Archbishop Francis George returned Wednesday, a day after he was appointed to lead the Roman Catholic Church in Chicago, but questions about his new role followed him to the Pacific Northwest.
George was quizzed throughout the day in an attempt to gauge just how closely the widely used label “conservative” fits him.
For observers in Chicago, one of the most interesting barometers of George’s approach to divisions in the church is his stance on the Common Ground Project–the high-powered committee of Catholic leaders created last summer by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.
Bernardin preached that controversies in the church–such as the battles over abortion and the ordination of women– might be softened if representatives of the different factions could come together and talk about their faith. Others, such as Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, objected to the project, believing that it was unnecessary and possibly damaging.
Many church watchers believe that Law, a close friend of George’s, played an influential role in George’s appointment to Chicago–a signal in their eyes that George’s views mirror Law’s and that his style will differ from that of Bernardin’s.
But in an interview Wednesday night at his modest residence, George sounded more like Bernardin than Law in discussing the Common Ground Project, which he was careful to neither endorse nor criticize.
“Nothing is off-limits for questioning and deeper understanding,” George said. “Everything can be discussed. Not everything is negotiable.”
George said he did not have a strong reaction last summer to news of the Common Ground initiative, although he was aware of the debate between Law and Bernardin.
He added that he still has not made a decision about whether he would like to pursue a Common Ground-style discussion at the local level in Chicago.
“I like anything that has us talking. I suppose if it is that important I will have to look at it more closely,” he said. But he added that the model the Common Ground committee is trying to create is not fully formed.
George said his friendship with Law dates from the mid-1960s when both were young priests in Mississippi. He said he admired Law’s application of the Gospel in opposition to institutionalized racism and that those beliefs formed the basis of their friendship.
He added that he shares Law’s interest in how different cultures affect faith, which led to George’s three-year stint at a think tank that Law created in 1986 in Cambridge, Mass.
But George said he did not see himself as the ideological twin of the Boston cardinal. And he said his approach to dissent within the church in Chicago would be simple.
“You talk to them, that’s all. What else are you going to do? You talk and you pray,” he said.
George is expected to return to Chicago next week to meet with the committee overseeing his installation, the archdiocese’s administrative staff and its seven auxiliary bishops.
Among the topics of discussion with the bishops will be a list of about a dozen issues that Bernardin left for his successor. George said he has not had a chance to study the writings, but that “these are things that are important to the church, as I understand it.”
More Top Picks Tissot Prx Powermatic 80 Review
George is leaving the Portland archdiocese less than a year after he was named to lead it. Most Portland Catholics didn’t have much time to get to know him.
An archbishop is a “visible sign of unity,” said Eric Hall, 27, an engineer who has been going to St. Mary’s Cathedral for the last four years. “We finally got one, and now he’s going.”
Hall said he respected George for some of his outspoken opposition to assisted suicide and his defense of the privacy of confession.
“The one thing I liked about him is he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind,” Hall said.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, George said he feels “deeply apologetic” and even “embarrassed” about leaving Portland so soon after arriving.
“I never expected to leave,” he said.
George alternated between laughter and heavy contemplation, often looking down and closing his eyes in concentration while listening to questions.
The archbishop responded to questions about the Common Ground effort by saying that he is glad people are talking about differences within the church but that those discussions shouldn’t overwhelm the church’s main priority–preaching the Gospel.
“You don’t change the church’s teachings just by talking about it, let alone by political pressure,” he said. But “if we don’t come to some agreement on them, then the church is paralyzed.”
With no “common mission, no common purpose,” he added, “we are betraying the word of the Lord.”
He made it clear that in his view, topics such as abortion, euthanasia and divorce are not open to discussion. But, he said, “some of the less public issues are perhaps more important in some ways.”
For instance, “the strength of our religious education programs is central, and that’s not a matter of much public debate.”
Asked how the church can deal with its divisions without driving off members, George was blunt: “You can’t stop people from leaving the church. They’re free agents.”
When the question of feminism came up, George said, “It’s a blessing from God, in that it tells us we can’t take women for granted.”
He added that he believes equality of the sexes is a good thing so long as the sexes are not viewed as “interchangeable . . . as if men and women are the same. They are not the same.”
Asked about his reaching out to Hispanics in his former diocese in Yakima, Wash., he said: “It was hard not to reach out. They were right there.”
He chuckled when asked if he had any inside line on who might replace him in Portland. “I wasn’t even on my list for archbishop of Chicago,” he said.
George will return Wednesday to Chicago. In addition to meeting with the auxiliary bishops and the archdiocese’s administrative staff, he might meet informally with some priests from the archdiocese. He also will help flesh out the details of his installation ceremony set for 2 p.m. May 7 in Holy Name Cathedral.
Chicago’s new prelate met with the four-member installation committee for an hour Tuesday and discussed plans for the ceremony.
“My impression listening to him was that it will be a celebration of the church and the gift of our faith expressed through the church,” said Rev. John R. Hall, master of ceremonies for the new archbishop.
The week of the installation is likely to include other public events, but those are being worked out, said Hall, pastor at Our Lady of Ransom Church in Niles.
“The key thing that is going to put his stamp on the ceremony is the homily that he gives,” said Rev. Robert McLaughlin, rector of the cathedral and a member of the four-person installation committee.
George also will help set the tone for his stewardship by whom he includes in the ceremony–
“inclusiveness of ministers, having women readers and things like that,” McLaughlin said.
The ceremony will probably incorporate readings, hymns and prayers in various languages to reflect the diversity of the church, McLaughlin said.
At the beginning of the ceremony, George will be received into the cathedral and installed by the Vatican’s apostolic pro-nuncio in Washington, Monsignor Agostino Cacciavillan, according to McLaughlin.
Bishop Raymond Goedert will read the apostolic letter from Pope John Paul II that appoints George as the archbishop of Chicago.
Cacciavillan will then lead him to the archbishop’s chair in the symbolic act of installation, McLaughlin said. A regular mass will continue, with George as the principal celebrant.
As Bernardin did, George plans to hold a private prayer service at Holy Name for the priests of the archdiocese the evening before his installation.
More Top Picks Best Heated Massage Chairs For Circulation
Bernardin’s unprecedented overture in 1982 helped create a strong bond between him and his clergy.
George said Wednesday that Bernardin had called him when George became archbishop of Portland and reminded him that he would need help to lead the diocese.
Bernardin, he said, told him: “Now you will see, you have to govern through others.”