Msgr. Gerald Ryan

Msgr. Gerald Ryan, who served almost half a century as pastor and then senior priest administrator of St. Luke’s parish in the Bronx, died April 11 at Our Lady of Consolation Residence in Riverdale. He was 93.

He served as longtime pastor of St. Luke’s beginning in 1966. He was named senior priest administrator in 2010.

A Funeral Mass was offered April 16 at St. Luke’s. The celebrant was Cardinal Dolan. The homilist was Msgr. Neil A. Connolly, pastor of St. Mary’s parish in Lower Manhattan.

Cardinal Dolan, in a blog post the day after Msgr. Ryan’s death, called him “New York’s—and probably the nation’s—longest-serving pastor.”

Msgr. Ryan served at St. Luke’s through many historic and otherwise momentous occasions. He became pastor right after the changes brought by the Second Vatican Council took effect. He also spearheaded the church’s centennial celebration in 1997, which was highlighted by a Mass celebrated by Cardinal O’Connor. Msgr. Ryan was the principal celebrant of the parish school’s centennial Mass in 2010.

His tenure as pastor of St. Luke’s spanned five pontificates.

St. Luke’s is located in Mott Haven, the southernmost section of the South Bronx. In a 1992 Catholic New York article, then-Father Ryan said a lawless few damaged the reputation of the vast majority of the people of the South Bronx. “Do we have drugs down here in the South Bronx? We certainly do. Do people get shot? Yes, they do. Is there lawlessness? Surely. But the 2 percent gives the other 98 percent a bad name,” he said in his matter of fact style.

Noting the needs of the poor, he said they need self-esteem and self-respect in addition to better jobs, housing and social services.

He said, “If you can give them a good feeling about themselves, a feeling of love and respect…If in the South Bronx, people could just feel that this is their community and it could be as good-looking and as nourishing as they want it to be, that would go a long, long way toward truly helping them.”

In the same article he spoke with pride about the Church’s commitment to the inner city. “One of the greatest services the Church provides in an area like this is just presence,” he said. “That lends a kind of stability and a feeling of security to the community.”

For many years, Msgr. Ryan himself personified that Church presence. He was an active member of South Bronx Churches, a coalition of congregations that took a leading role in building affordable housing, organizing tenants in housing projects, lobbying public officials and working with police. He was a member of Priests in Urban Service, a forum for pastoral reflection and discussion for priests serving in inner-city ministry. During the tumultuous time when the South Bronx suffered from regular arson-related fires, Msgr. Ryan assisted the community by opening the church basement and keeping the parish school open.

He was also active in the civil rights movement and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama.

Msgr. Ryan served at St. Anthony of Padua in the Bronx, 1945-1966.

Born in Manhattan, he grew up in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx. He was ordained in 1945 and was named a monsignor in 1995.

Burial was in St. Raymond Cemetery in the Bronx.