Bestselling novelist Rev. Andrew Greeley stood up for abuse victims

CHICAGO (IL)
Calgary Herald

BY DON BABWIN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO — The Rev. Andrew Greeley, an outspoken Roman Catholic priest, bestselling author and longtime Chicago newspaper columnist who criticized the hierarchy of his own church over the child sex abuse scandal, has died. He was 85.

His longtime publicist, June Rosner, said Greeley died Wednesday night at his Chicago home.

Greeley was the author of more than 50 bestselling novels, many of them international mystery thrillers, and dozens of non-fiction works. His writing was translated into 12 languages and his career spanned five decades. His novels include The Cardinal Sins, White Smoke, The Priestly Sins and Angel Light. His many non-fiction works include The Catholic Revolution and Priests: A Calling in Crisis. …

“Sometimes I think that we as priests and bishops have done everything we possibly could to drive away the laity during the last 20 years,” Greeley wrote in his book Catholic Contributions: Sociology and Policy, published in 1987.

Greeley also had said neither the church nor government was willing to do much about priests who sexually abuse children.

“The sexually maladjusted priest has been able to abuse the children of the laity and thus far be reasonably secure from punishment,” Greeley told a lay Catholic group in 1992.

During a news conference in 1987, Greeley said that if he were heading a church fundraising campaign, he would admit to church members that “we’ve really goofed. People are resentful over what they take to be the insensitivity of church leaders — particularly on matters relating to sex.”

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