Issue of December 5, 2004

Msgr. William J. Quinn

Former Maywood Pastor

Msgr. William J. Quinn, pastor of St. Eulalia Parish in Maywood for 19 years, died Nov. 19 at St. Benedict Home, Niles.

Born in Chicago in 1915, Msgr. Quinn attended Resurrection School before entering Quigley Preparatory Seminary. He graduated from the University of St. Mary the Lake Seminary in 1941 and was ordained that year by Cardinal Stritch.

Following his ordination, Msgr. Quinn served for five years as an assistant pastor at St. Gall Parish, Chicago, before being named chaplain to the Catholic Action Federation, an association of the Young Christian Workers, the Young Christian Students and the Christian Family Movement. Msgr. Quinn served as chaplain to these Catholic-action groups from 1946 to 1960.

In 1950, at the request of the State Department, Msgr. Quinn spent three months in Germany studying the problems of German youth. In 1957, he was an archdiocesan delegate to the World Congress of the Lay Apostolate in Rome.

Msgr. Quinn lectured extensively at universities and colleges throughout the country and was an instructor in 1959 at the Social Action Institute at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C.

In 1960, Msgr. Quinn was named executive secretary of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee for Migrant Workers. He continued to reside at St. Gall Parish during his seven-year tenure as director. In 1962, he was named co-director of the Latin America Bureau of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, now the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. That bureau was the liaison office between the U.S. bishops and the bishops of Latin America. The bureau coordinated the U.S. Catholic assistance program for the Latin American Church, including the lay volunteer program known as the Papal Volunteers for Latin America (PAVLA).

In 1967, he became pastor of St. Eulalia Parish, and served until his retirement in 1986. “He was one of the finest churchmen I ever knew,” said Father Joseph Kinane, who served with Msgr. Quinn at St. Eulalia. “He worked well with people and his respect for some of the Latin American bishops with whom he worked gave him a great view of the universal church,” Kinane said.

Fr. Thomas McMahon

professor

Viatorian Father Thomas F. McMahon, 76, died Nov. 22 at Ballard Parc Healthcare Residence, Des Plaines.

A Chicago native and one of seven children, he graduated from St. George High School, Evanston, in 1946 and pronounced his first vows as a Viatorian in 1947. He graduated from St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa, in 1950 with a degree in philosophy. Father McMahon spent three summers studying at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind., and the Sorbonne and Institute Catholique in Paris. He also taught one year at Cathedral Boy’s High School in Springfield, Ill. In 1951, he was assigned to University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome where he completed STB, STL and STD degrees in moral theology. He was ordained in Rome in 1954.

Returning from Rome in 1957, Father McMahon taught at the Viatorian Seminary in Evanston. In 1961, he was assigned to the new Viatorian Seminary in Washington D.C. where he taught moral theology and was dean of studies until 1971. While in Washington, he earned an MBA at George Washington University.

He was granted sabbatical leave during 1967 to do research at the Cambridge Center for Social Studies in Massachusetts. In 1970, the Viatorian Seminary became part of the Washington Theological Coalition, where Father McMahon served as professor and dean of the Viatorian Seminary. Besides his teaching duties, he was chaplain for the U.S. Navy Communications Station (1961-66). .

In 1971, Father McMahon became associate professor of business law at Loyola University, Chicago. In 1975, he became full professor of socio-legal studies. From 1982 until 1990, he directed the Loyola Center for Values in Business. He was named professor of management, a position he held until his retirement in 1999.

He is survived by one brother, Dr. John McMahon, and three sisters, Mrs. Eileen Littwin, Mrs. Estelle Schaefer and Mrs Ann Metzger.

Sr. Dorothy Berg

Teacher

Adrian Dominican Sister Dorothy (Peter Marie) Berg, 85, died Nov. 19 at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, Michigan. She was in the 65th year of her religious profession in the Adrian Dominican Congregation.

Sister Dorothy was born in Royal Oak, Mich. She graduated from St. Mary High School in Royal Oak and earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin from Siena Heights College in Adrian, Mich., and a master’s degree in education from the University of Detroit.

Sister spent 44 years ministering in education in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. She became a resident of the Dominican Life Center in 1985. While in the Dominican Life Center she tutored for six years at the Adrian Training School.

Sister Dorothy is survived by two sisters; Rose Berg and Adrian Dominican Sister Jane Elizabeth Berg and was preceded in death by a sister, Sister Marie Arlene Berg, also an Adrian Dominican.

Sr. Estelle Cristman

teacher

Sister of Christian Charity Mary Josephine (Estelle) Cristman, 92, died Nov. 17 at Sacred Heart Convent, Wilmette.

A Chicago native, she entered the congregation at the motherhouse in Wilmette in 1935. Six months later, she became a novice and received the name Sister Estelle. She professed her first vows in 1937 and her final vows in 1943.

Sister Estelle taught at the elementary level in schools in several states. In 1958, she returned to the Chicago area where she was secretary and religion teacher at St. Isaac Jogues School until 1963. The following year she served in the same capacity at Holy Trinity in Westmont.

Sister Estelle returned to Wilmette in 1971 and helped with secretarial work at Sacred Heart Convent.

From 1973-87 she worked at Mallinckrodt College where she transcribed dictation. After retiring from this ministry she spent the next 13 years crocheting items for the poor.