By Ann Rodgers
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
June 11, 2006
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06162/697081-85.stm
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Bishop Donald W. Wuerl Photo by Andy Starnes/Post-Gazette |
At noon today in St. Paul Cathedral, Bishop Donald W. Wuerl will bid farewell to the people of his hometown, where he has served as Catholic bishop for 18 years. His leave-taking began May 16, when Pope Benedict XVI named him archbishop of Washington, D.C.
He has spoken of a "collage" of favorite memories here: The eagerness of schoolchildren to answer his questions, "especially in the younger grades, when they still think I know something." Or the peace that came over seriously ill people when he anointed them in the hospital.
"The best memory I have is of the faith of the people here. It's so quiet and strong," he said.
Those are the same words others use to describe much of his ministry. Most attention focused on his most dramatic efforts: The reorganization that closed 39 churches, or the bold stand he took in 1993 to keep a child molester out of ministry after the Vatican's highest court ordered him to reinstate the priest. Yet much of his ministry was accomplished with little fanfare.
He personally led converts into the church, among them Reid Carpenter, for decades an evangelical Protestant leader. Five years ago, Mr. Carpenter was drawn to Catholicism, and asked the bishop what to do.
The bishop invited him to his home for seven dinners over seven months.
"He said, 'At the end of the seven dinners, if you decide not to become a Catholic, that will be fine. We will still be great friends. If you decide to do it, I'll be there to welcome you,' " Mr. Carpenter recalled.
"He was a teacher who ... gave me a great deal of love and dignity and respect," said Mr. Carpenter, who is now Catholic.
The bishop provided similar help to other high-profile people who could not easily attend parish programs for potential converts because of demanding schedules or notoriety. In Mr. Carpenter's case, the bishop said, parish programs would have been too basic for a man of his theological sophistication.
"He is obviously a man of great and deep spiritual life," Bishop Wuerl said. Such meetings were "for me, a very satisfying part of ministry."
The bishop's friendships transcended faith. He worked closely with Rabbi Alvin Berkun of Tree of Life Congregation in Squirrel Hill on projects such as enlisting rabbis to teach about Judaism in Catholic high schools. He became so close to the Berkun family that the rabbi's daughter invited him to her wedding. He attended.
Bishop Wuerl was attuned to the concerns of the Jewish community, Rabbi Berkun said, and instigated a rabbi-priest dialogue to help each understand the other's views. He knew the history of Catholic persecution of Jews, pointing out to Rabbi Berkun the Vatican building that housed the records of the Inquisition as they crossed St. Peter Square together to dedicate a Holocaust memorial.
The rabbi turned to Bishop Wuerl in 1999 to address his congregation after an anti-semitic extremist opened fire on a Jewish day-care center in Los Angeles.
"As Jews, we felt very isolated and vulnerable. He came and brought a message of hope," Rabbi Berkun said.
One of Bishop Wuerl's closest friends is Bishop Donald McCoid, of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Bishop Wuerl took ecumenism beyond bureaucracy, Bishop McCoid said. Largely at his instigation, Pittsburgh's religious leaders, bishops or their counterparts, gather monthly at one of their homes for breakfast, Bible study, prayer and conversation. The group began popular traditions such as the Holy Saturday blessing of the city from Mount Washington and the Christmas festival at Heinz Hall.
Bishop Wuerl always knew who among them was facing personal or ecclesiastical crises, and offered his support.
"He was interested in your life, in what you were doing, and did not forget. He's the kind of friend who knew your story," Bishop McCoid said.
Bishop Wuerl says his own most painful crisis came in the 1990s, when he was forced to close a large number of parishes.
He recalled sitting on the steps of a small church to which he could no longer send a priest as an old man pointed to the steeple his father helped to build.
"That was very hard," the bishop said. "The sense of anxiety, of discomfort, surfaces, even though, intellectually, you know you have to do some of these things."
Other, unseen moments, such as when he asked a priest to leave a beloved parish in order to help another parish, were among his most painful, he said.
"I've never had a priest say no. But it's difficult to ask when you know it hurts," he said.
Some priests say they didn't know he felt their pain. It is not his nature to display his feelings. Early on, he began to meet with victims of sexual abuse by priests, but they did not always come away feeling understood.
Paul J. Dorsch filed suit in 2000 over abuse at the hands of a priest in the early 1980s. About two years ago, Mr. Dorsch, with his wife and parents, met the bishop.
"He was very nonemotional," Mr. Dorsch said. "My mother is in tears, holding his hand, and this guy is just cold."
Tim Bendig, a victim whose case led Bishop Wuerl to confront Rome over the right to remove abusers from ministry, had similar feelings about his meeting. But he esteems the bishop, saying he should be judged by his deeds.
"I'm happy for him because he's going to a bigger diocese, where, I hope, he will be able to do the same things he has done in my case, bring closure to it and get rid of bad priests," Mr. Bendig said.
Bishop Wuerl said he was distressed that some victims felt he didn't care. He compared his meetings with them to offering the funeral Mass for priests who were close friends. He held his emotions in check to help others pray and grieve, he said.
"I would want to say to any person who felt that the response wasn't adequate to their needs that the feeling was very intense. I'm sorry that it wasn't displayed in a way that they could perceive it," he said.
In many other situations, people were certain the bishop felt their pain. The Rev. Joseph Luisi, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Carnegie, was moved by Bishop Wuerl's response after a 2004 flood inundated the town and the parish. The bishop arrived quickly, in wading boots.
"He showed great pastoral sensitivity," Father Luisi said. "He walked through each of our flood-affected buildings. He didn't just send someone on his staff to check it out."
When the Rev. Frank Almade became the diocesan secretary for social concerns, his predecessor told him, "One thing you never have to worry about is convincing the bishop to be concerned." That proved true, he said.
Father Almade was especially proud of the bishop's efforts to reach out to women who had had abortions. "His statement on post-abortion reconciliation, I believe, is the only statement by a bishop on this subject to this day," Father Almade said.
The bishop required priests and every teacher in Catholic schools to attend workshops on racism. Esther Bush, president of the Urban League of Pittsburgh, was so impressed that she recruited him for her board.
Ms. Bush also served with him on the Youth Crime Prevention Council, founded by former U.S. Attorney Fred Thiemann to address gang violence. The bishop was the heart of that effort, she said.
"It's not just what he says, but how he says it in terms of making you think about what is the right thing to do, especially in a situation where the conversation might be somewhat heated," she said.
After Mr. Thiemann left his post, "the bishop just stepped in and very quietly kept us all together and made us work."
He inherited the diocese when other bishops were closing inner city schools that no longer served children of their parishes, but were attended primarily by black Protestants.
But Bishop Wuerl solicited corporate executives to raise millions for his Extra Mile Foundation. It has provided $23.6 million for subsidized tuition at several Catholic grade schools in predominantly black neighborhoods. A related Crossroads scholarship has given $4.25 million to send Extra Mile graduates to Catholic high schools.
Carol Iddriss, of East Liberty, met Bishop Wuerl once, but is grateful that he went the Extra Mile for her two sons.
She moved them to St. Benedict the Moor in the Hill District when Adam was in second grade and Jamel was in sixth because she was concerned about fighting and lack of discipline in their public school.
Today, Jamel is in law school and Adam is on a full scholarship at the University of Pittsburgh, studying biomedical engineering. He left last week for Tanzania to repair medical equipment and teach others to maintain it after he leaves.
"I have been so blessed, super blessed," Ms. Iddriss said of what her sons have been able to accomplish with help from the bishop.
Bishop Wuerl also worked to keep Catholic schools affordable for parishioners, though closings often obscured his larger effort. He required parishes without a school to give 10 percent of their income to support the schools, and built a $20 million endowment for tuition assistance.
His efforts have been to fulfill his motto, "Thy kingdom come," which he views as a prayer and a command to build God's kingdom here and now. He measures his work by that standard.
"I just wish that we would have been able to have done more. And what that more is, it's hard to specify. ... You'd like there to be more peace, more justice, more kindness, more understanding, more love," he said.
"We may not have been able to manifest fully the kingdom of God, but Lord knows we all tried very, very hard. ... That is one of the things I will always cherish, the opportunity to work with so many people, not just Catholics, but everybody in this community, to see if we couldn't make southwestern Pennsylvania the best that it could be."
Ann Rodgers can be reached at arodgers@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416.
Farewell Mass
The farewell Mass for Bishop Donald W. Wuerl is at noon today in St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland.
Overflow seating will be available in Synod Hall next door. Parking will be at a premium, with the lots at the cathedral and two nearby Catholic high schools reserved for special guests and those with roles in the Mass.
Diocesan officials recommend parking at the Carnegie museums and the public lots on Craig Street. Finding spaces at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall is expected to be difficult because of a high school graduation that will be going on there.
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