Inside
NCR
There is a reason why much of
Chicago stopped to acknowledge the death May 19 of Msgr. Jack Egan and why more
than a thousand people, including bishops, leaders of other faiths, labor
leaders and all manner of activists showed up for his funeral. Jack Egan was a
good priest.
In an era when priests living faithful lives of remarkable service
get shoved from view by scandal and a culture that places less value than it
once did on religious vocations, Egan stood for all of those less-known who
take up the daunting task of priestly ministry.
One of the mourners who paid respects to Egan May 21, Mary Louise
Kurey, told a Chicago Tribune reporter that she had moved to Chicago
four months ago and was overwhelmed by the citys size and its social
problems. Overwhelmed, that is, until she heard Egan one Sunday urging
parishioners to make their faith active.
She was so inspired, in the words of reporter Kevin Lynch, that
she began tutoring a fourth-grader at St. Joseph School.
Of Egan, she said, He made me feel very much at home
and inspired me to reach out like he did in his life.
Egan did not shy from the tough stories about the church. As a
member of the NCR board, he was a staunch advocate of unvarnished
reporting on the church. Nor did he shy from controversy. The pursuit of
justice -- in areas of race, housing, the payday loan industry, equal rights
for all -- brought him into conflict with some powerful people. Thats
where his priesthood took him.
His life was a seamless connection between the structures and
rituals of the institutional church and the outreach vital to his life as a
priest. The connections built up over a lifetime, the enormous community that
he had inspired, were well-represented at his funeral. It was fitting, too,
that the celebrant, Bishop Timothy J. Lyne, recognized Egans
administrative assistant, Peggy Roach, whom he described as Egans
co-minister for 35 years.
A few days before he died Egan sent me a letter attached to what
he called his Last Testament, which appears on page 7. He wanted to
talk about it, but most of all he wanted it published. I never got to discuss
it with him. I learned of his death while on the road.
It is telling, however, that a man who spent his life in battles
for justice and equality in the wider culture would take up as his final
impassioned cause equal treatment of women within the church he loved. It may
be the most difficult cause hed ever take up. He said in his letter that
he expected to be criticized severely for saying this. I hope he
isnt. He was a good priest. And the church ought to listen, now and then,
to its good priests.
-- Tom Roberts
My e-mail address is troberts@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, June 1,
2001
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