Greeley, Andrew M. (1928–)

Reverend Andrew M. Greeley was born February 5, 1928, in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. He is an Irish American Catholic priest, noted sociologist, and journalist. He is the author of [Page 416]over 50 best-selling novels and more than 100 works of nonfiction. A professor of sociology at the University of Arizona and a research associate with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, Greeley is a respected scholar whose current research focuses on the sociology of religion. He is a regular contributor to The Chicago Sun-Times, The New York Times, Commonweal, America, and the National Catholic Reporter.

After studies at the now-closed Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, he received a BA from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Illinois, in 1950; an S.T.B. in 1952; and an S.T.L. in 1954, the same year that he was ordained to the Catholic priesthood. He received an M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1961 and a Ph.D. in 1962. He has since received various other awards and honors, including honorary degrees from the National University of Ireland in Galway, as well as from Bard College and the University of Arizona.

Income generated from the sale of his books has been used to fund many charitable organizations. In 1986, Greeley established a $1 million Catholic inner-city school fund, providing scholarships and financial support to schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago with a minority student body of more than 50%. In 1984, he contributed a $1 million financial endowment to establish a chair in Roman Catholic Studies at the University of Chicago. He also funds an annual lecture series, “The Church in Society,” at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary.

Greeley's research in the field of Catholic education has focused primarily on the effectiveness of Catholic schools. He first became professionally interested in Catholic education while assigned to Christ the King Parish in Chicago from 1954 to 1964, where he was placed in charge of religious education. Specifically, he was charged with instruction on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. There he found that the diocesanwide curriculum focused only on the formal aspects of that document. While his students mastered that curriculum well, he judged that they were less interested in the Catholic religion upon completion of the course than they were upon entering. Since Greeley perceived the benefit of Catholic education to lie in the long-term effect in students, measured once they had reached adulthood, he decided to add Catholic stories as the basis for a more formal instruction already in the curriculum. These stories were later published in his first major work on Catholic education.

In his writings on Catholic education, Greeley has stated that he is not a supporter of Catholic schooling but a believer in what research on Catholic schools since 1965 has repeatedly demon-strated—that Catholic schools do make a positive difference in the academics of those students, in their earning power, and in their religious behavior into adulthood, including financial support of the Catholic Church.

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