Chicago - City of Broad Shoulders


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Andrew Greeley: Priest, Author, Critic





The Rev. Andrew Greeley, the outspoken Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and sociologist known for his deeply researched academic appraisals and sometimes scathing critiques of his church, died Wednesday night, several years after fracturing his skull in a freakish fall.

The Rev. Greeley died in his sleep at his apartment at the John Hancock Center, according to his spokeswoman, June Rosner. He was 85.

Rosner said the Rev. Greeley had been in poor health since an accident on Nov. 7, 2008. He was at Advocate Lutheran General Medical Center when a piece of his clothing apparently got caught in the door of a departing taxi and he was thrown to the pavement.

The family released a statement this morning saying "our lives have been tremendously enriched by having the presence of Fr. Andrew Greeley in our family. First and foremost as a loving uncle who was always there for us with unfailing support or with a gentle nudge, who shared with us both the little things and the big moments of family life.

"But we were specially graced that this man was also an amazing priest who recently celebrated the 59th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. He served the Church all those years with a prophetic voice and with unfailing dedication, and the Church he and our parents taught us to love is a better place because of him.  Our hearts are heavy with grief, but we find hope in the promise of Heaven that our uncle spent his life proclaiming to us, his friends, his parishioners and his many fans.  He resides now with the Lord of the Dance, and that dance will go on."


A highly-regarded sociologist, preternaturally prolific author and unabashedly liberal Chicago priest, the Rev. Greeley regularly took his church to task in both his fiction and his scholarly work. His non-fiction books covered topics from Catholic education to Irish history to Jesus' relationships with women.
His racy novels and detective stories, which often closely paralleled real events, aired out Catholic controversies and hummed with detailed bedroom romps that kept readers rapt and coming back for more. Best-sellers like The Cardinal Sins in 1981 earned him millions of dollars, much of which he donated to the church and charities. The Rev. Greeley authored some 50 best-selling novels and more than 100 works of non-fiction that were translated into 12 languages. “So, he didn't just crunch numbers. He interpreted them....and he was never afraid to interpret things very loudly.”

The Rev. Greeley filled many of his books with the results of work he did at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, where he'd done work since his days as a doctoral candidate in the early 1960s. He also taught sociology at the University of Arizona. But, Greeley said his immense body of research and writing was merely a reflection of his calling to be a priest.

“I'm a priest, pure and simple,” Greeley told the Tribune in 1992. “The other things I do — sociological research, my newspaper columns, the novels I write — are just my way of being a priest. I decided I wanted to be one when I was a kid growing up on the West Side. I've never wavered or wanted to be anything but.”

The Rev. Greeley's research at NORC showed “that the idea that societies inevitably become more secular as they modernize is untrue,” said Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey at NRC.

“I think he drew many of his hypotheses from his vocation as a Catholic priest,” Smith said in an e-mailed statement. “He then put those ideas to rigorous scientific testing.”

The Rev. Greeley criticized the church hierarchy over issues including its teaching on contraception and the way bishops handled the sexual abuse crisis. His blunt criticism set him apart from other Catholic sociologists, said Martin Marty, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
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Andrew Greeley dead at 85 - chicagotribune.com

www.chicagotribune.com › News › Breaking news






  1. Andrew Greeley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Greeley

    Father Greeley was a Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona and the ...From 1954 to 1964, Greeley served as an assistant pastor at Christ the King ...
  2. News for father greeley christ the king

    1. Father Greeley, sociologist and best-selling author, dies at 85
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      Father Andrew Greeley, American sociologist and prolific best-selling ...pastor or Christ the King Parish from 1954 and 1963, while pursuing ...

    1. Andrew Greeley dead at 85 - chicagotribune.com

      www.chicagotribune.com › News › Breaking news

      18 hours ago – Father Andrew Greeley, 75, speaks at St. Stanislaus Kostka .... While studying for his doctorate he was attached to Christ the King parish in ...

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      Our Mother of Sorrows in Tucson and then some Sundays I go out to Christ the King in Beverly. Father Greeley as Sociologist CALLAWAY: Now I want to turn to ...

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      6 hours ago – Father Greeley had reportedly suffered a traumatic brain injury and skull... as he envisioned while a young seminarian, but at Christ the King in ...

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      www.washingtonpost.com/...greeley.../3cb18458-c937-11e2-8da7-d274bc...
      19 hours ago – Father Greeley's experiences at Christ the King prompted his first book, “The Church and the Suburbs” (1959), about how increased affluence ...

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      mobile.nytimes.com/.../andrew-m-greeley-outspoken-priest-dies-at-85.html...
      18 hours ago – Father Greeley's books included at least 10 best-selling novels. ....almost a decade he worked as assistant pastor of Christ the King Church in ...

    6. Andy's Word: Father Andrew M Greeley's Blog

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      12 hours ago – Father Andrew M. Greeley, a prolific priest, sociologist and long-time NBC ... In 2010, Father Greeley released a study based on a poll of more ...

    7. Health Update Andy's Word: Father Andrew M Greeley's Blog

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      Father Greeley is very much enjoying the beautiful Chicago Spring season. ... AndrewGreeley let alone have even one of his books in stock. ... Kay King said, ...

    8. The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: Andrew Greeley and American ... - Page 32 - Google Books Result

      books.google.com/books?isbn=0882295977
      John N. Kotre - 1978 - Clergy
      Father Greeley had been at Christ the King for little more than a year when Ellis's critique (which was the first) made its appearance, and it had an immediate ...

    9. Andrew Greeley * Joseph Cardinal Bernardin * Eugene Kennedy

      usao.edu/~facshaferi/SALIERI.HTML

      For me, the impact was much stronger: I will never get over Christ the King. It is still my parish, still my neighborhood, and always will be." Greeley read a great ...