I was Father Chris Riley's biographer. I'm so sad, but glad he got his dying wish

The Age

21 hours ago

A few days ago, Father Chris Riley, that extraordinary Catholic priest who founded the charity Youth Off The Streets, which has helped an estimated 60,000 young people, said he thought he might die soon. 'I think I might like to die,' declared the man who grew up with horses, 'on the horses' birthday.'
And he did. On August 1.
Father Chris always liked to get his own way, whether batting away government objections to win approval for his various projects, hammering on corporate doors for funds, or even unashamedly assailing the ears of the righteous to give more to his charity at church services.
And while it made him some enemies, he'd stop at nothing if he thought it might help secure a better future for Australia's youth.
At the first school in Victoria where he worked as a teacher, he upset many people by setting up a refuge for homeless kids next door and refereeing (terribly one-sidedly) football matches between the pupils and 'his' kids. Even in his last weeks, he was calling out politicians he felt had got it wrong in terms of child policies.
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That stubbornness was something I admired hugely in him, even though it frequently caused me problems. I was his biographer with the book Mean Streets, Kind Heart. He phoned one day when I was halfway through writing it. 'This book,' he said, 'it isn't going to be much about me, is it?'
It was, and it proved a massive bestseller.
He often had me in tears, hearing the heart-wrenching stories of some of the kids he'd helped. A girl who received, on her 13th birthday, a shot of cocaine from her dad. Another girl whose father held a gun to her head and pressed the trigger; she had no idea it wasn't loaded. A boy beaten so hard for not wanting to hold hands with his dad on their way to church, his leg was broken.