Services set for Rev. Dan Mallette, ‘ amazing person’
Funeral services have been set for the Rev. Daniel Mallette, the one- of- a- kind, plain- spoken, pugnacious priest whose congregation rallied around him after a vicious beating at the hands of burglars who broke into his Southwest Side rectory in search of cash six years ago.
Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p. m. Friday at St. Margaret of Scotland Church, 9830 S. Vincennes, where the Rev. Mallette served as pastor for 35 years. A funeral Mass will be said at 11 a. m. Saturday. Burial will be at Holy Cross Cemetery in Calumet City.
The Rev. Mallette, 85, died Monday at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park.
“He was an amazing person, an amazing friend of mine. He was like my best buddy,” said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, a longtime friend and parishioner who will give a eulogy at the funeral.
“It’s a tragedy the stories that are lost with him,” Dart said.
“We tried like you wouldn’t believe to get him to write his story,” Dart said. “We bought him a tape recorder a few years ago, and he spent an afternoon with it only to tell me later, ‘ Tommy, the thing is broken,’ and I said ‘ Father, there’s no tape in there!’ ”
Had the recording session worked, the tape might have captured the Rev. Mallette’s fear of mortal injury at the hands of his jailers after being thrown in the clink during a civil rights march in the South.
He may have told the story about how, after being reassigned to work as a priest in New York City, he was sent back to Chicago after church hierarchy found out he was driving a taxi in order to get to know the people in his community.
“He didn’t think much of these stories; it was his personality. He thought, ‘ That’s why I was put on Earth. What’s the big deal?’ ” Dart said.
Rev. Mallette suffered nightmares after the 2011 beating. He forgave his attackers and expressed interest in visiting them in prison before he died, though he did not get around to it, Dart said.
Itwas unclear who would take over caring for his dog, Tuffy, the priest’s fifth Scottish Terrier that bore the name.
Survivors include a number of cousins, including Eileen Jaminski.