Retired English couple Bobby and John Hoyle were so drawn to the story of Bishop John Brady through their involvement helping Perth researchers, they eventually become Catholics. They told their story to Fr Robert Cross
Bobby Hoyle: I felt the first intimations of my spiritual journey when I was only 7 years old, over 65 years ago. Born into a Jewish family, my father had brought me up to believe in a multicultural world and, on a family holiday in North Wales, he had taken me to Morning Service in a local chapel. When it came to the beginning of the Eucharist, I remember feeling a need to kneel with the other members of the congregation, but when I knelt, my father very gently told me that this was not appropriate since we did not truly belong in this particular House of the Lord.
Many years passed – we were not particularly orthodox Jews, but we celebrated the various High Holidays (Passover, Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur) and I even learnt to read Hebrew.
However, I was aware of something “lacking” in me that I was unable to identify until I attended a service with a friend at our local church.
From then on, I began to understand where I was going, and I sought the advice of the minister of the local church in the area to which John and I had moved.
After several months of instruction, I was baptised and confirmed into the Church of England.
John and I moved to France in 2000, to a small mountain village in the Eastern Pyrenees, where the only place of worship is the beautiful Abbey of Arles sur Tech.
Despite our being Anglicans, we were welcomed by the incumbent priest, Père Hennecart, to worship at the Abbey. Over the years, we have become increasingly involved in the life of the church, to the extent that I was asked to be part of the programming team and I also help with the parish accounts. I had spoken several times with Père Elie, our parish priest, about the possibility of converting to Roman Catholicism, reading and reflecting on how to move towards conversion.
Then, earlier this year, Père Elie mentioned to John and me that Archbishop Hickey and Father Robert had visited the cemetery at nearby Amélie les Bains where, unknown to us, the first Bishop of Perth, John Brady, was buried.
We were due to visit Perth on holiday, where we met the Archbishop and Fr Robert to whom we offered any help we could give the team who were coming to France to exhume the remains of Bishop Brady in order that he could return to Perth to rest in the Cathedral crypt with his successors. Little did we realise that we were moving forward in our spiritual journey at this time.
In March, we spent a great deal of time with the team, helping as much as we could, and also getting to know everyone.
To our delight, the team came up to our home on the evening that Bishop Brady’s remains were recovered, and we had the honour of welcoming the Bishop to our home, where he rested comfortably in the van outside our house.
It was from this time that it became clear to me that there was only one direction in which to move, and that was towards Rome.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Bishop Brady has been instrumental in this part of my spiritual journey and I owe him a great debt. It is also through him that I have come to know and love many wonderful people in Perth, who have unknowingly helped me to reach where I find myself today.
I now feel I have come home and can proceed further on this extraordinary journey.
One of the younger members of our congregation came up to me after yesterday’s Mass, following my Profession of Faith in St Mary’s Abbey at Arles sur Tech, to tell me how encouraging it was for her to witness an older person still open and ready to move forward, with so much more to learn. I could only respond by telling her that life is enhanced by learning, to which there is no end.
John Hoyle:
I chose to become a member of the Anglican Church as a child, and was confirmed in that church in 1956. This was a commitment that I followed until July 2011.
As a mature student in the 1960s, I can still remember studying the issues being discussed in the Second Vatican Council, which opened in October 1962. As a qualified teacher, I worked at St Mary’s Primary School, near Oxford, and I was the only non-Catholic on the staff.
The Sisters and lay teachers were a fantastic team with whom to work, and it was at that point in my life that the seeds were sown which would grow into my thinking about joining the Catholic Church.
These were thoughts that did not take root until Bobby and I moved to France some 11 years ago. We began attending services in the Abbey at Arles sur Tech and, after some time, spoke with the priest, Père Hennecart, about our taking a fuller part in the church.
Père Hennecart saw no reason against this happening, an opinion that was later confirmed by the Bishop of Perpignan.
Now the journey was beginning, but it was to be another seven years before my total commitment. We had told our present priest, Père Elie, about the visits we had made to St Mary’s Cathedral and to New Norcia, and about the impression both communities had made on us.
Earlier this year, Père Elie told us that he had met Archbishop Hickey and Fr Robert, who were visiting the grave of Bishop Brady in Amélie les Bains.
Shortly after this, we visited Perth – a holiday that had been planned many months before – and we contacted Archbishop Hickey, who very kindly agreed to meet us.
We were greeted by Fr Robert, who introduced us to the Archbishop and also to Odhran O’Brien. On hearing about the exhumation that was to take place in Amélie les Bains, we offered any help that we could give the team when they arrived in mid-March.
I began reading and, following Odhran’s offer to be involved in the research of Bishop Brady’s European life, both in Ireland and in France, I was brought back to those seeds of thought that had been sown many years before in England.
I now knew that to join the Catholic Church was a decision that I felt compelled to make. I also knew, but I don’t fully understand how, that Bishop Brady was profoundly involved in helping me to make the decision, as were Père Elie and Fr Robert, although at the time, they were quite unaware of my feelings.
On Sunday, 17 July 2011, those seeds, sown so long ago, bore fruit and I made my Profession of Faith during Mass in St Mary’s Abbey at Arles sur Tech.
The kindness and support of so many friends in both Australia and France have helped me to complete my journey into the Mother Church.