[Dialogue] Death Bed

[Richard]

Death Bed
After being at the October Chicago ICA Celebration of the Band of 24, being my birthday (76years), I thought it would be appropriate to share some of my history. For the last 6 years I have supported ICA Chicago’s work on Accelerate 77. This first helped me to get familiar with the Southside of Chicago as Seva Gandhi (ICA Director of Programs and Partnerships) and I visited Accelerate 77 Southside partners. This familiarization helped me to take the One Earth Film Fest to the Southside. The Southside is great

In working on the Southside, I discovered one of the great community organizers was Saul Alinsky. Terry Bergdall loaned me his autobiography (Let Them Call Me Rebel) that highlighted Alinsky taking on the University of Chicago and Mayor Daly. Alinsky was a master in mobilizing local people. But what really caught my attention was one of the key figures in the book is Monsignor Jack Egan who brought resources and people to the table for Alinsky’s effort.

 I became acquainted with Egan when I was assigned for a week to go to Trenton New Jersey to work with Egan as his facilitator for a gathering of the diocesan development coordinators. Monsignor Egan was at the University of Notre Dame, at that time, heading up the Urban Ministry Institute. He would give these great talks and then I would follow him to lead the group in strategic planning. Egan would kick them in the pants and then I would capture their new energy.

So when Alinsky mentioned Egan, I looked for and found a book about Monsignor John Egan called An Alley in Chicago. I was sure there would be something in the book about ICA/EI. And there was: Egan was assigned to Presentation Parish, which is right next to 5th City. That is how he became a great friend of Joe Mathews. Then on page 269 the book tells the story of Egan being asked to come to Joe’s death bed and to hear his  ‘patrimony to the world’:  “We’ve tried to get the established Church to see that it’s not about peddling abstract dogma but about awakening men into life and significant engagement in the historical process so that they might truly experience the glory of life through intensification of consciousness, and intensification of engagement. Jack Egan prayed with his friend Joe Mathews, blessed him, and knelt for the blessing of this very beautiful and bright man… and to this day, I am a member of the Ecumenical Institute’s board of directors”

Wow, is this not what we are still about? Ok, change men to people

Dick Alton, RS-1, 1968 in Philadelphia.



Richard H.T. Alton 166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N Oak Park, IL 60302 T:1.773.344.7172 richard.alton at gmail.com Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back Babe Ruth
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