Philip Murnion, priest, sociologist

By Associated Press, 8/21/2003

NEW YORK -- Philip Murnion, a Catholic priest and sociologist who founded and directed the National Pastoral Life Center, died Tuesday of cancer. He was 65.

Mr. Murnion founded the center, which provides resources to pastors, ministers, church personnel, and bishops, in 1983.

He also wrote many articles and edited "Catholics and Nuclear War," a 1983 book of essays. Mr. Murnion earned a PhD in sociology from Columbia University in 1971 and worked briefly as an adjunct professor at Boston College and Fordham University.