TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/011689/01168900.001

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 5KB | 95 lines

RELIGION, Page 62

All the Pope's Men

The naming of conservative bishops fuels bitter feuds


    There is neither appeal nor recourse against a decision or
decree of the Roman Pontiff.

     -- Canon 333.3, Code of Canon Law

    It is no secret that John Paul II is a man of strong -- and
staunchly conservative -- convictions. Nor is it surprising that
he has sought to fill the Roman Catholic hierarchy with clerics who
insist on strict obedience to church teachings. In recent months,
however, many of the faithful have been alarmed by the Pope's
determination to override the sentiments of local clergy in order
to get his way. Angry liberals in Vienna and Chur, Switzerland,
have even resorted to blocking cathedral entrances to protest the
consecration of new, archconservative bishops.

    The most recent controversy came to a climax last week, when
John Paul triumphed over strong local resistance and appointed
Georg Eder, a conservative village priest, as Archbishop of
Salzburg, Austria. It was the latest act in a long-running drama.
Last month the Pope named an equally unpopular conservative as
Archbishop of Cologne, West Germany, Europe's richest diocese. In
January 1988 the Pontiff shocked the Irish clergy by picking a
conservative metaphysician as Dublin's Archbishop. A few months
before that, he had installed a longtime Vatican official as
Primate of Brazil, where many bishops condone the leftist
liberation theology that vexes the Vatican.

    In the U.S. John Paul last year pursued this pattern with two
important appointments. As Archbishop of Philadelphia, he chose
Anthony Bevilacqua, 65, who had handled the ouster of a pro-choice
nun in 1983. The see of Pittsburgh went to Donald Wuerl, 48, who
had earlier been assigned to keep watch over Seattle's liberal
Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen. Resentment over the Hunthausen
affair is one cause of mistrust and disagreement between the
Vatican and the U.S. hierarchy. In the hope of improving relations,
several dozen U.S. bishops will travel to Rome in March for a
highly unusual face-to-face meeting with the Pontiff.

    Before the papacy gained control of the appointment process
many centuries ago, bishops were elected by the local clergy and
laity. A vestige of the older practice remains in a number of
European cities, where panels of leading clergymen, known as
cathedral chapters, still have an important role in choosing
bishops. The bitterest recent conflicts have involved disagreements
between these bodies and the Vatican.

    Such was the case in Salzburg. Though formally announced only
last week, Eder's appointment had long been anticipated -- and
fervently opposed. Eder, who still celebrates Mass with his back
to the congregation, blames sex education for promoting a
"Communist takeover of our society" and deems AIDS a form of divine
punishment. After giving grudging approval to his nomination, the
Salzburg cathedral chapter publicly proclaimed its "severe conflict
of conscience" about the selection process and criticized the
rightward imbalance of the Pope's list.

    The Salzburg controversy was particularly disturbing to many
Austrians because it marked the third time in as many years that
the Pope had imposed a conservative bishop on an unwilling flock.
To succeed the progressive intellectual Franz Cardinal Konig as
Archbishop of Vienna in 1986, John Paul chose an obscure provincial
monk, Hans Hermann Groer. There was a louder uproar in 1987, when
the Pope named theologian Kurt Krenn as one of Vienna's auxiliary
bishops. One strike against Krenn, in opponents' eyes, is his link
to Opus Dei, a controversial orthodox lay organization. "The
polarization in the Austrian church has become frightening,"
laments Helmut Kratzl, another of Vienna's auxiliary bishops.

    An equally bitter drama unfolded in Cologne last month, when
the Pope broke a 15-month impasse by forcing through another
controversial cleric. John Paul wanted to name Berlin's Joachim
Cardinal Meisner, 55, whom he knows personally and trusts. But in
proposing Meisner and two other conservatives to Cologne's
cathedral chapter, the Pope bypassed the more moderate candidates
suggested by local churchmen.  In a rare act of defiance, the
cathedral chapter refused to elect any of John Paul's men. The
Vatican hinted that it might name an emergency apostolic
administrator, as it often does in Communist lands. Just before
Christmas, the chapter capitulated. Editorialized Cologne's daily
Express: "The Pope has won, the church has lost."

    Showing no remorse, Vatican officials predict more hard-line
nominees.  Papal envoys, says a Vatican insider, "are basically
under sealed instructions to nominate conservatives. They will be
pushing them into Brazil, France, also the U.S., even in the small
appointments." Another official vigorously defends the Pope's men.
They "are branded as conservative," he says, "but to conserve is
also a positive thing. As we must conserve our resources or the
environment, so we must conserve the church also." There is,
however, a risk that growing disenchantment with John Paul's
single-minded use of his power may ultimately alienate those whose
allegiance he is seeking to strengthen.