NOTEWORTHY DEATHS

Vocal priest, author, columnist Greeley

CHICAGO - The Rev. Andrew Greeley, an outspoken Roman Catholic priest, best-selling author and longtime Chicago newspaper columnist who even criticized the hierarchy of his own church over the child sex-abuse scandal, has died. He was 85.

Greeley died Wednesday night at his Chicago home, according to his longtime publicist, June Rosner. In a statement released Thursday through Rosner, Greeley’s niece, Elizabeth Durkin, praised her uncle as a loving individual who “tremendously enriched” people’s lives.

Greeley was the author of more than 50 best-selling novels, many of them international mystery thrillers, and dozens of nonfiction works. His writing was translated into12 languages and his career spanned five decades.

The Chicago-area native wrote a weekly column that appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times and other newspapers on the relationship between religion and politics. He was a contributor to The New York Times, National Catholic Reporter and other publications.

Greeley had suffered a traumatic brain injury in November 2008, after he snagged his jacket on the door of a taxicab and fell. He spent several months in rehabilitation and underwent intensive therapy, though he never regained full cognitive function.

Greeley, who became a priest in the spring of 1954, published his final book, Chicago Catholics and the Struggles Within Their Church, in 2010.

Canadian abortion activist, physician

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TORONTO - Abortion-rights activist Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who helped overturn Canada’s abortion law 25 years ago, died Wednesday at age 90 at his Toronto home.

The Polish-born Morgentaler emerged in 1967 as an advocate for a woman’s right to have an abortion, at a time when attempting to induce one was a crime punishable by life in prison.

Morgentaler later said his five-year stay in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau prepared him for his showdown with Canada’s legal system, saying that in his mind, laws can be wrong.

Morgentaler opened the first abortion clinic in Montreal in 1970, followed by more clinics across the country, and he fought Canada’s abortion law, which ultimately resulted in the Supreme Court’s landmark 1988 decision declaring it unconstitutional.

Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, said he saved the lives of countless women.

In 2008, Morgentaler received the Order of Canada, the country’s highest recognition award.

Morgentaler’s work also earned him many opponents, and the national coordinator of the anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition, Mary Ellen Douglas, said she hopes Morgentaler repented before his death and that his death marks what she called “an end to the killing in Canada.”