Thursday, November 3, 2022
In Memoriam BARRY HANRATTY
Barry was one of the finest people it has been my blessing to know. I met him through shared devotion to Our Lady of Garabandal (Spain 1961-65).
In the early 1980’s it was possible from my desk in downtown Manhattan to have prolonged conversations with Barry on the phone. He became a teacher for me on Garabandal and a mentor on Catholicism generally. Through a common friend, Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J., we started developing materials on Garabandal in the Russian language.
In the early 1990’s, we had some hilarious conversations, with me on the phone again by first generation cell, driving home from work on Rte. I-287 in New Jersey. We had edits from Russia on the latest material needing urgent attention. One hand holding the phone, half a brain in Russia, double checking the translations, don’t miss the Exit! Why did we work in this unjustifiable way? Only Our Lady knows!
I met my future wife Inna, founder of the Russian Garabandal Center, at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in St. Petersburg, Russia. All she knew was that I was a member of the New York group, but she didn’t know exactly which one. Her first words to me were the guess, “Barry Hanratty?”
In the late 1990’s Barry and Joey Lomangino mailed us so many cartons of Russian language materials that the St. Petersburg Post Office near our apartment had a special shelf for them. These went all over 16 countries, with Ukraine being the lead recipient.
The Russian Garabandal Center in America was formed in 2007, following the last International Conference devoted to Our Lady of Garabandal, held that year in St. Petersburg. It had become became apparent that there could be no more public practice of religion unless conducted by officially approved organizations.
Barry wrote about all this for his Garabandal Journal, and he remained the “go to” source for any current work the Center needed from his remarkable archive and personal knowledge.
He was well educated in history, among many other things, and we frequently debated Russian history in the Soviet period. The long conversations of the early years were resurrected, just not often enough.
Altogether, Barry was such an abiding person in my life that I can’t yet adjust to his passing. He’s just there, working each day so loyally on the next issue of the Garabandal Journal! He would be the first to tell me, “But Bill, this way I’m guaranteed a front row seat for the Great Miracle to come at Garabandal.
Who was Barry? An ideal Christian. What more should anyone want to be?
In tears of joy and memory, I wish Barry eternal rest in the Lord’s Eternal Light.
In Union of Prayer, -- William & Inna Gould, billinnaolg@yahoo.com
