Bishop John D'Arcy Prepares to Celebrate 50 Years in Priesthood
By Rosa Salter Rodriguez
Journal Sentinel [Fort Wayne]
April 15, 2007
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/17082684.htm
Bishop John M. D'Arcy is sitting at a conference table, thumbing the pages of his well-worn black planner.
It's already been a long day. He's driven the 100 miles to South Bend and celebrated a Mass marking the 60th anniversary of the Christ Child Society, a charity serving children in need.
He's sat through a 90-minute meeting at New Group Media, where ideas for a video promoting this year's Bishop's Appeal have been recorded on a whiteboard over his left shoulder.
Now, video producer Chris Salvador has just asked him what he's doing tomorrow. He's needed for a taping.
Under his shock of white hair, D'Arcy's blue eyes crinkle and his nose twists into a slight grimace. He chuckles.
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| Bishop John D’Arcy prays in preparation for Mercy Day Mass. |
"Please, don't ask me that off the top of my head," he says in his unmistakably Boston-tinged brogue. "I go a day at a time."
D'Arcy, who will turn 75 in August, has lived more than 50 years as a priest. Nearly 22 of those years have been as bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.
He's lived out that time with an attitude of service that has won him widespread admiration, even in the face of controversial decisions, such as closing St. Paul Catholic Church, and turbulent times in the Catholic church that includes revelations of sexual abuse by priests.
Today, when D'Arcy celebrates his priesthood's golden anniversary at a 2:30?p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 1122 S. Clinton St., it will be as a man who knows the time he has left to serve might be limited. At 75, all bishops must submit a letter to the Vatican in Rome requesting retirement. D'Arcy already has done so. It remains uncertain, however, whether his letter will be accepted.
Those who know him say his retirement would leave a void.
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| Bishop John M. D’Arcy, who was born in Boston in 1932, is a lifelong Red Sox fan. Photo by Samuel Hoffman |
"I truly believe that Bishop has been God's man for this time in Fort Wayne and South Bend," says the Rev. Vernon Graham, executive pastor of Associated Churches of Fort Wayne and Allen County, a predominantly Protestant interfaith group.
Graham sees D'Arcy as "a friend, a mentor, and a partner in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ" who has fostered relationships among the area's Christian bodies. "He really has been a bishop for all of Fort Wayne."
Approachable leader
Born in 1932 to Irish immigrants Michael John and Margaret Moran D'Arcy, Bishop D'Arcy was ordained Feb. 2, 1957. His tenure as a priest has spanned the upheavals of the Cold War, the civil rights movement, Vatican II, the Vietnam War, the legalization of abortion in the 1970s, an attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in the '80s and revelations of sexual abuse by priests that began in the '80s and continue today.
As the diocese's bishop since 1985, he has weathered the challenges of a shortage of priests, a devastating fire at Fort Wayne's St. Mary's Catholic Church, the closing of parishes and declining piety by some. He has witnessed an influx of Hispanics and other foreign-born Catholics.
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| Bishop John D’Arcy prepares for Mercy Day Mass in the sacristy of McDougal Chapel. Photo by Samuel Hoffman |
He's maintained a reputation for evenhandedness and approachability, while remaining uncompromisingly orthodox on doctrine and loyal to papal leadership, says Michael Garvey, spokesman for the University of Notre Dame.
"One of his great strengths as a bishop is … people find him absolutely charming and delightful. He's a difficult guy to dislike," Garvey says. "Even if people disagree with him, and some people do, they don't like to disagree with him, not out of fear but because he's such a nice guy."
The Rev. Cyril Fernandes, pastor of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Arcola, says he knows of few bishops who remain as in touch with people in their diocese's parishes. D'Arcy last month visited the small, but growing, largely rural parish west of Fort Wayne and gave a homily at a Mass during a Parish Mission, a four-day event designed to foster members' spiritual growth.
Afterward, he sat in a folding chair behind the altar and bent to listen to about 30 face-to-face confessions by parishioners.
"I have been in dioceses where people can never see the bishop (personally), but he takes the trouble to go out and meet the people, and relate to the people, not just the priests," Fernandes says.
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Diocese spokesman Vince LaBarbera says D'Arcy is known for visiting all 81 parishes and 44 schools in the far-flung diocese at least every year or two. The diocese spans 14 counties from the Ohio border to Walkerton in St. Joseph County and from the Michigan border to Geneva in Adams County.
D'Arcy often makes the trip between Fort Wayne and South Bend two or three times a week.
D'Arcy recently told a group of students during a visit to Marian Catholic High School in Mishawaka that he "sort of just drifted into the seminary" after high school.
He says he was happy there as he studied theology, developed friendships and played second base – he's known for his lifelong love of the Boston Red Sox.
But he tells the students he didn't know whether he was right for religious life.
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| D’Arcy greets neighbors Betsy and Steve Ueber on his daily walk around the Woodhurst addition. |
"I often thought to myself, 'If I really loved God, I'd be a Trappist.' You know about Trappists? They don't speak. They take a vow of silence. I couldn't do that, because I need to speak and listen to others speak. … That wasn't me.
"But it was almost always there that I would be a priest. … It was only later that I realized that it was God putting me there. … There is sacrifice, but he doesn't call you to religious life for you to be miserable."
D'Arcy came to realize, however, that part of being a religious leader, at least for him, meant speaking out against injustices when other leaders were willing to remain silent.
Garvey says it was D'Arcy's outspokenness that led him to Fort Wayne. For years, he says, rumors have existed that D'Arcy was transferred from the Diocese of Boston, headed by then-Archbishop Bernard Law, because he had pointed out sexual abuse by priests.
"He called attention to the sexual abuse of minors while still in Boston," says Scott Appleby, professor of church history at Notre Dame. "That was long before it was a national issue."
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| He was ordained on Feb. 2, 1957. |
D'Arcy for many years declined interviews on the issue, but as it has unfolded, the scope of his involvement has become more clear.
A 2002 National Catholic Reporter article based on court documents shows D'Arcy not only wrote Law about the Rev. John Geoghan, who was accused of sexual abuse by 130 people, but also about the Rev. Thomas Forry and the Rev. Robert Meffan, who were also accused of sexual abuse.
The bishop also chaired a committee and wrote a series of articles that stressed the need to select men for the seminary who were emotionally sound and capable of developing what he calls "mature love" for others.
In an interview recently, D'Arcy said when he returned after studying theology in Rome in the late 1960s, he found bishops admitting questionable candidates as a shortage of priests loomed.
"I still feel that the way to revive vocations is to not to have just anybody be priests but have good men in the parishes," he says.
D'Arcy has developed relationships with seminaries abroad and has brought priests from Africa, Sri Lanka, India and Ireland to staff area parishes. Two men from the diocese will be ordained this year and about 18 are now in seminaries, he says.
Still, in other areas, the bishop has avoided controversy, according to Appleby. After a papal document urged that bishops approve college and university theology teachers, D'Arcy did not challenge teachers at Notre Dame, he says.
So when the bishop last year issued a public statement opposing a campus production of "The Vagina Monologues" as not compatible with Catholic teachings, it surprised many.
But the issue was worked out, according to the Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame president, without damaging the relationship between D'Arcy and him or the university.
"I think the bishop thought I should have stopped the play," Jenkins says.
"I think the bishop was very forthright, but he doesn't carry grudges."
Still, some fault the bishop for not being more outspoken on social issues.
Longtime Catholic peace activist Regina Weissert of South Bend wishes D'Arcy were "more vocal … and less afraid of people who might disagree with him, particularly on issues of poverty and lack of opportunity for minorities."
Greg Manifold, executive director of the AIDS Task Force in Fort Wayne, notes the bishop has not attended AIDS-related events or made statements on that subject.
And Rosa Gerra, executive director of United Hispanic Americans in Fort Wayne, says some hard feelings linger in the Hispanic community.
In 2003, the bishop decided to close and raze St. Paul Catholic Church in downtown Fort Wayne, where many Hispanic families found a home after a fire in 1993 destroyed nearby St. Mary's Catholic Church.
But Gerra says she was heartened by D'Arcy's recent participation in a march for immigration reform. "When we got to the courthouse, I ended up being alongside of him," she says. "He seemed very interested in the cause and the way people are being treated. He seems very genuine."
Still, she wishes the bishop, who this year co-wrote with four other Indiana bishops a pastoral letter stressing the biblical basis for fair and humane treatment of immigrants, would do more.
"I don't know how much he can get involved, but the Hispanic people do need religious leaders to help them relieve the injustices that immigrants are facing right now," she says.
Diplomat for the diocese
D'Arcy says on both immigration and church closings, he has been sensitized by personal experience.
"My parents were immigrants," he says. And his childhood church, Our Lady of the Presentation – where his parents were married and he celebrated his first Mass – was closed.
Asked what someone might criticize him for, he seems taken aback, saying he's never thought about it.
Then he quickly says his early stance against the war in Iraq might draw ire – his position that the war does not meet Catholic teachings as a just war mirrors that of Pope Benedict XVI.
"And, oh, Spanish! I don't know Spanish. I want to learn it when I retire. … I can say Mass in Spanish, but I can't speak it. Some people could see that as a shortcoming."
If allowed to retire, he says, he would like to stay in the diocese as a parish priest, especially "if it would help the next bishop."
He declines to answer questions about his legacy, saying that would be unseemly. But he says a major accomplishment has been bringing the diocese together, even if it has meant bridging a time-zone gap and listening to a lot of Irish music and National Public Radio in the car.
"When I came to this diocese, you used to hear a lot about Fort Wayne vs. South Bend. You don't hear that much anymore," he says.
Jenkins agrees. "I think he has a real sense of pastoral care for the diocese," he says.
"In a way, he is the diplomat, but I don't think he styles it that way. I think it comes from his heart."
Contact: rsalter@jg.net
If you go
What: Mass marking Bishop John D'Arcy's 50th anniversary of priesthood
When: 2:30 p.m. today
Where: Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 1122 S. Calhoun St.
Additional information: The public is invited to a reception and dinner after Mass at Grand Wayne Center, 120 W. Jefferson Blvd., Fort Wayne. D'Arcy also will mark his 50th anniversary at 11 a.m. May 13 at St. Matthew's Cathedral, South Bend.
Timeline
1932: Born Aug. 18 in Boston to Michael J. and Margaret Moran D'Arcy
1949: Graduated from Boston College High School and entered St. John's Seminary, Brighton
1957: Ordained a priest on Feb. 2 and begins serving as a parish priest
1968: Receives doctorate in spiritual theology from Angelicum University in Rome
1968 to 1985: Serves as spiritual director and theology teacher at St. John's Seminary
1975: Ordained auxiliary bishop of Archdiocese of Boston and appointed vicar for spiritual development for the archdiocese
1978: Releases "Letter on Priestly Formation," produced by a committee of New England bishops chaired by D'Arcy. The document urges reform in how priests are trained and selected; it is later used by the National Board for the Protection of Children and Young People in its report on the sexual abuse situation.
1981: Appointed regional bishop for Lowell region of the archdiocese in addition to vicar position
Mid-1980s: Begins writing letters to then-Archbishop Bernard Law about allegations of sexual abuse by priests
1985: Appointed eighth bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend
1986: Initiates live TV Masses
1987: Endows the beginning of Vincent House in Fort Wayne, now an ecumenical agency, to develop housing for the homeless and low-income
1993: Historic St. Mary's Catholic Church in Fort Wayne burns; vows to rebuild it with "a small chapel and state-of-the-art soup kitchen"
1998: Enables Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne to be refurbished for $3.6 million
2002: Writes series of columns published in local and diocesan newspapers and in a pamphlet, "Some Pastoral Reflections in a Moment of Crisis" on the sexual abuse within the church
2003: Closes St. Paul Catholic Church in Fort Wayne, which is later razed
2004: Cited by the National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People as "a voice in the wilderness" for his role in bringing sexual abuse to light in Boston
2004-05: Administers Legacy of Faith campaign, which creates endowments of more than $48.5 million for construction of new Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and Shrine in Warsaw and related Hispanic ministries, Catholic Charities services to the poor, schools' endowment fund and improved retirement program for priests.
2006: Denounces production of "The Vagina Monologues" at University of Notre Dame
2007: Announces yearlong 150th anniversary of the diocese.
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