Father Timothy A. Hogan, who cofounded Nativity Academy at St. Boniface and led Catholic Charities of Louisville, died Oct. 15. He was 78 and had been a priest for 51 years.
Father Hogan, a native of Louisville, was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville on May 14, 1966, and went on to serve as a pastor and leader in the archdiocese.
He served as the executive director of Catholic Charities of Louisville from 1987 to 1998 and as chair of the board of trustees for Catholic Charities USA over the course of 20 years.
In 2003, he cofounded Nativity Academy at St. Boniface, an independent Catholic school for urban youth, in the former St. Boniface School building. Father Hogan served as pastor of St. Boniface from 1998 until his retirement in 2010.
For the two years before his retirement, Father Hogan also coordinated prison ministry in the archdiocese.
He had a unique background for a priest in prison ministry, having been arrested and jailed one night in 1967. He was arrested as he stepped out of a van preparing to take part in an open housing march, he wrote in a column for The Record on May 4 of that year.
After being imprisoned overnight a week earlier, he wrote, “I learned one thing that night.”
“I know something now of what it means to be without any rights. I was just there. Nobody would listen. There was nothing I could do about it. I just had no rights,” he wrote.
“For me, this frustrating feeling only lasted the 12 hours from Thursday night to when I walked out into the Friday morning rain. I can understand now — in a way I never could before — something of the anguish of any person, or any people, who have to face a life of not being listened to, of not being treated as a person, of not having their basic rights honored.”
Father Hogan devoted much of his life as a priest to assisting people without a voice.
Prior to his service at Catholic Charities, he served for 13 years on the faculty of Spalding University, where he was chair of the social work department. He also served as a campus minister there.
He also served as the director of the Schuhmann Center, a social service agency at St. Martin of Tours Church, and as associate director of Boys Haven.In parish ministry, he served as pastor of the old St. Philip Neri Church, in addition to St. Boniface, and as associate pastor of St. Gregory Church in Samuels, Ky.; St. Augustine Church, the old St. Basil, St. Patrick (W. Market Street) and St. John churches and St. Martin of Tours Church.
He was an assistant chaplain for the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and chaplain for the Carmelite Sisters.
Father Hogan is survived by his brother, Dr. Frederick W. Hogan, and sister Barbara Ann Pavelka.
Visitation will be at Bosse Funeral Home, 1355 Ellison Avenue, on Oct. 20 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. and at St. Boniface, 531 East Liberty St., on Oct. 21 at 10 a.m.
The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Boniface Oct. 21 at 11 a.m. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery.
