Mount Prospect priest dies

A Mount Prospect parish priest who tended to the spiritual needs of Catholics throughout the Chicago area has died.

The Rev. Ralph Mollan spent the last nine years of active ministry with Mount Prospect's St. Thomas Becket Parish. Mollan, who was ordained in 1943 and retired from St. Thomas Becket's in 1989, died Tuesday at age 90.

A native of Chicago's West Side, Mollan attended Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary and University of St. Mary of the Lake-Mundelein Seminary. He spent much of the Forties and Fifties at two south-side parishes before serving as area chaplain for the Christian Family Movement, an organization of laity formed to promote Christian family life, and he also served as chaplain for Evanston Township High School and for a north suburban chapter of the Catholic Interracial Council.

He worked at two more parishes on the South Side before arriving at St. Thomas Becket's around 1980. He was named pastor emeritus in 1989 and had been living at Bishop Lyne Home in Palos Park.

A memorial Mass is planned for 10:30 a.m. Monday, April 27, in the chapel of Holy Family Villa, 12220 Will Cook Road, Palos Park. Interment will be at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Alsip.