From adventurer to parish priest

By JACKLYN SIRIAS
THE spirit of adventure is a factor that has brought many expatriates to visit PNG prior to independence.
One of these unwitting tourists is Irishman John Glynn, now Father John Glynn.
“I came to PNG in the very end of 1963 as a young man looking for adventure and that was 53 years ago.” Fr John said he had no idea or anything like that when he first came up.
“The Australians were trying to prepare the country for independence and they wanted universal primary education so they were recruiting young men and I was one of them that came up to undergo a short teacher training programme in Rabaul at Malaguna Tech.
After training, they sent them off into the bush (rural communities) to start primary school teaching.
“It was a very adventurous thing as when I came up, I was just 27 years old.
He was sent to the bottom end of New Ireland to run a little primary school there.  He ended up spending 38 years teaching in New Ireland.
“With time out, I went back to Australia and studied for the Catholic priesthood for four years and came back to the country to serve as a diocesan priest.  He was not a member of a religious order or community.
“I joined the diocese of Kavieng straight after my studies as I was accepted by the bishop,” Fr John said.
He liked the country so much that as soon as independence in 1975, he applied for PNG citizenship.
“Here I am a Papua New Guinea citizen and a diocesan priest as we call ourselves,” he said.
“Because diocesan priests do not belong to a religious order or community, that means that they cannot get rid of me,” he added.
“After my retirement, I came here to Port Moresby in 2001 as I was invited by the founder of the Port Moresby Grammar School to teach at his school.
“He was a good friend as we both taught at one of the primary schools in New Ireland together.”
After having retired as a priest, Fr John still conducts priestly obligations around the country.
“I am 80 by the way, when you get to this age, you get another freedom where nobody can tell you what to do anymore.”
After teaching at POM Grammar for a year, he moved to another school.
“In 2002, I switched to Jubilee Catholic Secondary School where I was teacher and chaplain and counsellor,” he added.
Fr John is still at the school and apart from his teaching duties he has become very vocal on issues such as discrimination and poverty and other related social issues that affected the lives of many.
He has founded a number of organisations that include WeCare Foundation and Youth Against Corruption Association which comes under Transparency International. WeCare started after a young prostitute went to him for help. She had specifically gone to see him because he once was the parish priest at her village.
“When she came along, I did not know what to do. Honestly I had no idea. You know I was in Moresby and getting off by the years and wanting a quiet life really.
“But because I knew her family, her village, her place and people, I could not just turn her away. ”
So, he began meeting with her and some of her friends to try to seek answers for them and offer them some hope.
He let on to people in his parishes (Morata and Hohola) what he was doing to try to help less fortunate people in the community and found that people were willing to assist.
“So we started little care groups trying to look after children on the streets, and WeCare just grew from there.
“It’s like when you put a seed in the ground and wait to see what’s going to come and what’s going to grow up.
“I have no idea what was going to happen as a result of this.
Fr John said the foundation was to assist and give second chances to people living with disabilities and were neglected by their families.
“No one else from the outside can help our people so we have to help them.”
The care group established by Fr. John teaches people and communities to take ownership of their own lives and wellbeing.
“… people from those particular areas volunteered to do the job themselves by identifying persons with special needs in the community so that we can work with them.”
Meanwhile, Fr John said the Youth Against Corruption Association (YACA) was formed to help address corruption issues by starting with young people.
It starts with a YACA pledge that guides young people to speak the truth, respect people and property, be gentle with their actions and words, repay debts, keep promises and ask God to help oneself to be faithful to the pledge.