Fr. Ronald Walls Kirkwall

Bishop Peter Moran pays tribute to the late Fr Ronnie Walls By Bishop Peter Moran, Aberdeen WITH the death of Fr Ronnie Walls in Kirkwall . on Saturday January 2, the Catholic Church in Scotland has lost one of its most ven­erable and well-loved priests. Ronald James Walls (right) was born on June 23 1920 in Edinburgh, son of Thomas John Walls, optician, and Jane Ross Walls (nee Kernp). His paternal grandfather was from Orkney, and that link made Father Walls specially pleased to return in December 2006 to Kirkwall to spend his closing years. Ronnie Walls grew up in a practising Presbyterian family in Corstorphine, Edinburgh. He attended George Heriot's School in the city from 1928 to 1937. Even in those early years, religious discussion interested him and was encouraged. He also looked back ‘to the German class as the foundation of much of my true education. Not only did we learn the language thoroughly, but through the language we were introduced to Europe.' Indeed during his Edinburgh University days (he graduated MA [Hons.Phil.] in 1941) he spent a summer-vacation en famille on a farm in Hungary. He married Helen in the final months of theological studies at New College, and after temporary assistantships, and by now with two young children, was inducted as Minister of Logie Easter, in Ross-shire. He has vividly portrayed that early ministry in his book The One True Kirk. Following years of self-searching and intellectual enquiry he resigned his charge. He and his wife were received as members of the Catholic Church at Nunraw Abbey near Haddington in 1948. He then found employment as Scottish organiser of the Converts' Aid Society and also devoted himself to writing. In 1974 he and his wife were seriously injured in a road accident: he survived but sadly Helen died two weeks later. Some months passed before he applied for training for ordination as a Catholic priest for Aberdeen Diocese. He enrolled from 1975 to 1977 at the Beda College, in Rome, where staff comments reveal an outstanding student. On June 30, 1977 he was ordained priest in St Peter's Church, Morningside, Edinburgh, the first candidate to be ordained by the then recently nominated Bishop Mario Conti of Aberdeen. He served in Banchory and Aboyne (1977-82), in Wick and Thurso (1982-89) and at St Josepli's, Woodside, Aberdeen (1989-95) before taking retirement. However, he was hardly less active in retirement, helping colleagues with 'supply' work while living in Portsoy (1995-2000), in Buckie (2000- 2004), in Inverness (2004- 2006) and finally moving, to his own great satisfaction, to Kirkwall in Orkney where he spent his final three years, active to the last. Fr Ronnie Walls was appreciated within and outwith the Catholic communities wherever he lived, and will be remembered for his clarity of mind, his affable personality, his readable articles and books, his pawky humour and numerous anecdotes, and above all for his singleness of purpose in communicating his staunch Faith. With his passing, an era has ended. To his sons David and Christopher, his sister Margaret, and other members of his family we offer our sympathy and our thanks for this splendid and long-lived colleague. May he rest in peace. • A Mass, led by Bishop Peter Moran of Aberdeen was cele­brated in Kirkwall in St Magnus Cathedral on Friday January 8. Fr Walls' body was brought to St Peter's in Morningside, Edinburgh on Sunday evening. The funeral proper with Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow was held on Monday at 11 am at St Peter's, followed by burial at Mount Vernon. • Fr Ronald Walls inspiring autobiography, “Love Strong as Death”, and two volumes of daily meditations on the Gospel readings at Mass, Stairway to the Upper Room, are published by Gracewing. • Additional material from Father Donald at Nunraw Abbey Scottish Catholic Observer Jan 15. 2010