Patrick J. Ryan, S.J., before the McGinley Lecture at Fordham University in 2018. Credit: Bruce Gilbert for Fordham Now

The funeral for Patrick J. Ryan, S.J., on Saturday was in the same building where he was ordained 57 years ago: Fordham University Church. But while he spent years of his life and many important moments at that school in the Bronx, he did not consider it his true home—which would always be Africa. An important figure in interfaith dialogue in the church and the holder of the Laurence J. McGinley Chair in Religion and Society at Fordham for a number of years, Pat nevertheless always identified himself first as a missionary rather than a scholar. 

Born in 1939 in Queens, N.Y. (from which he claimed he had been trying to escape ever since), Pat attended a Jesuit preparatory school in New York before entering the Society of Jesus in 1957. His father had been a member of the I.R.A. and a representative in the Dáil Éireann, the Irish parliament, in Ireland before emigrating to the United States. 

After a number of years of study in Jesuit institutions, Pat volunteered to go to Nigeria, where he taught English for a year as part of his Jesuit formation. “[I]t occurred to me that I was a less than generous knight, to use Ignatian imagery, and that I should give some thought to a missionary future,” Pat later wrote in America. “I resolved the issue by deciding to volunteer for the missions. Looking back on it, I realize it was a reckless choice—but I never got around to reversing it, for which I thank God.”

After ordination, Father Ryan earned his doctorate in comparative religion and Islamic studies from Harvard University, doing another year of field work in Nigeria for his degree. His first academic assignment was at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana; he was the first Jesuit officially assigned to work in that newly independent country. After nine years there, Father Ryan returned to Fordham to teach Middle East Studies for three years. In 1986, he accepted the first of numerous assignments in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, working as an administrator, a professor and in Jesuit formation.

1996 brought Father Ryan back to Fordham for a two-year stint as the Loyola Chair in Humanities, but Africa then beckoned again: In 1998, he was appointed the president of Loyola Jesuit College in Abuja, Nigeria, where he would serve for six years. He returned to Fordham in 2005, serving as vice president for mission and ministry for four years and then serving as the McGinley Chair for 13 more, succeeding Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., in the latter position. Many of his twice-yearly McGinley lectures, which focused on Jewish, Islamic and Christian responses to religious themes, were published in America. He retired in 2022.

In addition to hundreds of scholarly and popular articles, Father Ryan also published four books: Imale: Yoruba Participation in the Muslim Tradition: A Study of Clerical Piety (1978); The Coming of Our God: Scriptural Reflections for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany (1999); When I Survey the Wondrous Cross: Scriptural Reflections for Lent (2004); and Amen: Jews, Christians and Muslims Keep Faith with God (2018).

A longtime contributor to America, Father Ryan first wrote for the magazine in 1968, an essay he composed just before his priestly ordination: “Why I want to be a priest.” His wry sense of humor was visible in the closing paragraphs:

I am reasonably willing to gamble my life and love within a structure managed by slightly corrupt, busybody, human bishops who arise from a slightly corrupt, busybody, human people. I am reasonably willing to strive for the unity of mankind in grace around the sign of the Church, for the unity of Christians with their servant bishops, for the unity of bishops with the servant of the servants of God.

He revisited the question in 2003, writing “Why I still want to be a priest.” His biggest surprise after 35 years of ministry? That one of the primary consolations of his Jesuit life was not his time in the classroom but his time in the pulpit. “I thought in 1968 that my future ministry of the word would mainly consist of teaching and a certain witnessing to God and the truth in an academic setting. As a matter of fact, however, I have found much satisfaction over these years in preaching, not only as a university chaplain in the African tertiary institutions where I taught but also in local outstations,” he wrote. “These are smaller worship communities, less than a full parish, usually in rural areas but sometimes found in burgeoning cities as well.”

From 1988 to 1994, Father Ryan also wrote “The Word” column for America, offering weekly insights for homilists and readers on the Sunday readings.

Part of his talent as a homilist came from the fact that Pat was a consummate storyteller, someone with rich life experiences and a love of what the Irish call the craic. He was also given to a certain Rabelaisian inflection. He spoke six languages and read more, but he was also fluent in more earthy dialects. It could be startling—and was hilarious. I still remember a homily at Fordham where he vexed the congregation by pointing out with a smirk—in the context of Jesus’ words on the matter—that anyone familiar with livestock knows that while goats are rather clever, sheep are very stupid.

He enjoyed a good insult—given or received—but was also careful to get the details right. After once referring to a fairly tradition-minded Jesuit of both our acquaintance as “The Ghost of Christmas Past,” he called me hours later. “I went to the bookshelf when I got home and realized I had the Dickens reference wrong,” he said. “‘The Ghost of Christmas Past’ is a young man. I meant ‘The Ghost of Christmas Future,’ who is indeed an old man. Mea culpa.” And hung up.

That was Pat, too: a bit of a scamp—but with an impeccable attention to detail.

Father Ryan died on Aug. 9, 2025, of respiratory failure in the Bronx. He requested that his final resting place be in Africa. “Ghana has a privileged place in Rev. Pat’s heart,” John Ghansah, S.J., provincial of the Jesuits’ North-West Africa Province, wrote in a letter to the Jesuits’ USA East Province. “It is not surprising that he requested his cremains to be buried there so that he could continue to be among the people he loved and served. We are pleased to honour Pat’s passionate request to be buried in Cape Coast.”

In a 2016 article for America, Father Ryan reflected on his experiences over the years in different apostolates. He closed by quoting Alfred Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses”:

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
Forever and forever when I move.

•••

Our poetry selection for this week is “The Organist,” by Laura Trimble. Readers can view all of America’s published poems here.

Members of the Catholic Book Club: We are taking a hiatus while we retool the Catholic Book Club and pick a new selection. 

In this space every week, America features reviews of and literary commentary on one particular writer or group of writers (both new and old; our archives span more than a century), as well as poetry and other offerings from America Media. We hope this will give us a chance to provide you with more in-depth coverage of our literary offerings. It also allows us to alert digital subscribers to some of our online content that doesn’t make it into our newsletters.

Other recent Catholic Book Club columns:

Happy reading!

James T. Keane

James T. Keane is a Senior Editor at America.