PORTLAND (OR)
Catholic Sentinel
04/13/2006 Ed Langlois
He’s a kind man, an extrovert with a penchant for baseball, the kind of guy you’d want as an uncle. Right now, he has one of the hardest jobs in Oregon.
Portland Archbishop John Vlazny, 69, arrived in the state in 1997 and had what he calls a two-year honeymoon. Then from out of the past came sexual abuse allegations against Oregon priests, sometimes-jaded news coverage, bankruptcy and possibly years of hearings.
“In the beginning, I was looking at it as a distraction from the more important work of the church,” the archbishop says. “But a pastor has to deal with what is there in the lives of the people.”
He feels bad for the church, bad for priests, bad for victims and sometimes even bad for himself. He worries about the archdiocese’s uncertain footing.