Francis X. Murphy, 87, the Redemptorist priest whose insider reports from the Second Vatican Council were published in the New Yorker and widely read by a public fascinated with that historic, closed-door enclave in the 1960s, died April 11 at a hospital in Annapolis, Maryland

Christian Century, April 24, 2002

* Francis X. Murphy, 87, the Redemptorist priest whose insider reports from the Second Vatican Council were published in the New Yorker and widely read by a public fascinated with that historic, closed-door enclave in the 1960s, died April 11 at a hospital in Annapolis, Maryland. Murphy, the former rector of Holy Redeemer College in Washington, D.C., had Parkinson's disease and recently had cancer surgery, according to the Washington Post.

Writing under the pseudonym Xavier Rynne, Murphy wrote a series of 13 articles from 1962 to 1965 as the Catholic Church debated and decided on major reforms. His reporting of the intrigue behind the scenes unsettled Vatican officials. At the time, Murphy was a linguist working as a translator for the American bishops.