Egan, Msgr. John Joseph

▪ 2002

      American clergyman (b. Oct. 9, 1916, New York, N.Y.—d. May 19, 2001, Chicago, Ill.), was a Roman Catholic priest who became a noted social activist. Egan was ordained in 1943. As director of the Chicago Archdiocese Office of Urban Affairs from 1958 to 1969, he attracted attention by championing racial integration and criticizing the effects of urban-renewal projects on the poor. Egan was among the clergymen who joined the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., on his historic 1965 protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. Egan served as director of the Institute for Pastoral and Social Ministry at the University of Notre Dame from 1970 to 1983. From 1987 until his death, he was head of the Office of Community Affairs at DePaul University, Chicago. In 2001 he again attracted headlines by calling for the Roman Catholic Church to ordain women and married men. An acclaimed biography of Egan, An Alley in Chicago: The Ministry of a City Priest, by Margery Frisbie, appeared in 1991.

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