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Father John Hotchkin: Right Man, Right Place, Right Time By Msgr. George G. Higgins The Yardstick July 16, 2001     Two of my fellow Chicago priests who made a significant difference in the century and on the nation in which they lived -- 84-year-old social activist Msgr. John Egan and 66-year-old ecumenist Father John Hotchkin -- died recently within a few weeks of one another. Both will be sorely missed, and one feels it may be a long time before we see their likes again.     I have already memorialized Msgr. Egan in an earlier column. Here I should like to highlight Father Hotchkin's leadership as a remarkably influential pioneer of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue not only on the local and national levels but internationally as well.     Born and raised on one of the few remaining farms in the predominantly urban archdiocese of Chicago, John Hotchkin began his seminary studies at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Ill., and completed them at the North American College in Rome, winning a licentiate in theology at the famed Gregorian University.     Following ordination to the priesthood, he served as associate pastor in two Chicago parishes and then returned to Rome for doctoral studies in ecumenical theology, again at the Gregorian. The timing of his doctoral studies proved providential. He was in Rome during the last two sessions of Vatican Council II and won his doctorate in ecumenical theology one year after the council's closing. He benefited greatly, then, from being involved in graduate studies in ecumenical theology at the very time ecumenism, because of the council, was coming into its own.     It would be difficult to imagine a more propitious way for Father Hotchkin to have prepared for his official ecumenical duties first as an assistant director, then for almost three decades as director of the newly established U.S. bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. He was, providentially, exactly the right man in the right place at the right time.     The church in the United States at the close of Vatican II was uniquely placed in the Catholic world to move forward in implementing aggressively the council fathers' ecumenical vision. The American bishops returned from Rome determined to do just that. Father Hotchkin, though youthful, in his quiet, insightful way, helped them do it and in the process helped to develop the institutional infrastructure on the national level and to nourish, support and weave together into a meaningful whole the myriad efforts taking place in Catholic dioceses all across the country.     Msgr. William Fay, general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that “Father Hotchkin has justly been described as the leading Catholic ecumenist in the United States and certainly was one of the leading Catholic ecumenists in the world as well.” High praise indeed, but, if anything, an understatement.     Msgr. John Radano of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, expressing the council's condolences on Father Hotchkin's death, credited Father Hotchkin with being the guiding force on the Catholic side in the development of the basic national and international Catholic-Lutheran documents which paved the way and provided the theological “groundwork” for the historic Joint Declaration on Justification. In addition to his theological learning and pastoral skills, Father Hotchkin had a knack, almost a genius, for recruiting the best qualified men and women for his professional staff, and also had the self-confidence and humility to let them carry on their work free from niggling interference on his part but rather with his strong encouragement and full support.     The staff this remarkable leader put together is stable and closely knit, loyal and focused in their task. Father Hotchkin literally was revered by his colleagues. They and the church universal will miss him very much. Papal Social Encyclicals Other Catholic Social Teachings General Articles of Interest Catholic Worker Connection Msgr. George Higgins Home Page E-Mail: Fr. Sinclair Oubre