Monsignor John Barry, the longtime leader of the American Martyrs Catholic Church community in Manhattan Beach, notified his parishioners last week that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
“I want you to know that I love you and I am praying for you and trust that you are taking good care of each other while we make our way through this time,” Barry wrote in an email to parishioners on March 26. “I want to share with you personally that I have been ill these last few days and have tested positive for the virus. I’ve had doctors in to see me, and others checking in, making sure that I am following doctor’s orders!”
“To be clear, and to stop any rumors… I am slowly feeling better, I am not in the hospital, I’m not using a ventilator, and there have been no life-threatening incidents,” Barry added.
Three days later, however, Barry, who is 82, told his parish that he had indeed checked in to a local hospital “so they can keep a closer eye on me.” He was back home by Sunday.
The March 26 email, sent by both Barry and American Martyrs business manager Bob Hodges, said the monsignor started feeling symptoms on March 16 and tested for the virus the following day. He was in self-quarantine thereafter. The message said that “there are many places where Msgr. Barry could have been exposed.” One possibility was the sold-out “Mulligan” fundraiser benefiting the Saint Sebastian Sports Project that took place at O’Donnell Hall on March 7. The founders of the non-profit, which provides sports equipment and other support to less advantaged Catholic school kids, on March 15 made public that one attendee had tested positive for COVID-19.
As of April 1, Manhattan Beach had the ninth-most confirmed coronavirus cases in LA County, with 41. Only Torrance, Redondo Beach and Carson have more confirmed cases among South Bay cities.
American Martyrs School transitioned to remote learning on March 13, according to Adrian Alarcon, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
“Monsignor Barry did not have interaction with the student body at the school on the last day of school,” Alarcon said. “The last school Mass that he celebrated for the students at the school was three weeks ago, on March 6.
Since stay-at-home measures have been put in place in Los Angeles County, American Martyrs has been live-streaming daily masses at 8:10 a.m. and Sunday masses at 9:30 a.m.. Barry last presided at Sunday, March 14 mass, with those in attendance seated following distancing guidelines. Associate pastors Fr. Joe Kammerer and Fr. Rick Prindle have not shown symptoms of COVID-19 and have been celebrating livestreamed Masses on the past two Sundays. They have been in self-quarantine and the church has been closed.
Barry, who is originally from Cork, Ireland, has been an instrumental figure at American Martyrs since his arrival in 1983. He is beloved among parishioners for his rich baritone brogue and sly sense of humor, and has built up what was a modestly sized parish to a robust parish with more than 6,000 families.
“Life is to be celebrated. If you look at the Scriptures, what is the gift that Jesus gives us? The gift of joy,” Barry told the Easy Reader in 2011, on the occasion of his Golden Jubilee, the 50-year anniversary of his ordination as a priest. More than 2,000 people attended an outdoor Mass on the American Martyrs School baseball field that August celebrating Barry’s jubilee.
“It was testament to how far he’d come since his less-than-stellar arrival at the church 24 years ago,” parishioner and Easy Reader contributor Elka Warner wrote at the time. “Some say he was a breath of fresh air, others thought he was more like a Category 5 hurricane.”
“It wasn’t easy for him,” one parishioner told Warner, who reported on Barry’s jubilee. “There was a core group of people who wanted things done the way they’d always been done.”
That meant Masses by rote, limited to 45-minutes. As Warner reported, Barry’s vision was more expensive in every regard. His masses included lots of music, children, and a question and answer session after the sermon. He used newspapers and singing stuffed animals as props. And he particularly called on his flock to volunteer to help others.
Manhattan Beach resident Kevin Campbell recalled at the time of Barry’s jubilee that he’d turned to Barry days before undergoing knee replacement surgery. Campbell was about to turn 50, the age his father died at.
“I was freaking out and then just starting bawling in front of him,” Campbell said. “He gave me a lucky rock from the Holy Land — Ireland.” Barry eventually recruited Campbell for one of the popular Cornerstone retreats. “I kept telling him, I can’t…my schedule. But he persisted and got me to go.”
Barry is likewise persistent in recruiting for the parish’s ministries, including Matthew 25, which feeds the homeless on L.A.’s Skid Row.
“They’re about the richest church in the diocese and the most generous,” said Jeff Dietrich of Catholic Worker. “About a dozen of them come to help us out, and it’s because of Monsignor.”
Barry said, in that 2011 article, that even as he moved past retirement age he would never leave American Martyrs.
“I’m going to be staying. So they’re not getting rid of me,” Barry said. “I’m going to be part of this community as long as God keeps me alive.” ER
