Melbourne News

Fr Lou Heriot book launch

Friday 27 July 2012

ON SUNDAY 22 July, the 61^st anniversary of his ordination, Fr Lou Heriot launched his autobiography, And There will be Another Horizon at St Finbar’s Parish, East Brighton, where he was parish priest from 1993 to 2009.
 
Current parish priest Fr Malcolm Crawford said the 3pm launch was a wonderful celebration, and an opportunity to honour Fr Herriot.
 
Fr Heriot’s book was received with enthusiasm and on the day Fr Heriot personally signed over 500 copies of his book.

Order your copy of the book
 
On this occasion, Reverend Dr Ian B. Waters, Chairman of the Melbourne Diocesan Historical Commission, gave the address stating, “When someone such as Father Lou Heriot writes his memoirs, it is a great day not just for Father Lou and his friends.  It is great day for the entire Church of Melbourne because permanent evidence of the Church at work is produced.” 
 
“His story is now permanently with us to inspire and help others as they wend their way.  Two thousand years ago, Jesus told stories and met people and went about doing good.  Soon afterwards - fortunately - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John recorded much of that.  It hard to imagine what our world and the Church would be like today if these four books had not been written.  Everything written has an impact on someone.”
 
The book is not necessarily what one would expect of the life of a diocesan priest. It contains many colourful and comical anecdote of Fr Heriot’s experiences of the priesthood, including his decision to become a priest in 1943, when he was only 16, after hearing the sermon of a traveling missionary priest and thinking to himself, “I could do better than that.” Fr Heriot is an adventurous man with a passion for reaching out to others and as a result, he often found himself in dangerous and unexpected situations. He recounts his conversation with Ronnie Biggs, the English criminal of the Great Train Robbery of 1963, who escaped from prison in 1965 and lived as a fugitive for thirty-six years, and also his own experience of carrying food across the border from East to West Germany during the Cold War. As the parish priest of Fitzroy, Fr Heriot went out to introduce himself to his parish, which included even the brothels, and shares the impact that this had on some of these women’s lives.
 
The book contains many interwoven narratives. As Fr Water’s points out, “As you read the book you will see the socioeconomic mix of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, and changes over sixty years in places as varied as Sunshine and St Albans, the Cathedral and Fitzroy, Collingwood and Abbotsford, Daylesford, North Blackburn, South Melbourne, East Bentleigh and East Brighton.  You will see the Church renewing itself through the Second Vatican Council, and what that required of priests and people.”
 
The most profound narrative running through the book however is the spiritual dimension of Fr Heriot’s life. “Like Jesus, and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, he skilfully and deliberately inveigles us to get behind the stories and events.  He did that for me, and I am sure you will be influenced similarly…. Lou  sums it up, not as a mere raconteur, but as the real story writer, “Here is another version in my life of the death-resurrection, and a great spiritual journey.”
 
“In the book, you will note Lou’s practice of discernment, his careful evaluation before decision-making.  You will see that in his answering the call to be a priest, his decision to forgo marriage and children, his decisions to accept the call to move to another parish ...  and the hardest of all, to agree to retire.  The leitmotif running throughout it all is a deep spirituality, prayerfulness.”
 
Fr Water’s closed his address with the statement that, “We hear a lot about the aging of the clergy, fewer priests, the lack of morale among priests, and so on.  I can say what I am going to say now, having been a priest for more than forty-two years:  it is not easy be a priest these days, mainly because at times you wonder whether many appreciate what you are doing, affirm what you are doing, or give you any form of encouragement.  At times, the impression can be given that we can get on without priests, and that it would not be a tragedy if there were not enough priests to go around.  Well, if you start to feel like that, read Father Lou Heriot’s book; and be moved by his confidence, his enthusiasm, and his vision.”
 
Photo by Yvette Porter

Read an earlier story about Fr Lou from Kairos Catholic Journal

Download a purchase slip below to order your own copy of  Fr Lou Herriot's book.