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In five-plus decades as a Capuchin friar, Fr. Michael Crosby talked and walked the language of conversion wherever he went, whether within the Catholic Church, the corridors of American industry or individuals' spiritual lives.
While Crosby's books and lectures on church reform and biblical discipleship made his name known to Catholics across the country, he proved a familiar and formidable figure in the boardrooms of corporate America by doggedly pursuing socially responsible practices. For 44 years, the Capuchin went toe-to-toe with CEOs of some of the nation's biggest names in the tobacco, oil, food and retail industries.
Crosby died Aug. 5 at age 77, following a diagnosis in December of cancer of the esophagus.
"He was always attempting to make the connections between what we believe in our heads and how we live and relate to each other in our everyday lives. There must be a connection if our faith is genuine," his older brother and fellow Capuchin friar Fr. Daniel Crosby told NCR.
Mike Crosby spent his final weeks with his brother at St. Bonavent?re Monastery in Detroit - a special site as the place where Blessed Capuchin Fr. Solanus Casey, for whom Mike served as collaborator for his canonization cause, had lived and was buried.
"Mike's death leaves both a large hole and a huge legacy," said Franciscan Sr. Jan Cebula in an email. Her Clinton, Iowa, congregation had known the priest since the 1970s and hosted several of his retreats.
Crosby was born Feb. 16, 1940, the third of four sons, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He entered the Capuchin order in August 1959 and was ordained a priest on Oct. 6,1966. Initially serving an inner-city Milwaukee parish struggling with racial integration, he began his ministry of corporate social responsibility in 1973, a decade after professing his final vows in the Capuchin order.
He was greatly influenced by the 1971 Synod of Bishops' document "Justice in the World," which for him effectively summarized globalized social injustice.
Eventually, he turned his attention to institutions and systemic change, becoming one of the first members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. In June, the 300-member organization announced that he and Dominican Sr. Patricia Daly would receive its 2017 Legacy Award, crediting Crosby...