Rev. Mr. Robert Timothy Ragan, 46, a permanent deacon assigned to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, died Sunday, Jan. 19 in Atlanta. Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, presided at a memorial Mass attended by Rev. Mr. Ragan’s family and friends held at the Shrine Tuesday evening, Jan. 21.

Father Alan Dillmann, who celebrated the Mass, said Rev. Mr. Raga was “very dedicated” in his ministry to persons affected with AIDS. “He worked very hard,” Father Dillmann said, visiting and calling people who had been isolated by the disease.

A life-long Catholic born in Savannah, Rev. Mr. Ragan was ordained to the permanent diaconate in 1989. In his first homily, preached at a healing service for persons with AIDS that June, he spoke on the value of “taking up the cross and giving our lives to Christ.”

“This is what we are called to do,” he had told the Shrine congregation.

Rev. Mr. Ragan lived and worked in Atlanta for over 10 years, pursuing graduate study in psychology and education at Emory University and Georgia State. He was a caseworker with the Fulton County Department of Family and Children’s Services.

Rev. Mr. Ragan is survived by his parents, Edward and Eleanor Ragan of Savannah, his brother, Edward, of Alpharetta, and two sisters, Ellen Shaw and Mary Raga-Walker of Savannah.

Memorial donations may be made to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception’s Tuesday Night Dinners, 38 Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr., Atlanta 30303.