A Reluctant Farewell for Archbishop Buechlein, by Dan McFeely, Indianapolis Star, September 22, 2011

A Reluctant Farewell for Archbishop Buechlein

By Dan McFeely
Indianapolis Star
September 22, 2011

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011109220322

Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein (left) blessed the Rev. Michael O'Mara from St. Mary Catholic Church after announcing his retirement as head of the Indianapolis Archdiocese on Wednesday. / Kelly Wilkinson / The Star

As Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein finally realizes his long-held dream of returning to a monastery for peace and quiet, he leaves behind bustling schools and busy seminarians.

His focus on Catholic education over the past two decades was just one of his achievements celebrated Wednesday as Buechlein bid a tearful farewell to dozens of priests, staff members and friends at the Catholic Center.

In failing health after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2008 and suffering a stroke earlier this year, the 73-year-old native of Jasper asked the Vatican for an early retirement (two years prior to the usual time). That request was granted Wednesday morning.

"The Holy Father granted my request, and he did it in a hurry," said Buechlein, who has served as archbishop since 1992. "I hope that doesn't mean he was glad to get rid of me."

Rolled into the news conference in a wheelchair, the former monk had a hard time physically grasping his prepared remarks as he said he would much rather stay on as the leader of the 39-county archdiocese that spreads from Indianapolis to the Ohio River.

"I still need help getting around, but I wish that weren't true," Buechlein said. "I wish I could just get up from here and stand on my own, but if I did that, I would probably fall over backwards."

Auxiliary Bishop Christopher J. Coyne, who was brought here from Boston in March to help Buechlein with his duties, was immediately appointed apostolic administrator by the Vatican, which gives him authority to run the archdiocese but not to make any major changes, such as appointing a new pastor or selling church-owned property.

"You are kind of just a caretaker (in this role)," Coyne said Wednesday. "You really don't try to do anything major that would impede the freedom of the next archbishop coming in to do what he would see as important."

There is no timeline for the naming of a new archbishop, though Buechlein and Coyne said the process of vetting potential candidates has begun.

Names of those potential candidates will be discussed among bishops in Indiana and surrounding states, then added to the mix of other potential candidates for bishop chairs, before a final decision is made by Pope Benedict XVI.

Buechlein, appointed by Pope John Paul II, was the fifth archbishop to serve Indianapolis. During his time here, he focused much of his time on Catholic education and an increase in the number of vocations to the priesthood.

"I said 19 years ago that it was going to be a hard thing, but we were going to keep our schools going," Buechlein said. "And we have, more or less. We've had to be creative in how we do that, and obviously it's been difficult. But it's working. God is blessing us."

Seven years ago, he opened the Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis, where 35 men are currently preparing for a vocation in the church. He also established a permanent diaconate program that has thus far ordained 25 men to a ministry that had long been underused in Indiana.

But many will remember Buechlein most for his dedication to keeping Catholic elementary schools open. That difficult task most recently included an innovative plan to convert two of them to public charter schools -- a process by which they were wiped clean of much of their Catholic identity (no more statues) but were able to continue to educate the surrounding community.

The schools -- St. Anthony and the St. Andrew & St. Rita Catholic Academy -- are open and in their second year as charter schools.

Karega Rausch, who was the city's charter school director when the change was made, remembers the archbishop's dedication to a community asset.

"Both the parishes and their schools were institutions that had been around for a long time, and they knew they were a really important community asset," said Rausch, who is now the Indianapolis director of Stand for Children, which advocates for education.

"I mostly worked with his staff, but I know that came directly from him (Buechlein). The quote I often heard that came from him was, 'We cannot abandon these neighborhoods.' "

Buechlein was a vocal advocate for Catholic education, overseeing the revision of American Catholic textbooks for high schools nationwide.

Peggy Crawford, a co-director of campus ministry at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, said she thinks Buechlein has helped Catholic education flourish in Indianapolis.

"When he came, he came with an enthusiasm and an energy for Catholic education," said Crawford, who worked for the archdiocese from 1992 to 1996 but left for Brebeuf, a private high school on Indianapolis' Far Northside. "He has really reached out to young people, wanting them to know their faith and to live it out."

Coyne noted that another example of Buechlein's emphasis on young Catholics was a new ministry called Theology on Tap, where faith is discussed in a relaxed setting.

Buechlein also was celebrated for making hard decisions about staffing and the business operation -- employees work four-day weeks in order to save money -- and after a series of significant deficits, the archdiocese now says it has had eight consecutive years of "break-even" budgets.

But his time here was not always one of celebration.

After the news conference, Buechlein was asked whether he had any regrets about his time as archbishop.

"Yes . . . 2002, the sex abuse," he said, referring to the scandal that rocked the archdiocese and the entire Roman Catholic Church.

"It was awful. I will never forget," he said about that time. "I remember when I was in Dallas for a meeting, I wanted to go for a walk for some fresh air. They would not let me out without a police escort.

"But we got through it OK. We have many good priests. And that is what I'm going to remember."

Barbara Dorris, an outreach director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, issued a statement about Buechlein's retirement, wishing him well with his health struggles, but "at the same time, however, we are glad he's stepping down."

Dorris thinks Buechlein, like other bishops, "did the absolute bare minimum regarding child safety. He and his particularly aggressive lawyers worked hard, and successfully, to prevent the truth about the complicity of archdiocesan staffers from ever surfacing in court."

The archdiocese settled two cases in 2010 involving a former priest.

Crawford, who has worked at Brebeuf for nearly a dozen years, thinks Buechlein did a good job of steering the church during those scandalous times.

"I think the fact that he was such a man of prayer helped him, and he encouraged all of us to not despair because of it," she said. "This was something that pained him personally because the church was hurting. The way he dealt with it kind of modeled for us the way we should."

Buechlein, who was ordained a priest in 1964, served as the president and rector at St. Meinrad for five years in the 1980s before being plucked out of the school and made bishop of Memphis, Tenn.

Now, after years of being in the public eye, he hopes to get a little quiet time to spend in prayer.

"I will continue to write. I am being encouraged even by my doctors to write my memoirs, and I will have fun doing that," Buechlein said.

"Holiness and peace, that is what I crave. It will be wonderful to be free of everything so I can give my life to prayer."