c. 2005 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to make his first major personnel move in the United States, American Catholics can expect the beginning of a subtle but substantive change in the makeup of the church’s hierarchy.
Church observers expect the new pope to put his own stamp on the U.S. church and streamline a process that has been slowed by extra scrutiny applied in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal. They also hope he will move quickly to fill a string of American seats that have been vacant for months.
For nearly a quarter century, Benedict, as the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, played an advisory role in the appointment of bishops. But when he was elected pope last April, he inherited the papacy’s absolute authority to select suitable leaders for the world’s 2,700 dioceses _ 197 of which are in the United States.
Benedict faces his first major American test in choosing a new archbishop of San Francisco to succeed Archbishop William J. Levada. In May, Benedict called Levada to Rome to fill the pope’s old job as head of the church’s doctrine office.
Besides his new responsibilities as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Levada, who shares close ties with Benedict, will likely play a similar “kingmaker” role in the bishop-making process that then-Cardinal Ratzinger played for John Paul II.
Beyond San Francisco, Benedict has indefinitely delayed naming replacements for two prominent American churchmen _ Cardinals Theodore McCarrick of Washington and Adam Maida of Detroit _ who have reached the church’s mandatory retirement age of 75.
McCarrick, who submitted his resignation on his 75th birthday in July, was asked to remain in office for a period of “two or so years,” according to a statement from the Washington archdiocese. In May, Maida was told to continue as leader of Detroit’s 1.4 million Catholics for the foreseeable future, according to spokesman Ned McGrath.
If prelates are in good health, Benedict can delay their departures beyond the mandatory retirement age; cardinals often serve until age 80. But, a string of lengthy vacancies due to bishops’ deaths, illnesses or transfers to other dioceses present him with the challenge of finding more immediate replacements.
Eight American dioceses are currently waiting for new leaders, including Sioux City, Iowa, which has been without a bishop since January 2004. The new bishops, though vetted under criteria set by John Paul, will need to fit the new pope’s desired qualities for the church’s next generation of leadership.
In the Catholic world, bishops are the central figures of church life and administration. A bishop’s functions are both prestigious and diverse, ranging from confirming young Catholics, governing the local church, assigning clergy to parishes, settling high-profile church disputes and ordaining new priests and deacons.
Despite Roman rumblings about “rampant careerism” among some prelates, the church’s theology still teaches that a bishop is wedded to his diocese. The pope, however, reserves the right to transfer bishops _ such as Levada _ from post to post.
“The view of the bishop-diocese relation as matrimony, implying fidelity, is still valid,” Ratzinger said in 1999 remarks. But, as even he had to resign as archbishop of Munich to take a Vatican post, he continued that, “I myself have not remained faithful in this regard.”
The new papacy _ where Benedict could well ensure the “fidelity” of his appointees _ is but the first of many changed or changing variables in the process by which the church selects its bishops.
Given America’s size and visibility in the context of the global church, the naming of its bishops always attracted an elevated level of attention in Rome. Yet since 2002, when the almost-daily disclosures of abuse and cover-up began, the usual six-to-nine month waiting period for new appointments has doubled due to heightened scrutiny.
Although the pope has the final say over who becomes a bishop, the highly confidential process includes recommendations from the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops and is often swayed by the findings of Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, the papal representative to the U.S., who is based in Washington.
According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Montalvo performs a “gatekeeper” role in the process, compressing reams of interviews about potential candidates and reports on the state of a vacant diocese into a summary briefing which recommends three names to the Vatican, a list known as the “terna.”
(Benedict is also expected to follow the tradition of new popes and name a new nuncio, or ambassador, to replace the 75-year-old Montalvo in short order. That way, a trusted hand will ensure the papacy’s stamp on the Vatican’s reports from America.)
Once in Rome, the nuncio’s report is discussed by the Congregation for Bishops, a group of 30 prelates who vote to send one name from the shortlist to the pope for his approval. There are a record five Americans on that panel, including Levada and Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston who left his post in 2002 amid accusations that he shuffled known abusers from parish to parish.
While John Paul would usually give immediate assent to the names presented for his approval, the Italian newspaper Il Giornale reported earlier this month that Benedict holds on to the recommendations he receives and replies only after “intense study.”
Church-watchers say the innovation is in keeping with Benedict’s more detail-oriented, deliberative style.
In contrast to his predecessor’s emphasis on the figure of the pope at the expense of local bishops, “Benedict is more of a `constitutional conservative’ type. … He just wants bishops who see best,” said David Gibson, author of “The Coming Catholic Church” and an upcoming biography of the pope.
(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)
The foresight of that “constitutional conservatism” was seen in a 1985 intervention made by then-Cardinal Ratzinger, reported in April by John Allen, Rome correspondent of the National Catholic Reporter.
When informed of John Paul’s intent to nominate the archconservative Austrian cleric Kurt Krenn as archbishop of Vienna, “Ratzinger actually blocked Krenn’s appointment,” according to Allen, “(knowing) that Krenn would be a disaster in a high-profile forum such as Vienna.”
Krenn resigned in disgrace last year from his rural Austrian diocese after scandalous disclosures of sexual misconduct by priests and seminarians under his watch.
American Catholics will be looking to Benedict to exercise similar savvy as he begins to flesh out his vision for the future of the Catholic Church in the United States.
KRE/JL END PALMO
(Rocco Palmo is a contributor to the English Catholic weekly The Tablet and has reported on the Vatican for the San Francisco Chronicle and Beliefnet. His blog can be found at http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com.)
Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for photos of McCarrick and Maida to accompany this story. Search by slug.
