John Kiernan was a Catholic priest from the Bronx when he began raising cattle at the Snowmass Monastery.
Later, while working in southern Colorado parishes, Kiernan, a Scripture scholar, marched against war and worked tirelessly for immigrants.
The Rev. Kiernan was 85 when he died May 24 at a Grand Junction hospice. He seldom missed a chance to protest or talk about political and social issues, from military spending to the environment. Criticized for talking about political issues in sermons, his response was, “You can’t keep politics out of church. We’re called by God to create a just society.”
Kiernan lived frugally, but often slipped money to people who needed help, said Sue Danner, a therapist in Gunnison.
“He was a gentle, generous person who often gave donations anonymously,” said Karen Sherman Perez of Montrose, who knew him for decades.
“His dream was to see the Hispanic community be involved in the social and political communities,” said her husband, Ricardo Perez, who works with the Hispanic Affairs Project.
“I met him when we were both holding protest signs,” protesting the Iraq war, said Karen Sjoberg.
The two met at several more events, including a “tax day protest” at the Grand Junction Post Office.
“He loved to engage people with different views, but he always kept emotions out of it,” Sjoberg said. “He was a student of world and church history.”
Kiernan was interested in rights for all minorities: immigrants, women, gays and victims of poverty, war and violence, said a friend, Larry Howe-Kerr. The priest often “challenged” religious and community leaders and the government when he felt there were injustices.
When he had time, Kiernan made the rounds of local basketball courts to shoot hoops with whoever was there. He was an excellent tennis player.
It was only this year he bought a new car to replace an aging truck, said his sister, Pat Kiernan of Peekskill, N.Y.
She always gave him a sweater for Christmas, and he wore it all year. He “got nervous” one November that he wouldn’t have worn out the sweater before she sent another one, Danner said.
He shunned material possessions, “He had one outfit for each activity,” and that was plenty for him, Danner said.
John Gill Kiernan was born in New York on July 7, 1924.
He attended Niagara University on a basketball scholarship and then served in the Air Force. He was a member of the Cisterian Order of priests and came to Colorado in 1955. The next year he was one of the founders of the St. Benedict’s Trappist Monastery in Snowmass.
In the mid-1960s he earned master’s degrees in theology and Scripture in Rome.
He joined the Pueblo diocese and served churches in Montrose, Gunnison, Monte Vista, Delta, Lamar and Fruita, where he retired in 1989.
In the 1980s, he worked as a missionary priest in Bolivia and Guatemala, where he learned Spanish.
In addition to his sister he is survived by two nieces and one nephew.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
