The rebel priest!
Well finally someone at least wrote about this man, Northland Catholic Roundtable (see my links) has a post about him. After all he has been the longtime pastor of one of the most famous parishes in the country, and he put it on the map.
I'm not going to write anything historical or well documented with dates and places, that type of history may be had from the SJA website. The post on Northland Catholic demonstrates how SJA got to be the way it was with a concise timeline sort of deal.
Harvey Egan was an energetic man, idealistic and nothing but sincere. Did he care about people? You bet. He was in that forefront of the wave of religious and clerical activists seeking civil rights for the African American, protesting Vietnam, what have you. He shouted, marched, and carried signs. It was pre-Woodstock and the times were definitely a'changein', as Dylan sang. The Council happened and yes indeed it was a new era, a new Church. For decades there were rumblings of change and unrest, he knew it, the seminaries taught about it, - it really did not happen overnight. Experimentation suddenly became open ended liturgically after the Council, Harvey and many priests his age and immediately following him embraced that whole heartedly. In society at large a cultural revolution was taking place, Harvey created a parish where these people might worship. It became the "Woodstock" of Catholic parishes. (That happened while the charismatic movement was developing over at Regina High School - another sort of "Woodstock" environment, albeit more faithful to Catholic teaching.) Ever since SJA has attracted the avant garde, the cutting edge element, perhaps the fringe, into it's gymnasium. I was even impressed when Gloria Steinem spoke. I always liked her, even though I did not agree with her pro-abortion/contraceptive dogma.
So we all know about Fr. Egan and what he accomplished. He really was a very nice man. His idea of charity, not the social justice-activist expression, but the theological virtue, was usually to tell people that they were okay just the way they were. It's just between you and God. You are saved. There is nothing wrong with you. He accepted everyone. He wasn't - isn't alone in this view. He was the high-priest of relativism. There are still 50-something and up priests who believe that. They seem to tell people don't be so concerned about eternal salvation - it's the here and now that counts. Liturgy and worship is about the people of God - God is present in the assembly and the people are God, as it were. Harvey was pretty new-age before the term was coined.
He admitted he was a rebel, a revolutionary. Perhaps he saw himself as sort of a Luther, a great reformer? After he retired I would see him on occasion at St. Olaf's in downtown Minneapolis, sitting in the back at noon Mass. Sometimes he was there to go to confession. Sometimes I would say hello to him and he was very kind when he greeted me in return. I saw him not too long ago buying a baptismal gift at a Religious Goods store, it was rather traditional, I wondered if he had returned to the more traditional roots he had grown up with. He was a nice man who obviously had some issues with the pre-Vatican II Church, and cared enough about people to include them in the Church, except, very often, he just did not always present the Truth.
Fr. Harvey Egan died Saturday May 21, 2006 + May he rest in peace.
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