Queen of Rosary says goodbye to pastor

When the Rev. John P. Smyth was about to undergo open heart surgery, he teased his friend, the Rev. Arthur J. Fagan Jr., that he wouldn't expect him to give his eulogy if he died on the operating table.

"I told him I'm letting him off the hook." But Fagan replied to Smyth, "And if I die, then you'll have to talk."

And so on Thursday, Smyth gave an eulogy for Fagan, who presided over the Queen of the Rosary Church in Elk Grove Village.

Last Saturday morning, Fagan died of a heart attack in his sleep while staying at a friend's house. He was 65.

Hundreds of church members packed the service held at St. Julian Eymard Church in Elk Grove Village after the air conditioning went out at Queen of the Rosary.

Francis Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago, presided over the funeral Mass.

Peels of laughter rippled through the church as Smyth told humorous stories about Fagan, with whom he worked for six years at Maryville Academy in Des Plaines.

In the end, the crowd applauded Smyth's bittersweet speech about the good friend and fellow priest with whom he shared so many happy times.

Smyth recounted one instance when the pair was agonizing over firing a Maryville employee. Fagan told Smyth he'd find the strength to do it and he took the employee out to lunch to do the deed.

"So how did he take it?" Smyth asked Fagan when he got back. To which Fagan replied, "He took it very well. I didn't fire him. I gave him a raise."

Fagan's death came little more than a day after the passing of another prominent Queen of the Rosary church figure, the Rev. Francis J. Cerniglia, the pastor emeritus, who lived on the church grounds. He was 80. His funeral was earlier this week.

The church will be without a figurehead until the Chicago Archdiocese appoints a new pastor, church leaders said.

Fagan will be greatly missed by the parish, said Emil Schiavo, a Queen of the Rosary church member who attended the funeral.

"When you were in his presence, he was just like one of us -- nothing pretentious about him," Schiavo said. "He usually started off Mass with a meaningful joke and elaborated about it with his homily, so it was funny but true to life."

Fagan had been undergoing radiation treatment for a tumor in his esophagus.

He was a Chicago native, who was ordained as a priest in 1967. He became assistant to the superintendent of Maryville Academy. He served until 1972 when he left the priesthood, according to the Chicago Archdiocese.

In 1979, he was married in a civil ceremony. He and his wife adopted a son, named Michael. The marriage ended in 1984 with Fagan raising his son while working in sales.

In 1985, Fagan petitioned Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Bernardin to return to active ministry.

In 1988, he was appointed associate pastor of St. Juliana Parish in Chicago.

In 1996, Fagan was named pastor of Queen of the Rosary in Elk Grove Village.