When my brother Fr. Peter Ryan, S.J. visited me at the mission parish in Togo, West Africa, he wasn’t expecting to be smashing idols with a sledgehammer and burning the remains. But that’s exactly what he did.
By Fr. William Ryan Essay, Catholic World Report, April 18, 2023
Fr. William Ryan served in the Peace Corps in Togo from 1973 to 1975. He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Washington in 1980. After serving for many years in Hispanic ministry, he returned to Togo in 2006 to become the founding pastor of the mission parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe. His younger brother Peter, is a Jesuit priest who teaches at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit.
When my brother Fr. Peter Ryan, S.J. visited me not long ago at the mission parish here in Togo, West Africa, where I’ve served for the past seventeen years as a priest on loan from the Archdiocese of Washington, I don’t think he expected to be smashing idols with a sledgehammer and burning the remains. But life has its surprises, and that’s exactly what he did.
Here’s how it happened.
During Peter’s visit, a delegation from one of the prominent families in this large rural village where our mission is located came to see me with the great news that they had decided to renounce their ancestral idol. And they asked me to destroy it. Hearing about this, a few other neighboring families decided to do the same with theirs. Excitement began to build, a Saturday morning was selected, and plans were quickly made. …