Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017:
Eddy, John

Historian, lobbyist, pastor; born Perth WA, 6 March 1933; died Canberra, 6 November 2011, aged 78.

At his funeral Mass at St Christopher’s Cathedral, Canberra, John Eddy was remembered as a friend, priest, pastor and scholar. He had spent forty-three years in Canberra as a ‘missionary of God’s love’, as he called himself.

Always recognised as a brilliant student at St Louis School, Perth, Eddy obtained the highest pass in the Western Australian State Leaving Examination at the age of 15. He then went to Xavier College, Kew, where he again topped that State.

Eddy entered the Society at Watsonia in 1950. In addition to ecclesiastical studies, he distinguished himself as an historian during his undergraduate studies in arts at the University of Melbourne (1955-58), where he was a Commonwealth scholar, Newman scholar, and university exhibitioner in British History, Australian History, Ancient History, Political Science, International Relations and Russian. He graduated with first class honours in history and politics. He was later at Oxford University (1964-1967), where as a Commonwealth research scholar, showing his keen intellect combined with unstinting application, he gained a doctorate of philosophy, which was later published by Clarendon in 1969 under the title Britain and the Australian Colonies, 1818-1831: The Technique of Government. In this work he rightly described the historical basis for Mabo and Wik, legal judgments relating to the Australian aborigines made three decades later.

Further publications included, ‘Politics and Parochialism in Australian Federation’ and ‘Imperial Sentiment as a Factor in Centralizing Australian Federalism’, Federalism in Canada and Australia; the early years, ed Hodgins, B.W, et al., ANU Press, 1978; ‘Australian Historical Studies as Resources for Theological Reflection’, Towards Theology in an Australian Context, ed Hayes, V.C., Flinders University, 1979; ‘Sir Robert Peel and Australia’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, Vol. XXXVIII, No 3, September 1979; ‘Australian Demographic Policies and the Family’ in the International Federation of Catholic Universities Centre of Research, volume on The Family, ed Biffi, F, Herder, Rome, 1984; From colony to colonizer: studies in Australian administrative history, edited with JR Nethercote, 1987; The rise of colonial nationalism: Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa first assert their nationalities, 1880-1914, edited with Deryck Schreuder, 1988; ‘Development of Australian Nationhood in the 19th century’ in the Bicentennial Encyclopedia The Australian People, ed Jupp, J, Angus and Robertson, Sydney 1988; and Towards national administration: studies in Australian history, edited with JR Nethercote, 1994. He also wrote many reviews of articles in journals that included, History, Economic History Review, Australian Journal of Public Administration, Australian Journal of Politics and History, Royal Australian Historical Society Journal, and in Catholic periodicals. He contributed entries of deceased Jesuits, Ferenc Forro, Austin Kelly, George O’Neill, and Michael Bergin in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. His last contribution to Jesuit history, ‘The Society of Jesus in Australia’, appeared in James Jupp (ed), The Encyclopedia of Religion in Australia, CUP, 2009.

Eddy tutored in the department of history in 1959 at the University of Melbourne, and again in 1964, while also being dean of Newman College. He was also a history tutor at Campion Hall, Oxford, during 1967. However, his main influence was as a lecturer and research fellow in history at the Australian National University, Canberra, 1968-1994. The University’s College of Arts and Science praised Eddy’s reputation as ‘a knowledgeable and collegial presence’, and one ‘celebrated for his fine scholarly work’. During 1971, 1975-76, 1980-81, and 1988, he was a visiting professor at the Universities of Ottawa, Queen’s and Trent, Canada. During these years, and subsequent sabbaticals, Eddy made many international contacts that valued his friendship, scholarship and zest for life.

He was also a member of many academic associations. They included the Australian Association of the Study of Labour History, the Canberra Society for the Study of Religion and Theology, the Australian Association of Soviet and Eastern European Studies, the Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand, the Royal Australian Institute of Public Administration, and the Royal Australian Institute for International Affairs. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London, in 1988. He also served on the councils of Riverview and St Aloysius’ College in Sydney.

After residing in Canberra with the Dominicans as spiritual father to some Jesuit scholastics at Blackfriars for a few years from 1968, Eddy bought property in 1972 for the Jesuits in Yarralumla, known as Xavier House or ‘the Jesuit embassy’. It became a house of writers and a centre for Jesuit activities in the nation’s capital. Here he lived for the remainder of his life, welcoming and entertaining hosts of visitors, Jesuit and lay, sharing companionship, books, films, visits to the art gallery, the library, the High Court and other significant places around Canberra. He was superior for 20 years.

Eddy easily connected with people through his exuberant, engaging personality. He showed friends his love and interest in them, sharing ideas, joys and concerns, and passions. He guided people in times of anxiety and comforted them in times of grief. He was always willing to welcome people and bring joy to any gathering. He mastered the art of conversation, loving company, and was always the center of attention through his narratives, showing his prodigious memory of people and events. Visiting coffee houses and restaurants were important occasions as he re-engaged with old friends and made new ones. The range of his friends was amazingly broad and diverse: it encompassed statesmen and politicians, ambassadors, and eminent citizens from all walks of life, as well as the sick and destitute whom he would visit and comfort.

As a priest he was always available for duties within the archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn, regularly supplying in parishes for the local clergy, and saying Mass for the Carmelite Sisters. He enjoyed preaching, eloquently and profoundly developing important scriptural or social issues. In these churches, Eddy also made friends, showing his pastoral concern for their welfare. On his coffin was placed his medal as chaplain of the Knights of St Lazarus. This Order was founded in the 11th century, whose members were dedicated to those suffering from the disease of leprosy and to the defense of the Christian faith. Today the Order is devoted to ecumenical spirituality, humanitarian activities with special care for the poor and sick. It funds hospitals in Eastern Europe and medical centres worldwide.

Eddy showed wonderful love for his family, sharing their lives, baptizing, marrying and burying. Family occasions were very important for him, and they loved him for his care and support. He was always proud of their achievements and connections.

From his early years at St Louis School, Claremont, Perth (1938-1948), Eddy showed interest in the Jesuit Mission in India. His mother had helped organise the Jesuit Mission group in Perth in the 1950s. Each year in Canberra, Eddy would host a gathering of the local mission supporters, and welcome Jesuit missionaries on leave in Australia. He also supported meetings of Old Scholars from the Jesuit and Loreto schools in Australia, and various aboriginal groups, opening up Xavier House for Mass and celebrations. His lavish hospitality and generosity were always appreciated.

Eddy enjoyed his time at the ANU. As a supervisor for doctoral students, he had a gift for friendship and encouragement. His published works in areas such as nationhood and multiculturalism helped shape the political landscape. He was very proud of the course he designed entitled ‘the Peopling of Australia since 1788’. Over the years, he grew increasingly agitated about the treatment of those fleeing to Australian shores seeking asylum.

At various times he worked as an academic consultant to ministers in areas of immigration, housing and foreign affairs, and in later years worked as a consultant to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. He created and directed the Georgetown Centre of Australian and New Zealand Studies, helping build academic bridges between Oceania and the United States. Always committed to capturing the story of the Society of Jesus in Australia, he founded the Australian Institute of Jesuit Studies to encourage work on Jesuit history and spirituality. He wrote a number of Jesuit biographies, and a short history of the Australian province for national dictionaries. His last official ministry, in 2009, was as secretary at the Apostolic Nunciature.

In his funeral homily, Frank Brennan mentioned that while spending most of his Jesuit life in Canberra, Eddy ‘experienced his missionary call to the frontiers. His life of the mind, his infectious sociability, and his delight in all human achievement from a faultless tennis backhand to a spine-tingling opera aria by Joan Sutherland made him open to possibilities well beyond his own comfort zone and competencies’. He embodied the 2008 declaration by the General Congregation of Jesuits ‘to build bridges between rich and poor, establishing advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests’. In his utterances, ‘he sought to persuade his hearers to seek the good, the true and the beautiful’.

For the last twenty years of his life Eddy suffered from a blood disorder that eventually affected his whole body. He stoically adjusted to a diminishing life style, but only towards the end did he describe his condition as heading for Grand Central. Shortly before his death on the Feast of All Saints of the Society he celebrated Mass with the Canberra Jesuit community at his hospital bed, surrounded by his sister Margot and family, eloquent to the end, giving a fifteen-minute life reflection on the beauty of the scene outside his hospice window, which reminded him of the grandeur of God.

Brennan concluded his funeral homily by commenting that Eddy achieved much, ‘encouraging thousands of others in their quest for a happier, more ethical and beautiful future; one who relished the pastoral and intellectual dimensions of life, one for whom memory, reflection and truth were so cultivated as to be commonplace, one whose private party included all.’ He delighted to share with others ‘in the journey through coffee shops, bookshops, music stores, opera theatres, lectures halls and clubs, culminating always at the table of the Lord.’ When writing to Eddy on the occasion of his Golden Jubilee as a Jesuit, superior general Kolvenbach, after much praise for him as a priest and scholar, claimed that he was ‘one of the best products of Jesuit education’. Eddy was mourned nationally and internationally, and remembered as a happy, generous, fun-filled person who showed great love and respect for all he met.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)