James Martin Hayes
May 27, 1924 — August 2, 2016
Emeritus Archbishop of Halifax
“A self-effacing, quiet man, beloved of his own congregation, highly regarded by Catholic and Protestant clergy, vitally interested in people, and the youngest rector ever to be appointed to St. Mary’s Basilica is to be the new auxiliary bishop to Most Rev. J.G. Berry, Archbishop of Halifax.” Fifty-one years later, this description that appeared in the Halifax Chronical Herald in February, 1965, still describes James Martin Hayes, Emeritus Archbishop of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Archbishop Hayes died on August 2, at the age of 92.
Archbishop Hayes tirelessly promoted liturgical renewal in Canada. He had earned his doctorate in canon law in Rome, but liturgy and ecclesiology emerged as his true loves after he returned from the Second Vatican Council. Ordained a bishop in 1965, he was present at the first session of Vatican II, and returned as a Council father for the final session in 1965.
The late Leonard Sullivan, a former director of the National Liturgy Office of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, and a dear friend of Hayes, wrote of him in a festschrift honoring Hayes that was published in 1994: “James Hayes has the finest liturgical mind among the bishops I have encountered over the past four decades. He has read liturgy for fifty years: his library is filled with books by liturgical and church history masters” (Shaping a Priestly People, ed. Bernadette Gasslein, Ottawa: Novalis, 1994, 22).
His appreciation for liturgical scholarship is reflected in his membership in both the North American Academy of Liturgy, and Societas Liturgica. But equally significant is his appreciation and encouragement of those scholars. Over the years—and particularly since I have been editor of Worship—I have heard from scholars who wanted me to help them contact Archbishop Hayes to thank him for the encouragement that he had offered them, in some instances, decades earlier. University of Notre Dame’s Michael Driscoll wrote, on hearing of Archbishop Hayes’ death, “I remember meeting him on several occasions at Societas Liturgica meetings. I was in doctoral studies at the time. I was always impressed that he would talk with the young scholars and attend their sessions. I think that he knew that if the liturgical movement was to continue, you have to encourage younger scholarship. I was always humbled and delighted when he would come to my sessions and speak with me afterwards.”
He loved young people, and encouraged them at every turn. I remember participating in a celebration of Evening Prayer in his diocese, at which all the ministries were assumed by young people whose formation he had assured. They presided, they proclaimed, they led song, they served, they reflected, all with style and grace. Clearly they had been formed in reverence for the liturgy and the mystery it embodied. Hayes hated to see people not knowing and understanding the sacredness and meaning of the liturgy. He understood its pastoral and theological importance. But more than anything else, he understood its ecclesial meaning. He knew in his very bones that liturgy is an ecclesial, not a personal action; and that the diocese becomes church in its fullest way when it gathers around its bishop to celebrate Eucharist.
Not only did James Hayes love young people; he had a particular love for the poor and those who were marginalized in any way. Stories abound of him giving rides to folks who were down on their luck, feeding them and listening to their stories. He welcomed those who were struggling in their marriages. Among those who were marginalized, he had a particular love for the sick. When he retired as bishop in 1990, he moved directly into another fulltime ministry: Ministry to the sick and dying at the Halifax Infirmary, a general hospital. In 1993, he wrote about this ministry, “To me spending time with the dying person is like the experience of spending time before the blessed sacrament. The Lord is there, and I am here. … If we understand a sacrament as a sign of God’s presence and power that communicates the inward spiritual strength we call grace, then the experience of being with and accompanying the dying is just such a spiritual reality. … In this case the sick person … becomes the sacrament.” (Celebrate!, September-October 1993).
Throughout the years, friends recall that Archbishop Hayes never lost his sense of hope, even in the years when resistance to Vatican II became more evident. Pointing to a photo of his own cathedral clad in scaffolding for its renovation, he commented, “A church being renovated can look like it’s in ruins, but I will not let go of my optimism.”
Hayes had no patience for clericalism. His vision of the church emerged clearly in his preaching and writing on the Chrism Mass. In 1993, he wrote, “We are all anointed with the chrism and we are all anointed to share in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ.” This is what he called “Mutuality of ministry, based on a sharing of the one eternal priesthood of Christ.” (Celebrate!, March 1993, 23).
Fr. Bill Burke, also a former director of the CCCB’s National Liturgy Office, remembers walking with Archbishop Hayes after a regional workshop. The archbishop was reflecting on the event and mused, “Can you imagine a conference 50 years ago [before Vatican II] when the organizer was a woman, and the two principal speakers were women?” Archbishop Hayes valued the work and the ministry of women, and recognized the new day it heralded for the church. As early as the 1987 Synod, speaking in the name of the Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops, he proposed that lay people participate in future synods.
In 1970, under Archbishop Haye’s leadership, the Archdiocese of Halifax, in cooperation with the Anglican and United Churches, established the Atlantic School of Theology.
Archbishop Hayes served the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops as its president. He served two terms as chairperson of its Episcopal Commission for Liturgy, and was a member of the National Council for Liturgy from 1968-1979. From 1976-1979 he served as Canada’s representative on the Episcopal Board of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL).
At the heart of the liturgical and ecclesial renewal that Hayes imbibed at Vatican II was the paschal mystery. He was ordained bishop on Easter Tuesday, 1965. That feast—“Tuesday of the Octave of Easter”—was what he always celebrated as the anniversary of his episcopal ordination, not the date itself. The gospel of the day is of the risen Christ commissioning Mary Magdalene to proclaim the resurrection to the disciples. May our brother James Martin Hayes now know the fullness of that mystery that he himself taught so many to proclaim and that he proclaimed with his life.
Tribute prepared by Bernadette Gasslein.