HONG KONG (SE): Maryknoll Father John Joseph Sullivan died on August 9, in the Assisted Living Unit at Maryknoll, New York, the United States. He was 87 years old and had been a priest for 61 years.
Father Sullivan was born on 27 August 1933, and attended elementary and prep school in New York, before entering Maryknoll at the Venard in September 1949.
He was ordained on 11 June 1960 and arrived in Hong Kong that October to work with refugees from China. After studying the Cantonese language, he worked as assistant parish priest in various parishes in Kowloon.
In April 1968, Maryknoll divided its Formosa Region into two: Taiwan and Hong Kong. Father Sullivan was appointed the first regional superior of Hong Kong and, for the next five years, helped set about establishing and expanding it. In 1970 he welcomed and assisted Bishop James Walsh during his six-week stay at Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital, after his release from incarceration in mainland China.
Father Sullivan was assigned to the United States Region in August 1973 and appointed the first full time director of the Overseas Training Programe for all Maryknoll seminarians. With the help of Maryknollers from other regions, he expanded the programme and wrote its first handbook, which was subsequently used by other mission societies.
In June 1975, he was also appointed director of the newly established Office for the Maryknoll Lay Missioner Programme.
Father Sullivan was reassigned to Hong Kong in February 1983 and, for the next 19 years, offered “ministry to ministers,” serving priests, brothers, sisters, seminarians and lay ministers in Hong Kong for half of each year, spending the other working in collaboration with Maryknoll Sister Maria Rieckelman.
In 1981, they had started conducting workshops, retreats and continuing formation programmes for Maryknollers and other mission groups overseas and in the US, and continued responding to requests for these programmes for over 20 years.
In January 1998, Father Sullivan was appointed coordinator of the Spiritual Renewal Programme in the Holy Land, while remaining a member of the Hong Kong Region. He and Sister Rieckelman guided a number of pilgrimage retreat programmes until 2008.
In January 2002, he was again assigned to the US Region and appointed to the Maryknoll Affiliate Coordination Team for six years. In January 2009, he joined the retirement community in Bethesda, Maryland, but also worked as an associate in the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, collaborating with Palestinian, Israeli, US Jewish and ecumenical groups in seeking a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land, and the securing and recognising of states for both Israelis and Palestinians.
In 2011, Father Sullivan was appointed as an Admissions Assessor. From June through November of 2014, he was the local superior for society members in residence at the Maryknoll Society Centre. In March of 2015, he was appointed to the Admissions Board. He was assigned Senior Missioner status in 2017.
In 2020, in recognition of his 60th anniversary as a Maryknoll priest, Father Sullivan offered these thoughts: “I would like people to understand that the people to and with whom I ministered, gifted me with their faith, hope and love; they revealed our loving God to me at many times and places over my last 60 years as a Maryknoll priest and missioner.”
In accordance with his wishes, Father Sullivan’s body was donated to the New York Medical College for medical research. A memorial Mass was celebrated for him on August 13.
May he rest in peace.
