Andrew Greeley

Andrew Moran Greeley (February 5, 1928 – May 29, 2013) was an American Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist and novelist. He was a professor of sociology at the University of Arizona and the University of Chicago, and a research associate with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). For many years, Greeley wrote a weekly column for the Chicago Sun-Times and contributed regularly to The New York Times, the National Catholic Reporter, America and Commonweal.

Life and career Greeley was born into a large Irish Catholic family in Oak Park, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago) in 1928. He grew up during the Great Depression in Chicago's Austin neighborhood, where he attended St. Angela Elementary School, and by the second grade, he knew that he wanted to be a priest. After studying at Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, Greeley received an AB degree from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Chicago in 1950, a Bachelor of Sacred Theology (STB) in 1952, and a Licentiate of Sacred Theology (STL) in 1954, when he was ordained for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

From 1954 to 1964, Greeley served as an assistant pastor at Christ the King parish in Chicago, during which time he studied sociology at the University of Chicago. His first book, The Church in the Suburbs (1958), was drawn from notes a sociology professor had encouraged him to take describing his experiences.

As described by John L. Allen Jr. of the National Catholic Reporter, Greeley became fascinated with what has been called the Catholic "analogical imagination", the idea that "visible, tangible things in the created order serve as metaphors for the divine, as opposed to the more textual and literal religious sensibility of Protestants and others." He said, "The only way I can write fiction is to keep those hours from 6:00 to 9:00 A.M. sacred." He published his first novel, The Magic Cup, in 1975, In 2003, the Archdiocese accepted the $420,000 that still remained in the fund to bolster a newly established Catholic Schools Endowment Fund, providing scholarships for low-income students and for raising teachers' salaries in the Archdiocese's schools. who was then serving as a U.S. Senator representing Illinois, although Greeley predicted that racism would lead to Obama's defeat. He remained in poor health for the rest of his life and died on May 29, 2013, at his Chicago home. He was 85.

Honors Greeley was awarded honorary degrees from the University of Arizona, Bard College (New York State) and the National University of Ireland, Galway. In 1981, he received the F. Sadlier Dinger Award, which is presented each year by educational publisher William H. Sadlier, Inc. in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the ministry of religious education in America.

Non-fiction The Social Effects of Catholic Education (1961) Religion and Career: A Study of College Graduates (1963) And Young Men Shall See Visions (1964) Letters to Nancy (1964) The Hesitant Pilgrim: American Catholicism After the Council (1966) The Education of Catholic Americans (1966) The Catholic Experience: A Sociologist's Interpretation of the History of American Catholicism (1967) The Changing Catholic College (1967) Uncertain Trumpet: The Priest in Modern America (1968) The Crucible of Change: The Social Dynamics of Pastoral Practice (1968) What Do We Believe? The Stance of Religion in America (1968) The Student in Higher Education (1968) From Backwater to Mainstream: A Profile of Catholic Higher Education (1969) Religion in the Year 2000 (1969) A Future to Hope in: Socio-religious Speculations (1969) Life for a Wanderer (1969) The Friendship Game (1970) Recent Alumni and Higher Education: A Survey of College Graduates (1970) Can Catholic Schools Survive? (1970) Why Can't They Be Like Us? (1971) The Jesus Myth (1971) American Priests. Chicago: National Opinion Research Center (1971) The Denominational Society (1972) Unsecular Man (1972) Priests in the U.S.: Reflections on a Survey (1972) That Most Distressful Nation: The Taming of the American Irish (1972) The Catholic Priest in the U.S.: Sociological Investigations (1972) Ethnicity in the U.S.: A Preliminary Reconnaissance (1974) Ecstasy: A Way of Knowing (1974) Building Coalitions (1974) The Sociology of the Paranormal (1975) The Sinai Myth (1975) Love and Play (1975) The Great Mysteries: An Essential Catechism (1976) Ethnicity, Denomination and Inequality (1976) The American Catholic: A Social Portrait (1977) No Bigger Than Necessary (1977) Neighborhood. New York (1977) Ugly little secret : anti-Catholicism in North America (1977) The Making of the Popes (1978) Crisis in the Church: A Study of Religion in America (1979) Ethnic Drinking Subcultures (1980) The Young Catholic Family (1980) The Religious Imagination (1981) Young Catholics in the United States and Canada (1981) The Irish Americans: The Rise to Money and Power (1981) Parish, Priest and People (1981) Catholic High Schools and Minority Students (1982) The Bottom Line Catechism (1982) Religion: A Secular Theory (1982) The Catholic Why? Book (1983) The Dilemma of American Immigration: Beyond the Golden Door (1983) Angry Catholic Women (1984) How to Save the Catholic Church (1984) American Catholics Since the Council (1985) Confessions of a Parish Priest (1986) Catholic Contributions: Sociology & Policy (1987) An Andrew Greeley Reader: Volume One (1987) The Irish Americans: The Rise to Money and Power (1988) When Life Hurts: Healing Themes from the Gospels (1988) God in Popular Culture (1988) Sexual Intimacy: Love and Play (1988) Myths of Religion: An inspiring investigation into the nature of God and a journey to the boundaries of faith (1989); Religious Change in America (1989) The Catholic Myth: The Behavior and Beliefs of American Catholics (1990) The Bible and Us (1990) Year of Grace: A Spiritual Journal (1990) Faithful Attraction: Discovering Intimacy, Love, and Fidelity in American Marriage (1991) Love Affair: A Prayer Journal (1992) Winner of the Catholic Press Association Book Award in the spiritual category, among his favorites. The Sense of Love (1992) Sacraments of Love: A Prayer Journal (1994) Windows: A Prayer Journal (1995) Sex: The Catholic Experience (1995) Religion as Poetry (1995) Sociology and Religion: A Collection of Readings (1995) Common Ground (1996) Forging a Common Future (1997) I Hope You're Listening God: A Prayer Journal (1997) Furthermore! (1999) The Mysteries of Grace The Catholic Imagination (2000); Book of Love (2002) Letters To A Loving God: A Prayer Journal (2002) The Great Mysteries: Experiencing Catholic Faith from the inside Out (2003) God in the Movies (2003), with Albert J. Bergesen The Catholic Revolution: New Wine, Old Wineskins, and the Second Vatican Council (2004); Priests: A Calling in Crisis (2004) The Making Of The Pope (2005) The Truth about Conservative Christians: What They Think and What They Believe (2006) Jesus: A Meditation on His Stories and His Relationships with Women (2007) A Stupid, Unjust and Criminal War: Iraq 2001-2007 (2007) He shows that "Jesus is the Prince of Peace, not a Captain of War." (Garry Wills)