Egan advocated for the poor
The death of Father Jack Egan brings back memories of a courageous priest who readily embodied and lived the Vatican II reforms of bringing God’s Kingdom in this world. My first exposure to his prophetic ministry was through the pages of this newspaper, which chronicled his advocacy for the poor especially the newly migrated Puerto Ricans in Downtown Jersey City.
There were many clashes with the police and arrests as he stood up for their rights. He and other Catholic priests founded and staffed El Centro Catolico, a second-floor walk-up on the corner of Newark Avenue and Erie Street, where residents could come for assistance and organizing.
One of his close associates was Sister of St. Joseph of Peace Kristin Funari, who also worked at St. Boniface. She was a wiry firebrand. She also reimagined the buildings her community owned on York and Washington streets into what is now The York Street Project and headed it for years. She died way too young over four years ago.
I met Egan for the first time when I was a young priest and found him to be one of the most gentle men I’d ever met and not what I expected knowing him from a distance. He would often ride his bicycle down Magnolia Avenue and would stop and talk with my mother, Grace, not knowing who she was.
I was surprised that the late Archbishop Peter Gerety removed him from the priesthood summarily when Egan refused to retract his public support for the ordination of women. Gerety was a liberal lion in the U.S. church and probably supported many of Egan’s causes. No doubt the Vatican pressured Gerety to take action against Egan because not long after, Gerety stepped down at age 74, when he was as robust as ever.
But our Catholic faith teaches that you are a priest forever and Jack continued to minister at the York Street Project and collaborated with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, whom he valued and inspired as they did him.
Rest in peace, Jack, you brought peace to so many and touched so many lives.
Rev. Alexander M. Santora, Hoboken
Freed to be ‘the genuine article’
Re: “Remembering ‘El Padre Juan” about the death of John “Jack” Egan:
I love him. And no matter what he said, we can’t give up being a priest. It’s in the marrow of our bones.
Bureaucratic and political types can force you out of the establishment, but that just frees you up to be the genuine article in all that you do, say and are.
The other option is just to roll over and die internally, which is what the ones “in charge” want to see. And that would be the ultimate evil. Never. Ever.
Harry Stewart, Leominster, England
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