Deacon Joseph A. Walsh, 71, died at home in River Forest on March 3. Deacon Walsh was ordained in 2009 and served at Ascension Parish in Oak Park.
Deacon Walsh was a member of Ascension Parish for 67 years. He graduated from Ascension School and St. Ignatius High School, received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Loyola University Chicago. He was dean emeritus of Loyola’s School of Social Work.
In addition to serving as a deacon, he was very active in Oak Park community affairs. He was past president of District 97 school board and a member of the Oak Park mental health board.
He is survived by his wife, Katherine, and children David Walsh, Laura Stawczyk, Maureen Hilquist and Matthew Walsh and nine grandchildren; and siblings Mary Winklebleck, Clare Sobiesk, Joanne Lovell, Kathleen Walsh, Sheila Scanlan, and Patrick Kevin and Denis Walsh.
Deacon Charles “Chick” Moran, 76, died March 2. He was ordained in 1976 and had been retired for several years.
Deacon Moran was the first deacon at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Streamwood. He had been very active in ministering to the poor, and to the sick and dying, according to his son Daniel Moran.
Deacon Moran is survived by his four children: Daniel, Charles Moran, Cynthia Caceres and Laura Kreger; six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Father Edmund Francis Guz, 86, died March 2 at Presence Resurrection Medical Center. He was pastor emeritus of Mother of God Parish, Burnham, and was a resident of Presence St. Benedict Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Niles.
Born in Chicago, he attended St. Casimir School, Quigley Preparatory Seminary and the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary before being ordained in 1955.
Father Guz served as assistant pastor at St. Constance (1955-1961); Holy Innocents (1961-1963); St. Monica (1963); St. Agnes (39th Street and Washtenaw Avenue) (1963-1967); and St. Francis of Assisi (Kostner Avenue) (1967-1975), before serving as administrator of St. Francis of Assisi from 1975 to 1980.
He was as named pastor of Mother of God Parish in Burnham in 1980. Father Guz retired in 2008 and remained at Mother of God until 2014.
Father Guz is survived by a sister, Phyllis Kenyeri.
Bishop John McNabb, an Augustinian, died Feb. 26. Bishop McNabb, 90, was the first bishop of the Diocese of Chulucanas. Peru, and one the last three living U.S. bishops who took part in the Second Vatican Council.
Bishop McNabb was born in Beloit, Wisconsin. He professed first vows as an Augustinian in 1945, final vows in 1948, and was ordained a priest in 1952.
He was a teacher and administrator at Mendel Catholic High School (1953-1959) before becoming province secretary (1959-1961). He returned to Mendel as principal (1962- 1964).
He was named prelate of the mission territory of Chulucanas in 1964 and participated in the last two sessions of the Second Vatican Council. He was ordained a bishop in 1967, and became the ordinary when Chulucanas was made a diocese in 1988.
He resided at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Monastery in Olympia Fields (2000-2002, 2006-2010).
He is survived by a sister, Janet Marelli.
Sister of the Living Word Barbara (Josepha) Hawken, 81, died Feb. 20.
Born in Chicago, she entered the Sisters of Christian Charity in 1953. She joined the Sisters of the Living Word in 1991.
She ministered in education in Minnesota and Ohio as well as in the Archdiocese of Chicago, where she served at St. Teresa of Avila; St. Gregory; St. Mary, Riverdale; Josephinum High School; St. Hedwig; and St. Robert Bellarmine.
Sister Barbara is survived by her sisters Janet Doyle and Diane Larson.
Divine Word Father Bernard Fisher, 97, died Feb. 13 in Techny. He was a missionary in Papua New Guinea.
Father Fisher was a priest for 70 years and in religious vows for 75. He taught at Divine Word seminaries in the United States before being sent to Papua New Guinea in 1948.
In his nearly five decades there, he traveled to remote villages, opened catechetical centers and taught business and agriculture, among other assignments. He also served as a vocation recruiter in the United States.
He returned to the United States permanently in 1992 at age 75. He taught himself desktop publishing and printed more than 30 books and booklets. He moved to Techny in 1992.
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