By Meredith Heagney
The Columbus Dispatch
May 7, 2010
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/05/07/an-honor-for-tireless-servant.html?sid=101
 |
| A bust of retired Bishop James A. Griffin, center, by Michael Jernigan will be unveiled at the Ohio Dominican student center named after him. |
One thing Bishop James A. Griffin has learned since announcing his retirement from the Columbus diocese in 2004: Not being bishop is easier than being bishop.
His retirement has allowed him to teach at the college level, celebrate weekly Mass at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Powell and play golf with his brothers.
He's still putting his fundraising skills to work, helping to raise $10 million with the Ohio Dominican University Board of Trustees for the new $40 million James A. Griffin Student Center, which opened last year.
A bronze bust of Griffin, 75, will be unveiled at the student center today. Griffin is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood this year.
He was bishop of the 23-county Columbus diocese for nearly 22 years.
Toward the end of that time, the clergy sex-abuse scandal erupted in the United States, and Griffin and the other U.S. bishops found themselves dealing with accused priests.
The epidemic has continued this decade in Europe, where the Vatican is fighting growing evidence that church policy was to shuffle pedophile priests from church to church without reporting them to authorities.
Griffin said some of his most difficult memories of his time as bishop involve dealing with guilty priests. Decades ago, therapists said they could cure those priests, he said. Today, he pointed out, everyone knows that isn't true.
"I hope Europe learns some lessons from the United States," he said. "We lived through it. The bishops could've reacted sooner as a group.
"I hope they learn, one, you've got to react as soon as you can, and two, you've got to meet with the victims and show real empathy and concern for them."
During his tenure as bishop, Griffin founded the Catholic Foundation to raise money for schools, parishes and organizations in the diocese. It's now one of the five largest in the country and is poised to give away its 50-millionth dollar this year.
He also oversaw many fundraising drives for Catholic schools and building projects for churches.
He made some unpopular moves, too, such as closing St. Leo Church on the South Side in 1999. Although he doesn't regret what he called a "painful" decision, he could have done more to prepare the congregation for the closing, he said.
Griffin's business savvy is well-documented, but he has a strong pastoral quality, too, said Monsignor Joseph Hendricks of St. Brigid of Kildare Catholic Church in Dublin.
"He's been a good and holy priest who has been accessible and available to meet people's needs," Hendricks said.
The idea for the bust came from Joseph Pishitelli, 82, a parishioner of St. John the Baptist Italian Catholic Church in Italian Village. Pishitelli said Griffin has been a longtime supporter of the Italian-American community and began the move to establish annual scholarships at St. John in 1980.
In retirement, Griffin celebrates Mass and hears confession at St. Joan of Arc and teaches homiletics, or preaching, to future priests at the Pontifical College Josephinum.
He also has taught at Ohio Dominican and served as interim president for the 2007-08 academic year.
His health, he said, is good. After he retired, he had both knees replaced because of arthritis. His hands still bother him, he said.
He doesn't miss being bishop, for the most part.
"The thing I really miss are the people, the people I worked with on the staff, the different leaders in the parishes," he said.
"But the rest of it? No. It's a highly pressurized job, and as you get older, pressure becomes harder to deal with."
He still gets recognized all over town, he said.
"People say to me, 'What are you doing?' And I say, 'I'm living the dream.' The pressure's gone, and I get to do a lot of priestly things I enjoy doing."
Contact: mheagney@dispatch.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.