Chicago Catholics Acclaim Papal Pick
CHICAGO—The news spread through the Windy City like wildfire on the evening of April 7th: Archbishop Francis E. George, O.M.I., of Portland, Ore., would be named Chicago's new archbishop.
Eight hours before Pope John Paul II officially made the April 8th announcement from the Vatican, at 5 a.m. Chicago time, Chicago television stations were reporting that Msgr. Kenneth Velo, the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin's secretary, was escorting Archbishop George to Chicago from Denver, where he had attended the installation of Denver's new prelate, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
The announcement caught almost everyone by surprise, particularly the Chicago media and Fr. Andrew Greeley, the novelist and sociologist, who blurted out his first reaction on an early-morning television news program: "I find myself discouraged. He's quite different from Cardinal Bernardin. I don't see what his qualifications are.... The message from the Vatican is Chicago has to shape up. "
If Chicagoans were surprised by the papal pick, so was Archbishop George himself. At a 10 a.m. news conference Tuesday, April 8th, at the archdiocesan pastoral center, he told reporters that when Apostolic Pro-Nuncio Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan informed him on Monday of Holy Week that he had been selected for Chicago, he responded: "Are you sure the Holy Father has considered all the options?"
The selection of the 60-year-old George was disappointing news to Catholics in Portland, who didn't learn of the announcement until after the news broke in Chicago. Though only in Portland for ten months, he had become very popular, and it seemed unthinkable that he would he posted elsewhere after such a short stint.
George's name did surface briefly in the Chicago media some three months ago, but it was shot down immediately, as reporters floated one name after another: Bishop Donald W. Wuerl of Pittsburgh, Bishop Anthony M. Pilla of Cleveland, Archbishop Widen F. Curtiss of Omaha, Bishop John J. Leibrecht of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb of Mobile, Ala., Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati, and in the days just prior to the papal announcement, Archbishop William J. Levada of San Francisco and Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis.
But in Chicago's "underground Church," George's name had circulated widely since Easter Monday, a week after George learned of his appointment.
While the major media continued forwarding the names of the movers and shakers from the inner circles of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in the final days before the announcement, orthodox Catholics continued praying that George would, indeed, be their new archbishop.
When their information proved correct, there was widespread elation, for George—a Chicago native raised in a gritty ethnic enclave, and the first Chicago-born priest to be named archbishop of Chicago—has a reputation as a solidly orthodox prelate and a first-rate intellectual with two doctorates, in philosophy and theology.
"He's exactly what Chicago needs," exclaimed lay activist and Wanderer contributor Greg Morrow. "We should be offering prayers of thanksgiving for having this man appointed by the Holy Father to be our archbishop.... He has a tough road ahead, but I know he'll have the support of faithful Catholics. "
Archbishop George began his first busy day in Chicago by celebrating Mass in Holy Name Cathedral. Well-wishers greeted him warmly as he walked up the aisle with a slight limp—the result of the polio he had contracted at 13—and he responded by offering a firm handshake and a smile.
"He's kind and gentle," one man commented to reporters as George passed by. "You can tell it in his eyes. He's going to be good for us."
Among the first of his episcopal confreres to congratulate George on his appointment was Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., who said he was "overjoyed. "
"It has been my privilege to enjoy the friendship of Archbishop George for more than five years and to admire his brilliance as well as his priestly and episcopal life and ministry for even longer. The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago will be very blessed to have him as its shepherd."
As news of George's appointment spread around the country, there was similar elation, not only because of George's selection, but also because none of the prominent prelates mentioned as Bernardin's likely successors received the Chicago Archdiocese. The archdiocese is the nation's second largest with 2.3 million Catholics, and it is a post which usually carries with it a red hat.
''Intellectually, Archbishop George is one of the best-prepared men in the hierarchy," commented St. Louis University historian Dr. James Hitchcock. "He's intelligent and he knows the issues. How he'll cope in Chicago remains to be seen.
"But what's interesting about this appointment is that the Vatican seems to have gone outside the Bernardin orbit to pick a successor, and that itself is a good sign. I also think it was a late decision, because his name never figured in the rumors, and it's very unusual for the Vatican to move a man who has only been in a job for ten months. "
The Pope's Man
Dr. Hitchcock speculated that the George appointment shows the influence of Boston's Bernard Cardinal Law, who has moved six of his priests into dioceses, including Bishops Alfred Hughes in Baton Rouge, La., Daniel Hart of Norwich, Conn., John M. D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., Roberto Gonzalez of Corpus Christi, and Robert Banks of Green Bay, Wis.
"This suggests to me that Cardinal Law has considerable influence in Rome. I don't know how much to read into it, but it seems plausible." (See accompanying story, "A Priest-Scholar Takes the Helm," for more on this point.)
Helen Hull Hitchcock, director of Women for Faith and Family, added, "The interesting thing to notice is the Holy Father selected someone who was not only not prominent in the NCCB—but that he picked someone who lost two NCCB elections to head the doctrine committee, first to Archbishop John Quinn and then to Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk.
"Clearly, he is the Pope's man. "
From New York, the first reaction of a very surprised Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J., was: "Oh boy! He needs our prayers."
Baker, editor of Homiletic & Pastoral Review, described George as "one of the best theologians in the conference," and one of four bishops—with John R. Sheets, auxiliary bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, now-Archbishop Chaput of Denver, and Bishop Bruskewitz of Lincoln—who led the attacks on the liturgical language innovations pushed by ICEL, the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, at the bishops' annual meetings over the past three years.
"He's a very pleasant man, a gentleman, always smiling," said Fr. Baker. "There's a big change coming to Chicago."
Chicago lay activist Richard Freeman found some humor in the Pope's selection of George, a member of the missionary religious order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, an order which advertises itself as "specialists in difficult missions."
"Chicago is indeed mission territory'" said Freeman, a convert to Catholicism and founder of the Catholic Tradition and Action League; Freeman was an outspoken critic of the late Cardinal Bernardin.
"The natives here are given to pagan practices of the most wild and horrible kind," he told The Wanderer, "and are as difficult to convert to the faith as any indigenous population the Church has ever encountered . . . and I'm just referring to the chancery staff. "
More Reaction
If there is one thing Chicago's notoriously divided Catholic community is sure of, it's that George is expected to affirm Church teaching in a much more certain and unambiguous way than did his predecessor Cardinal Bernardin, and that he won't give behind-the-scenes encouragement to dissenters.
A coalition of conservative Chicago Catholics began petitioning Rome for an orthodox Catholic prelate even before Bernardin was buried, and its spokesmen seemed very satisfied with Rome's choice of George.
Mary Ann Hackett, president of Illinois Right to Life and spokesman for Catholic Citizens, told The Chicago Sun Times: "We are pleased with Archbishop George's record of standing up for the teaching of the Church and the Holy Father." She expressed her hope that George would depart from Bernardin's policy of not disciplining dissenters.
And conservative Catholic Thomas Wronski added: "Chicago has long been known as a 'liberal' diocese — and that's fine. The problem is that rapidly aging, yet still powerful, entrenched cliques are standing in the way of genuine renewal. After nearly 30 years of 'liberal' Catholic ascendancy in Chicago, the results are plain: fewer conversions and Baptisms, fewer new priests . . . shuttered seminaries and churches, abandonment of the inner city, and a generation of young people ignorant of the basic teachings of their religion. "
George, he said, "will have to contend with these aging liberal cliques.... Although [they] talk a good game about love, tolerance, and open-mindedness, they are a frustrated, mean-spirited lot. They've had their experiment. It didn't work, and they are bitter. Chicago's Catholics desperately need ... someone who understands, and is secure in his role as shepherd and teacher."
Typical of that aging liberal clique is Tim Unsworth, the ex-priest and columnist for The National Catholic Reporter, a man constitutionally unable to imagine a thriving Church. He told the Sun Times that the new archbishop "will have to be a man who can deal with the politics of cutbacks. He'll watch the Catholic population rise dramatically, especially among Latinos, while watching the clerical population diminish drastically.
"He's going to have at least a half-million more Catholics, but only 400 active priests; he's going to have to close more parishes. And yet he's going to be supremely pastoral. He's going to have to give a lot more leeway to the people at the parish level. If he decides to tighten up and centralize authority he's going to get into big trouble. Getting along with his priests is going to be a priority."
Dissident theologian Fr. Richard P. McBrien of the University of Notre Dame, who epitomizes the liberalism of the "Chicago Catholic," warned Archbishop George that he had better not come into Chicago determined to discipline the wayward Church.
He described George as a man with a warm heart, but one who is "unalterably, unmistakably, and unequivocally a hard-liner when it comes to matters of doctrine and discipline.
"So the question will really be for this man: Will Chicago bring out his better pastoral side, or will the more hard-line, doctrinal, disciplinary side interfere with that? . . .If he tries to act in character as 'the defender of the faith' and an enforcer of discipline, he'll have very serious problems. . . .If he comes in ready to arm wrestle, the Church will lose."
But most Chicago Catholics were ready to welcome home their native son, and would agree with 32-year-old Gustavo Aguilar who exulted, "The hand of God has put him here."
Fr. Anthony Brankin of St. Thomas More Parish spoke for most when he said, "Let's let the man be a successor to the Apostles."
This article was taken from the April 17, 1997 issue of "The Wanderer," 201 Ohio Street, St. Paul, MN 55107, 612-224-5733. Subscription Price: $35.00 per year; six months $20.00.