From The Managing Editor: May 6, 1991

• Share

After being admitted to a New York City hospital this past February, TIME's Michael P. Harris told a visitor he hoped to spend his summer vacation in Rome. He soon became too ill even to return home, and last week he died. The cause of death was complications resulting from AIDS. That is a chilling sentence, one that is found in more and more obituaries these days. We at TIME, sadly, are familiar with the grief and sense of loss it signals.

For eight years, Michael was the reporter-researcher of the magazine's Religion section and, on occasion, its writer as well. He was uniquely qualified to be arbiter of matters spiritual and temporal. He studied at a Roman Catholic seminary in upstate New York and had a Bachelor of Arts from St. Bonaventure University and a doctorate in classical studies from Cornell. Fluent in ancient and modern languages, Michael could -- and did -- read the Koran in Arabic, the Second Vatican Council decrees in the official Latin, and compare New Testament translations with the original Greek. A Maronite Catholic, Michael was grounded in his faith, believing that religion was at the heart of everything it means to be human. He became a resource for everyone and was sought out to explain arcane doctrine or translate a puzzling phrase. While Michael could be staunch in his opinion, says an editor who worked closely with him, "he was a person of remarkable equanimity. He tried to persuade by logic, never by charged or heated words, and I never once knew him to lose his temper."

Fellow journalists at TIME last week talked fondly about his love of learning and his effortless wit that was without malice. "Michael helped prevent us from taking everything, including ourselves, too seriously," recalled one. During his last illness, Michael courageously came to work, sometimes walking with a cane. On a day when he didn't need it, he commented wryly, "No pain, no cane." In the latter months of 1990, Michael was conducting interviews for a future story about the resurgence of Goddess worship, talking to people around the country who could help assess the movement and put it in historical perspective. The story appears in this issue, and after the final paragraph you will see the words "Reported by Michael P. Harris/New York." It is his last byline.