Political Quotes

“Mr. President, last week we lost a Chicago original. Father Andrew Greeley was a Catholic priest in Chicago and a man of great accomplishment. He was a best-selling author, college professor, newspaper columnist, and a sociologist at the University of Chicago. Most importantly, according to Father Greeley, he was ``just a priest.'' Andrew Moran Greeley was born in Oak Park, a suburb west of Chicago. By the time he was in second grade at St. Angela Elementary School, he knew he wanted to be a Catholic priest. After being ordained, he served as an assistant pastor at Christ the King Parish in Chicago and studied sociology at the University of Chicago. He was released from archdiocesan duties to pursue his academic interests in 1965, but he remained a priest in good standing the rest of his life. Although he never led a parish, Father Andrew Greeley regularly filled in at Saint Mary of the Woods Church in Edgebrook. He would lead mass, preach, hear confessions, and officiate at weddings and baptisms. But what brought Andrew Greeley international recognition was his work as a writer, an author. He built an international assemblage of fans over a career spanning five decades. Of the 60 novels Father Greeley wrote, some were considered scandalous with their portraits of hypocritical and sinful clerics. But he also wrote more than 70 works of nonfiction, often on the sociology of religion.…”