heaven’s gain.
Henry Bizien, Vancouver, BC