Page 33 - LOTN Autumn Issue 48 2021

FAITH AND CULTURE

payment.
In the dock, the barrister asked a few simple questions.
Was it true that Father Whittaker had studied medicine and
operated as a senior surgeon in Glasgow Royal Infirmary?
On a Wing and a Prayer The priest nodded and the court went silent. He had never
mentioned it to anyone.
with had served as a soldier in the Second World War, as a second
And was it true, the barrister asked, that Father Ryland
Father Peter Barry lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers. The priest nodded. Then he
was asked whether he had received the Military Cross for
bravery in the field. Father Whittaker answered yes and the
Sheriff immediately closed the case.
The Priest had never revealed to anyone his past. And as
the Sheriff gave his verdict, one of the club members stood
The perfect father up and wept, as he confessed he had stolen the net. Father
Whittaker knew it was the lad but never said anything. He
would have lost the confidence of the local youth if he had
here is a group of islands off the west coast of divulged it to the police.
Scotland, among them Lewis, with its capital Shortly afterwards a local farmer went to see Fr Whittaker.
Stornoway, which gets the worst of the Atlantic His dog had a broken leg and would be shot the next
Thowling gales. A Catholic Priest went there in day. The priest did a little simple surgery, plastered up
1961 and helped to start a local youth club. His name the wounded leg and the dog survived. Father Whittaker
was Ryland Whittaker. became, much to his embarrassment, a local hero.
He became the club leader and encouraged the teenagers He was one of the Jesuit priests who pastored the Orkney
to decorate the club with fishing apparatus. An old oar Isles in my youth and whose sermons made such a deep
was mounted on the wall, there were lobster creels in the impression on me. To my mind he was the perfect shepherd,
corner, and pride of place was a fishing net suspended from the perfect father.
the ceiling. The club members added darts and table tennis Being a good father today needs special graces. It
and the project looked a success. certainly is not for the squeamish: nappies and more
But a local fisherman was jealous, and claimed the fishing nappies. And the very act of loving is a messy business and
net was his and had been stolen by the priest. The case throws a tidy life into disarray. As one Dad said after the
eventually went to court and Fr Whittaker was represented birth of his first child: our house became filled with love,
by a Barrister friend from London, who refused to take any even if it resembles a war zone.

"An old oar was mounted on the wall, there were lobster creels in the corner, and pride of place was a fishing net suspended from
the ceiling." (Illustration by Jane Barry)
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