A human rights activist Argentinian wins Nobel Prize

Fr. W illiam A. Toohey, C.S.C., d irector o f C am pus M inistry since 1970, died yesterday m orning. H e was 50 years old. T oohey was hospitalized O c to b e r 1 after he collapsed during a staff m eeting following several days of “ m inor illness.” H e was pronounced dead at 11:32 a.m. yesterday at St. Jo sep h ’s H ospital. D octors diagnosed his illness as a form o f viral encephalitis, and perfo rm ed surgery last w eek to relieve increasing in ternal p ressure on his brain. H ow ever, according to H oly Cross S uperior Fr. Leonard Banas, when the prob lem recurred Sunday, the doctors w ere unable to operate . T oohey never regained consciousness. A native o f Racine, Wise., T oohey served two years in the M arines following his graduation from N o tre D am e in 1952. H e en tered the C ongregation o f H oly Cross in 1954 and was ordained in 1961. H is pastoral experience ranged from a chaplaincy at a federal reform school to religious education. H e received a m aster’s degree from N orthw este rn U niversity in com m unications and public speaking and was a professor o f preaching a t H oly Cross College in W ashington, DC, from 1962 until 1968. H e jo ined the U niversity’s D epartm en t o f Theology in 1968, the same year he was president o f th e C hristian P reaching C onference. T oohey au th o red six books and over 80 articles, including a regular colum n in The Observer, expanding on the them e th a t a “ C atholic university m ust be a place where people are touched by the creative, redeem ing force of G o d ’s love. ” As d irecto r o f Cam pus M inistry, Toohey felt m inistry involved the en tire N o tre D am e com m unity, no t just its clerical and religious m em bers. “ W e have got to expand the concept o f ’m in istry’ beyond the n o tio n that i t ’s ’w hat the priests do ,” ’ he com m ented when he was appoin ted in 1970. “ There should be at N o tre D am e a m inistry o f the whole com m unity — m en and wom en, religious and lay persons, faculty arid stud en ts — in m uch the same way family m em bers m in ister to one an o th e r.” T oohey was a constan t activist for social justice, viewing it as a m atter o f “ hum an decency,” saying, “Justice is an essential m essage o f the G ospel.” Many tim es he took a stand in favor o f conscien tious ob jection calling it “ discipline and s treng th of consciousness” and th e actions o f ob jectors as “ prophetic o f o u r own realization o f fau lt.” In a reflection o f his style o f m inistry , T oohey last year received the R einhold N iebur Award, which “ calls on m inisters to stop creating devotion to abstract ideals which everyone accepts in theory and denies in practice and agonize over the value o f such ideals and apply them to the