He Is First Cardinal Chosen since 1971
By Manya Brachear
Chicago Tribune
November 13, 2007
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/religion/chi-cardinal_webnov14,1,6232092.story
BALTIMORE - In the last three years, Cardinal Francis George helped choose a new pope, weathered a sex abuse scandal in his archdiocese and rallied to a full recovery after surgery for bladder cancer.
For the next three years, he will serve as the spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in America, including accompanying Pope Benedict XVI on his first papal pilgrimage to the U.S.
Nearly 85 percent of the nation's Catholic leaders meeting here on Tuesday chose George to serve as the next president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The vice president will be Tuscon, Ariz., Bishop Gerald Kicanas, who became a bishop in Chicago under the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.
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| Bishop William Skylstad (right) applauds Cardinal Francis George after the Chicago archbishop was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday in Baltimore. Skylstad, of Spokane, Wash., is the outgoing president. Photo by Jonathan Ernst |
"I take it as a calling because I was elected, and that's the voice of God speaking through my brother bishops," said George, 70, who balked at the idea of laying out his own vision for leading the conference.
"I'm president of the conference not the bishop of the United States," he said. "The vision of the bishops is the vision of the Gospel."
Church observers said that although George's elevation signals confidence in Chicago's archbishop, the selection of Kicanas reflects the lasting legacy of Bernardin, whose shadow has loomed large over George's leadership in Chicago. It also underscores the ideological differences that still divide America's bishops.
"George was tapped . . . to be the intellectual leader of the American bishops," said Rocco Palmo, a Vatican analyst and Catholic journalist. "He has been given the mandate to genuinely . . . unite the conference."
It was in the 1970s and 1980s, under the leadership of Bernardin—then the notably liberal archbishop of Cincinnati—that the bishops' conference began to garner international attention. At the pinnacle was a 1983 pastoral letter, "The Challenge of Peace," that defined church teaching on war, peace and the nuclear arms race.
Since then, the bishops' conference has become a largely symbolic body and markedly more conservative. Pope John Paul II weakened its authority in 1998 by insisting the Vatican approve all teachings disseminated by the bishops. And last year, the conference underwent staff reductions and cutbacks.
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Some say the election of George, the first cardinal elected to the post since 1971, suggests the bishops seek a higher profile, as the president often hails from a smaller diocese.
In his new role, George must balance archdiocese business and conference demands.
"I'll need a lot of help from my friends. That's certainly true," he said. "Now that I have been elected—and I'm very moved and deeply gratified by the election—I'll have to discuss . . . how much of my time is demanded and go back and work out with the vicar general and chancellor how to be sure to do justice to both positions."
George is also the first religious order priest to become president. He worked in Rome for more than a decade as the international head of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
He takes over at a time when the bishops' conference is not only devalued by Rome but also damaged by the sex abuse crisis in the American church.
Advocates for abuse victims demonstrated outside the conference's hotel Monday and Tuesday, urging bishops not to elect George. Critics say his failure to immediately remove Rev. Daniel McCormack from his West Side parish in 2005, when credible accusations were made, is unacceptable. McCormack pleaded guilty in July to molesting five boys and was sentenced to five years in prison.
The election of Kicanas equally disappointed them. With numerous victims seeking compensation related to sex abuse in the Tucson diocese, Kicanas sought bankruptcy protection for the diocese in 2004. Though the bankruptcy agreement established a trust to pay victims, critics saw his action as a way to avoid accountability.
A former Chicago priest, Kicanas served as rector of Mundelein Seminary in the 1980s and as an auxiliary bishop of Chicago from 1995 to 2001.
"When bishops reward complicit bishops with promotions like this, it rubs more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of victims and Catholics who seek a safer, healthier church," said David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It discourages already distrustful, pessimistic victims into staying silent, which ultimately puts more kids at risk of abuse. "
Kicanas and George both said the bishops should recognize that more victims will come forward, and safeguards for children must be enforced.
A study commissioned by bishops and discussed Monday concluded that priests were no more likely to abuse children than other professionals, but George said he doesn't find that thought comforting. Priests should be held to a higher standard, he said.
"This is a great challenge, and it will be with us a long time," George said. "Victims are injured, and injury lasts a long time if not a lifetime."
Contact: mbrachear@tribune.com
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