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Home , Jean Jadot, Luigi Raimondi, Raymond Hunthausen, The Archbishop

John A. McCoy. A Still and Quiet Conscience: The Who Challenged a , a President, and a Church. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2015. 288 pp. $26.00, paper, ISBN 978-1-62698-117-1.

Phyllis Theroux. The Good Bishop: The Life of Walter F. Sullivan. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2013. v + 262 pp. $20.00, paper, ISBN 978-1-62698-024-2.

Reviewed by John A. Dick

Published on H-Catholic (October, 2017)

Commissioned by Carolina Armenteros

ographies of prophetic US bishops—Walter F. Sul‐ In 1962, gathered from around the world, livan (1928-2012) and Raymond G. Hunthausen 2,540 bishops were present for the opening ses‐ (1921-)—detail how the spirit of Vatican II shaped sion of the (1962-65). The their ministry and the institutional sanctions they US delegation of 241 members was second in size endured following that inspiration. They are im‐ only to that of Italy. Vatican II had a major impact portant men in the history of the on US bishops and inspired them to issue two re‐ in the United States; and their biographies do markable pastoral letters in the 1980s: “The Chal‐ them justice. lenge of Peace” and “Economic Justice for All.” In Phyllis Theroux’s The Good Bishop, most of Many of the bishops involved in the tense the historical report covers Sullivan’s life from drama of the council are now deceased. Fifty 1953, when he was ordained a priest, to 2003, years after the closing of the Second Vatican when at age seventy-fve he retired as bishop of Council, therefore, two biographies of US bishops Richmond, Virginia. Thatffty-year period wit‐ animated and shaped by the vision and message nessed the US civil rights movement, the war in of Vatican II deserve special attention. These bi‐ H-Net Reviews

Vietnam, the rise in feminist consciousness, and that the use of general absolution was widespread the assassination of one president and the resig‐ in the Richmond Diocese, and was upset that Sulli‐ nation of another. In the Roman Catholic Church, van wrote the introduction to A Challenge to one pope, John XXIII, opened the ecclesiastical Love: Gay and Lesbian Catholics in the Church windows to aggiornamento (updating), with the (1983), an anthology of essays about homosexuali‐ Second Vatican Council; and another pope, John ty and the Catholic Church, edited by Robert Nu‐ Paul II, tried to reshape, slow down, and occasion‐ gent. Rome strongly objected as well to joint litur‐ ally reverse the pace of change in the church. gies at the ecumenical Holy Apostles Anglican-Ro‐ These events had a major impact on the life and man Catholic Church in Virginia Beach. A host of ministry of Sullivan. other complaints, some bordering on the ludi‐ Between April 1973 and July 1974, Sullivan crous, were continually sent to Rome by extremist was the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Sullivan critics. Rome had received complaints, Richmond. During that same period, Archbishop for instance, about a Richmond Diocese priest , apostolic delegate to the United presiding at a summer Eucharist wearing shorts. States, retired and was replaced by Archbishop Sullivan’s snappy response: “At least he wore un‐ , who was apostolic delegate from 1973 derwear” (p. 166). Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and to 1980. On July 19, 1974, Archbishop Jadot in‐ Archbishop Jean Jérôme Hamer from what was stalled Bishop Sullivan as the eleventh bishop of then known as the Sacred Congregation for the the Diocese of Richmond. Following Sullivan’s in‐ Doctrine of the Faith (SCDF) saw nothing humor‐ stallation, he and the archbishop walked across ous in Bishop Sullivan’s ministry and leadership the street to a city park to share hamburgers and in Richmond. Traditionalist Catholics deluged the hot dogs with a crowd of well-wishers and just Vatican with letters urging his removal. Neverthe‐ plain hungry people. The new bishop was a new- less, Sullivan carried on and remained bishop of bishop. Sullivan and Jadot were strongly Richmond for twenty-nine years. committed to a Vatican II-styled pastoral church. In a great many ways, Sullivan was a kindly, Both men eventually paid the price for living out pastoral, and courageously prophetic bishop. He that vision. As long as Jadot was in , had a passion for peace and served for years as however, Sullivan had a supportive and empa‐ bishop-president of Pax Christi USA. He was not thetic ally. faultless, however, and his major blind spot and Sullivan incurred the wrath of conservative shortcoming—so true of many bishops—was deal‐ Catholics by supporting progressive (and occa‐ ing with clerical sexual abuse. Theroux observes: sionally controversial) priests, opening his “Therein lies the tragedy. His imagination failed churches to gays and lesbians, condemning wars him” (p. 210). Sullivan did not do enough to deal in Vietnam and the Middle East, calling for nucle‐ with sex abuse issues; he, for example, did not in‐ ar disarmament, and speaking out against the volve law enforcement quickly. death penalty. He strongly supported giving wom‐ Theroux, well-known essayist, columnist, au‐ en a greater role in the church as lectors, Eu‐ thor, and teacher, frst approached her project charistic ministers, and pastoral administrators. about “the good bishop” as an oral history. The He also appointed a woman as his chancellor. more she got to know about Sullivan, the more He incurred problems with Rome as well, her book emerged as a well-researched biography which accelerated under Pope John Paul II and based on the issues that defned him and his min‐ his new apostolic delegate (later Pro-Nuntius) to istry. Her biography is warm and friendly, but the United States, . Rome was alarmed

2 H-Net Reviews never hagiographic nor lacking in objectivity. It is ing of Vatican II led him to challenge US President a very good read indeed. Ronald Reagan—a strong Vatican ally against the John A. McCoy’s A Still and Quiet Conscience Soviet Union—over the issue of nuclear arms. is very much a defense of Archbishop In chapters 3 and 4, McCoy explains how Hunthausen. Readers who hold John Paul II “Dutch” Hunthausen, a young football star at Car‐ and Benedict XVI in high regard will not appreci‐ roll College in , changed his ideas about ate this book, because they are clearly the antago‐ being a military pilot and a married man under nists. For many years, McCoy was a journalist the infuence of Father Bernard Topel, a math and working on the city desk of the Post-Intel‐ physics professor at Carroll and the diocesan vo‐ ligencer. In 1989, he became the public afairs di‐ cations director. Topel, who was appointed bishop rector for the Archdiocese of Seattle. He held that of Spokane in 1955, became Hunthausen’s spiritu‐ position through Archbishop Hunthausen’s early al mentor and confessor for forty years. Father retirement in 1991 and for the frst four years of Hunthausen returned to for the the administration of his successor Archbishop 1953-54 school year as chemistry and math pro‐ Thomas J. Murphy. McCoy had access to all of fessor as well as athletic director and dean of Hunthausen’s correspondence and worked in men. In 1957, he was appointed president of Car‐ close friendship with the archbishop. His book, roll College, where his style was consultative and which one could say has a friendly bias toward inclusive. In July 1962, Hunthausen was appoint‐ Archbishop Hunthausen, is very well written, ed bishop of Helena. In October, he was in Rome based on primary sources, and deserves a special for the opening of Vatican II. There the young place on every church historian’s bookshelf. bishop found himself in a group of bishops who As I write this review, at the end of December were asking, along with Pope John XXIII: Who are 2015, Archbishop Hunthausen, who was Arch‐ we? What are we about? Where are we going? bishop of Seattle from 1975 to 1991, is the only As bishop of Helena, following Vatican II, surviving American bishop who participated in Hunthausen embraced the council’s call for all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council. He shared responsibility. He created a priest senate, a was also the last US bishop appointed before Vati‐ diocesan pastoral council, a fnance council, can II began on October 11, 1962. And at forty-one parish councils, and special commissions entrust‐ he was the youngest bishop from the United ed with implementing Vatican II-spirited church States. reforms. In 1969 and 1970, Bishop Hunthausen McCoy begins his book with chapters about endorsed statements from his priest senate object‐ Hunthausen’s Trident opposition and his US tax ing to the installation of MX anti-ballistic missiles protest. These closely related actions put the arch‐ in Montana; and the Federal Bureau of Investiga‐ bishop on front-page news reports in the United tion in Helena began collecting articles and infor‐ States and aggravated a Vatican already con‐ mation for its confdential fle on an already ques‐ cerned about his deviations from Catholic episco‐ tionable bishop. pal practice. In 1982, Hunthausen withheld half of On May 22, 1975, not at the St. James Cathe‐ his income tax to protest the stockpiling of nucle‐ dral but at the Seattle Center Arena sports pavil‐ ar weapons and the Trident missile program, ion, Hunthausen was installed as archbishop of which had a base near Seattle, in Puget Sound, Seattle. He had been Jadot’s frst recommendation calling it “the Auschwitz of Puget Sound.” Pope for the position and Pope Paul VI was in complete John Paul II found himself faced with an arch‐ agreement. The installation was a complete break bishop whose conscience and whose understand‐ with the past and Hunthausen was a totally difer‐

3 H-Net Reviews ent kind of archbishop than his predecessor, the tions in the Archdiocese of Seattle; and this time monarchical Thomas Connolly. Very soon the new he emphasized that Hunthausen had failed to archbishop was issuing a pastoral letter on bish‐ stress that women cannot become priests and that ops. “We cannot expect women to accept a role homosexual activity is an intrinsic evil. that limits their growth, opportunity, freedom, In January 1986, Pope John Paul II appointed dignity, and particularly their rights,” he wrote (p. as auxiliary bishop of Seattle. In ef‐ 155). Women’s was not in the pastoral fect, Wuerl had been given complete and fnal au‐ letter but it was on everyone’s mind. Then thority in certain areas. By May 1987, however, Hunthausen took a new look at homosexuality. As the Wuerl/Hunthausen situation had become un‐ he met and counseled gay people, the archbishop tenable and Wuerl was removed from his posi‐ became convinced that homosexuality was God’s tion. The Vatican then appointed Bishop Thomas J. gift to some people. And if God made some people Murphy of Great Falls, Montana, as coadjutor gay, he asked, would God also require that they be archbishop of Seattle. After Hunthausen’s retire‐ celibate. Alarm started going of at the Vati‐ ment four years later, Murphy succeeded him as can. archbishop. Chapters 8-10, “The Visitation,” “The Explana‐ When Hunthausen announced his retirement, tion,” and “The Humiliation,” detail the Vatican he explained how Vatican II had deeply resonated crackdown on Hunthausen. “In the early 1980s,” with his hopes for a church that would transform as McCoy narrates it, “with Pope John Paul II con‐ lives and the world. The Second Vatican Council solidating ecclesial authority in Rome and US had taught him, he said, that the church is semper President Ronald Reagan attempting to achieve reformanda (always in need of being reformed). global supremacy in nuclear arms, Archbishop That ongoing reform, as Hunthausen learned and Raymond Hunthausen was on the fring line.... as McCoy carefully narrates, often comes with in‐ The archbishop’s call for unilateral disarmament trigue, institutional upset and maneuverings, and was jeopardizing the Vatican’s relationship with occasional old-fashioned administrative nastiness. Washington. And his emphasis on the priority of Both books have some issues with presenta‐ conscience was compromising Rome’s demands tion of sources. Theroux’s book has no list of for unequivocal adherence to church teaching” sources but more than ample notes, which clearly (p. 205). indicate her sources. When she gives a citation, it In 1983, the Vatican authorized Cardinal is clear where she found it. McCoy’s book includes Ratzinger, of the CDF (the former SCDF) to a bibliography and a lengthy list of detailed launch an investigation into Hunthausen’s admin‐ sources at the end of each chapter. I would have istrative and pastoral practices. Archbishop (later liked to see notes, indicating in his text where spe‐ Cardinal) James Hickey of Washington, DC, was cifc citations (and they are abundant!) came named . In early 1984, Cardinal from. Ratzinger wrote to Hunthausen and reiterated his More important, however, the pairing of and Archbishop Hickey’s concerns: sterilization at these two men’s biographies invites us to compare Catholic hospitals, general absolution, intercom‐ their destinies. Over the years, Sullivan’s liberal munion with Protestants, frst communion before reputation occasionally got him in hot water at frst confession, and Hunthausen’s granting an home and at the Vatican. During the 1980s, he imprimatur to an unorthodox book on sexual faced a Vatican investigation in response to com‐ morality. In September 1984, Ratzinger sent plaints about various perceived doctrinal and Hunthausen a letter pointing out again the devia‐ liturgical abuses. The investigation did not lead to

4 H-Net Reviews disciplinary action against Sullivan; it never pro‐ duced a formal exoneration either. Sullivan re‐ mained bishop of Richmond for close to thirty years until he retired in 2003 at seventy-fve. Archbishop Hunthausen’s relations with the Vati‐ can were far less felicitous. His outspoken antinu‐ clear armaments protests and US income tax re‐ sistance bothered President Reagan and greatly annoyed his anti-Communist friend in Rome, Pope John Paul II. Hunthausen’s hot water in Rome be‐ came particularly steamy when he began to ver‐ bally challenge Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbish‐ op Hamer at the CDF. He remained archbishop of Seattle for a turbulent sixteen years and was forced to retire early in 1991. All in all, however, these two biographies con‐ vince me that the Catholic Church in the United States could use a few more bishops like Sullivan and Hunthausen.

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Citation: John A. Dick. Review of McCoy, John A. A Still and Quiet Conscience: The Archbishop Who Challenged a Pope, a President, and a Church. ; Theroux, Phyllis. The Good Bishop: The Life of Walter F. Sullivan. H-Catholic, H-Net Reviews. October, 2017.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=43997

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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