COMMENTARY: Catholics Who Should Be Cardinals

c. 2000 Religion News Service (Eugene Kennedy, a longtime observer of the Roman Catholic Church, is professor emeritus of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago. His new book, “The Unhealed Wound: The Church and Human Sexuality,” will be published in the spring by St. Martin’s Press.) (UNDATED) The easiest of predictions for the new year […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

(Eugene Kennedy, a longtime observer of the Roman Catholic Church, is professor emeritus of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago. His new book, “The Unhealed Wound: The Church and Human Sexuality,” will be published in the spring by St. Martin’s Press.)

(UNDATED) The easiest of predictions for the new year and new century is Pope John Paul II’s early naming of a fresh cohort of cardinals. The media mother lode glistens with nuggets of speculation that such American worthies as Edward Egan of New York and Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., are short-listed because of the sees they head.


I propose cardinals-at-large who deserve the honor not for where, but for who, they are.

Cardinal comes from the Latin “cardo,” meaning hinge. Cardinals are to be smooth, non-squeaking hinges that hold together and promote the function of the church as an institution. Candidates need not be priests.

The following have certainly been hinges for the church as a Mystery, and most of them have been foundations, walls, and sources of shelter and nourishment, too:

_ Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, president-emeritus of Notre Dame, and the greatest priest in the American Catholic Church. A man of deep faith, extraordinary vision and inexhaustible energy, his talents qualify him to be president of anything, from General Electric to General Motors, and throw in the United States, too. Yet he always identifies with the calling he loves _ being a priest.

_ Monsignor Jack Egan, of Chicago, who has fought the good fight in season and out (in favor and out, for that matter) for ordinary people on all the significant social issues of the now-closing century. Monsignor Egan also symbolizes the thousands of unsung pastors who have kept the faith themselves _ and kept it alive for others.

_ Patricia Crowley, among other things founder with her late husband of the Cana Movement and member of the Papal Birth Control Commission. She defines what it means to be Christian. She is always in the right place at the right time, a calm and calming presence, spurring others to work for gospel values everywhere for everybody.

_ The Rev. Walter Ong, S.J., a great voice and great thinker who deserves to be a cardinal because of contributions beyond numbering and because he symbolizes the constancy of the Jesuits in their great educational mission. This honors all other great religious orders, too.


_ Father Richard McBrien, a theologian supportive of the Catholic Church and all Catholics through his books, lecturing and teaching. His accomplishments are enormous and eminently orthodox. Despite the cowardly and covert criticism of some, including bishops who drop his column from their diocesan papers, he is loyal, cooperative with obsessive Roman inquiries, pastoral to all and a distinguished symbol of his scholar colleagues.

_ Thomas Fox, publisher of the National Catholic Reporter, a model writer and journalist, a true believer and a believer in truth who, in public and in private, has labored to implement the highest ideals of his faith and his profession. A man of large vision and great heart, like Crowley and McBrien, he has suffered unfair and unjust criticism but has never wavered from his calling.

_ Frank Bonnike, a former priest who continues to be a priest in his heart and work. He won adequate retirement plans for priests and has assisted thousands of them in achieving financial security. A devoted Catholic, he is a model for all former clergy and religious who would be honored by his nomination.

_ Martin Sheen, who defines himself as an actor and an activist and whose life and work reveal how any believer can both entertain and edify. He has had the courage of his convictions and represents all those Catholics who walk the walk rather than just talk the talk. All artists would be honored by his nomination.

_ Monsignor Kenneth Velo, who heads the Catholic Extension Society, and who, in his eulogy for Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, gave the finest homily ever heard. Monsignor Velo always extends himself to respond to the needs of the church, pouring himself out, as St. Paul did, to serve far-flung dioceses and Catholics close at hand.

_ The late Gov. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania in posthumous recognition of his combining, without apology, his commitment to life with his public role. He was publicly rebuffed by the scandalous decision by Bill Clinton not to allow any abortion opponents to speak at the 1992 Democratic convention, a condition accepted, alas, by such Catholic politicians as Mario Cuomo.


There are plenty more where these come from: George Higgins and Jeannine Gramick, and don’t forget Theresa Kane or Joan Chittister; Henry Hyde and Ed Marciniak, David Steindal-Rast and Father Frank McNulty; Rembert Weakland, Joe Sullivan, Bob Morneau, and a line that curves around the edge of the world.

Throw in David Tracy, who would absent-mindedly miss the ceremony, or Andrew Greeley, because he would love it so. There won’t be any greater Catholics or better Christians on the pope’s own list.

DEA END KENNEDY

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!