My favorite priest

Father Andrew Greeley: Priest, writer, sociologist, intellectual 

My favorite priest of all time has passed. Father Andrew Greeley was a cantankerous child of Irish immigrants with a first-class intellect. He wrote voluminously and never feared his nominal superiors in the Catholic Church who were often the target of his criticism. 

Father Greeley passed away on May 30 in Chicago at the age of 85.

I read his column in the Sun Times religiously each week until a horrific accident almost five years ago left him with a brain injury that stilled his tongue.

While he was critical of his own religion, often writing scathing pieces about its woeful American leaders, he believed that Catholicism was a singularly special religion. He praised all aspects of it and defended it vigorously against its many critics. He was also a strong proponent of Catholic education, while also defending the practice of celibacy in the church.

Father Greeley loved the Second Vatican Council that opened the windows of the church to the fragrant air of the 1960s, only to see them slammed shut by the past two popes. He also chastised the church for its position on birth control, one that relegated countless young American Catholics to the figurative sidelines of their church.

My greatest thanks for Father Greeley was for his introduction to me of the late Cardinal Bernardin and his seamless garment on life. As Father Greeley wrote, abortion is a major life issue, but "it must be considered along with many other actions that are common in many modern societies -- like torture, the death penalty, unjust war, cruelty to the elderly, abuse of children, racial injustice -- what the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin called the seamless garment of life."

In addition, he wrote of a loving God, not the angry one that is adopted by groups like the Legionnaires of Christ and Opus Dei and other right-wing Catholics, along with many fundamentalist Protestants. He was also a liberal in an era when such people with such beliefs have been driven to the back seats in the church.

Andrew Greeley was a sociologist and earned a Ph.D. in that field. He was also a prolific writer, penning 72 works of nonfiction and 66 novels as he reached a goal of writing 5,000 words per day.

While I loved his writing, I was never a fan of his novels, ones that became best-sellers. I might go back and read some since my brother had a few in his library that now have passed into mine. 

While he has passed, his website lives on: <http://www.agreeley.com/articles/recaclt.html>. 

In one of his final columns, he explained why more than 50 percent of Catholics voted for Barack Obama in 2008.

Rest in peace, Father Greeley.