Fr. Andrew Greeley, priest, author, and sociologist, has died:
“I’m a priest,†he wrote in his 1986 memoir, Confessions of a Parish Priest. “Not a priest-sociologist or a priest-journalist, or a priest-novelist, or any multiple variation of those hyphenates. I’m a priest, a parish priest. The other things I do in life: sociological research, journalistic writing, storytelling, are merely my way of being a priest.â€
Greeley — who had been in poor health after snagging his coat in the door of a taxicab and being dragged after it pulled away in 2008 — died early Thursday at his condo in the John Hancock Building. He was 85.
He was the author of more than 150 books, some academic texts, others steamy potboilers. His first mystery novel, “The Cardinal Sins,†published in 1981, sold three million of copies, spending eight months on the New York Times best-sellers list.
Yet he bristled at any identification other than one: “a loud-mouthed Irish priest,†to use the phrase he said he wanted engraved on his tombstone. He certainly was a thorn in the side of established Catholic authority.
I was acquainted with Andy. He was best friends with my dear friend, John, with whom he had been friends since they were in Prep. Seminary together. I dined (I think) once at Andy’s and dined with him and John at John’s several times. I didn’t see him again after John died. But I did follow his doings and was much saddened when he was seriously injured in 2008 when his coat got caught in the door of a taxi and he was thrown to the pavement, an injury from which he never recovered.
I found him always engaged and engaging, full of stories and opinions. His views on the church’s hierarchy was even lower than mine, if such a thing is possible. He was a man of parts as the many obituaries
Chicago Tribune
New York Times
Washington Post
Los Angeles Times
Andy’s web site
each different, each with a slight change in emphasis, clearly indicate. The world is a less interesting place without him in it.
My introduction to Fr. Greeley was his book on anti-Catholicism, An Ugly Little Secret: Anti-Catholicism in North America, which I read my freshman year of high school and to which I returned a number of times over the year as I studied that phenomenon. I enjoyed a couple of his novels — the sci-fi and fantasy ones — but not his more popular novels, which I considered to be a bit on the trashy side for my taste.
But it isn’t as an author that I particularly respect Greeley — it is, in the end, as a priest. After one of our neighbors left the military, they settled in Arizona where they met Fr. Greeley and became good friends. A few years later, tragedy struck — their son, a high school senior, was killed in a rock-climbing accident. Out of town for as a presenter at a conference, he canceled his appearance on a panel and flew back to comfort the family and do the funeral. That, in my opinion, speaks volumes about him — and will be the memory of him that I will honor him for.
Rhymes,
That’s a memorable anecdote about this man. I appreciated you sharing it.
Dave,
The format seems to have changed here, where you now have to fill in the name and e-mail lines with every posting. Whereas before, that log-in data remained in place, and you simply submitted a comment without having to repost identifying info every time.