Archbishop Praised for Doctrinal Firmness, Social Activism : Mahony’s Style: Making Waves, Friends

Early morning mist slowly dissipates as a caretaker sweeps up the abundant overnight collection of trash and wine bottles that transients have poked between the steel fence posts outside St. Vibiana’s Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, a small band of regulars emerges from the 7 a.m. Mass in the cathedral chapel off 2nd and Main streets. A black jacket pulled over simple clericals, His Excellency, the Most Rev. Roger Michael Mahony, fourth Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, greets each person by name and gives a pat to Kern, the guide dog that leads a blind woman to her nearby Skid Row hotel.

It’s a typical weekday morning for the tall, slender native of North Hollywood, who in less than six months has made social, organizational and spiritual waves that ripple far beyond the sprawling archdiocese spanning Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Although he has expressed strongly traditional views on church doctrine, Mahony has been just as unequivocating on social-justice stands such as helping the poor. And despite his relatively young age--at 49, he is the nation’s youngest Roman Catholic archbishop--and newness to the post, he has quickly shaken up the organizational and financial management of the most populous archdiocese in the country. (Its nearly 3 million members exceed the entire national membership of all but the largest three or four Protestant denominations.)

This combination of doctrinal firmness and social activism might be expected to ruffle liberals and conservatives alike. But so far, Mahony’s participatory management style has excited both lay people and religious. At least for now, few have anything but praise for the energetic new archbishop, judging by dozens of interviews and observations.

“A man of action,” said Sister Suzanne Ensminger, head of parochial school principals in the Long Beach area.

“Inspiring and courageous leadership,” enthused the Rev. Robert Schuller, the “Possibility Thinking” preacher of Garden Grove’s Crystal Cathedral.

“He thinks very logically and very clearly. . . . He listens quickly,” said Stafford Grady, board chairman of Lloyds Bank California and a layman at St. Bede’s parish in La Canada-Flintridge. “He hasn’t ruffled any feathers to my knowledge. But there’s no question that an activist like he is will cause people to disagree.”

Indeed, Mahony’s liberal posture on immigration and economic matters is more likely to cause friction with conservative and wealthy Catholics than will his staunch defense of the church’s traditional stands against such issues as abortion, married clergy and women priests.

“A few reactionary lay people say, ‘First it was Vatican II, and now him; I can’t stand it,’ ” confided one chancery worker, who nonetheless added that staff morale at the archdiocese’s offices is “twice as high as before” Mahony arrived.

Mahony admits that he may rattle some slats. But he insists that he has felt no pressure to back off from his strong social activism.

In fact, he is clearly enjoying the honeymoon.

Before the Mass on this particular morning, Mahony arose at 5:45 a.m. and spent his customary 45 minutes in personal prayer in the cathedral’s private chapel. After a quick breakfast of black coffee and two slices of wheat toast spread with clover honey, he sits at the electric typewriter in his fourth-floor cathedral residence and pounds out a hard-hitting anti-abortion speech for delivery the following day at a citywide religious rally.

At five minutes to 9, toting a briefcase bulging with correspondence (he gets about 400 letters a week), Mahony climbs into a 1985 tan Olds Cutlass Ciera and is driven by his personal aide, Father Larry Estrada, the two miles to his tidy office on the second-floor corner of the chancery building on West 9th Street.

A few minutes later, the smiling prelate drops off a sheaf of letters and taped replies for his personal staff of four (“my unit,” he calls them), runs his long, slim fingers down the list of appointments on his daily calendar and picks up the telephone.

“Good morning, mayor, good to hear your voice,” he says to Tom Bradley as he returns his first phone call.

“How’s Congress these days?” he asks as he returns the second call. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Studio City) wants to talk about immigration legislation and agricultural workers.

Those are important issues to the archbishop, who is fluent in Spanish and relates well to Latinos, who make up more than half the Catholics in the archdiocese.

Union for Domestics

In a speech to the Community Relations Conference of Southern California at USC’s Town and Gown Foyer, he proposed that domestic household workers, many of whom are “newly arrived peoples” from other countries, be organized into a union.

“Not everyone here on your patrons list is going to appreciate this,” Mahony remarked, only slightly in jest. He then softened the impact by admitting that this included “housekeepers in (church) rectories, too.”

Aware of Mahony’s particular concern for the poor, well-off Catholics hope their spiritual leader won’t forget them .

“He now has tunnel vision in a few directions,” observed Robert A. Smith, a well-known Southern California automobile dealer and a knight in the prestigious Catholic orders of Malta and the Holy Sepulcher. “He is looking at one side of the street--the poor. You do need the help of the rich to feed the poor. I hope he doesn’t shun the rich. . . . It takes a lot of money to run the archdiocese of Los Angeles.”

But he noted that Mahony recently appeared incognito in Smith’s local parish church to hear confessions in order to “keep in touch with the people.” And Smith quickly added: “I think he’s a very special man. I don’t want to be critical of him. I hope he broadens out just a little.”

Unlike his predecessor--Cardinal Timothy Manning, who retired last year at age 75--Mahony seems to enjoy verbal exchanges with the media and taking on public figures. Among his targets has been Harold Ezell, the western regional commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, who irked Mahony with his criticism of the sanctuary movement for political refugees.

On the other hand, when Our Lady Queen of Angels Church (La Placita) in the downtown plaza declared itself a “sanctuary” for people seeking refuge from political persecution in their own countries--particularly Central America--Mahony did not attend the declaration ceremony.

A refugee’s home country or status should be of no consequence to aid-giving church authorities, Mahony said, adding that the sanctuary movement has confused the issue of ministry to immigrants by separating undocumented people into a special category.

The archbishop also is still feeling repercussions from a 1977 letter he wrote criticizing California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird. Mahony, who was auxiliary bishop of Fresno at the time, had come to know Bird, then state agricultural director, because Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. had appointed Mahony chairman of the newly formed Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

In his letter, sent to the commissioner of judicial appointments, Mahony opposed Bird’s appointment to the state Supreme Court and called her “vindictive” and of “questionable emotional stability.”

Although he does not repudiate what he wrote, Mahony said in a recent interview that the letter “reflected at that time my own personal views, observations and experiences” and was not intended to be made public. He added that he since has had only one chance encounter with the embattled chief justice--at an airport--and thus could not comment on her present competency.

Mahony even differed publicly with Manning, his predecessor, by overturning a decision to sell Cathedral High School, a predominantly Latino boys school on the edge of downtown. In the process, he scored points with leading Latinos who are Cathedral alumni.

On doctrinal matters, the archbishop leaves no doubt that he is the Pope’s man.

Official church teachings, he believes, are simply not negotiable--relaxing opposition to abortion for any reason other than saving the life of the mother, for example.

Short, to the Point

And to a woman radio reporter’s assertion that he isn’t talking to women about the matter, Mahony was short and to the point: “The policy isn’t mine; it’s God’s. . . . Life is either valuable and precious, or it isn’t.”

But Mahony couches his anti-abortion stance in the format of the “consistent life ethic” adopted by his brother bishops at their national conference last fall: “We are totally committed to the protection of each and every human life from the moment of its conception through natural death.”

That includes the hungry and homeless, the elderly, victims of racial discrimination and the physically and mentally handicapped, he explained at a pro-life ecumenical prayer service last month.

Later, at a prayer vigil for AIDS victims, Mahony announced that he is setting up a hospice within the archdiocese to care for those ill with the deadly disease, as well as establishing workshops for priests to better understand the needs of homosexual Catholics.

Despite his willingness to be controversial, the archbishop’s usual mien is mild-mannered, his leadership that of a team player. “My style is to be comfortable in all kinds of groups,” he said.

Mahony has been spending time lately with leaders of other Southern California religious groups. And he stresses the theme of Christian unity in his talks and homilies. In fact, the archbishop has become something of an ecumenical superstar.

He was chosen to read the joint statement opposing the death penalty signed by 14 Southland religious leaders last month. And it was Mahony--both then and later at a noon anti-abortion rally across from City Hall--whom reporters peppered with questions and drew aside for “exclusive” interviews.

Max Perrow of Ecumedia, the media arm of the Southern California Ecumenical Council, said Mahony “has added a spark to the whole Protestant community.”

As the archbishop’s tenure extends over the years, he may be remembered as much for his thorough reorganization of the diverse and amorphous archdiocese and its administration as for his keen social concern.

A hallmark of that reorganization--which he began almost immediately--is consultation and collaboration.

The first step was to send everyone in the archdiocese a questionnaire in English and Spanish to determine the church’s mission for the next five years. Nearly 90,000 individual responses were fashioned into a 250-word “mission statement” outlining a vision for the archdiocese. The highest priorities: youth and young adults, and Catholic education.

A much longer questionnaire will be sent out this spring to set 10 long-range goals and objectives. Mahony expects at least 1 million replies.

Last week, another plan assigning the 285 parishes, 1,313 priests, 2,484 women religious and 149 religious brothers into five geographical regions was implemented. Mahony named a resident auxiliary bishop or monsignor over each region, and established subdivisions, or “deaneries,” to administer every 15 to 18 parishes. Each region will reflect the ethnic diversity of the whole archdiocese, he said.

Mahony also wants to revamp archdiocesan administration, placing “three or four top cabinet-level people” over the present maze of offices.

Picks Finance Officer

Other changes include the selection of real estate investor Jose A. Debasa, a Cuban who had been with the University of Santa Clara for 20 years, as the new archdiocesan finance officer. Debasa replaces the late Msgr. Benjamin Hawkes, who had tightly controlled the archdiocese’s vast holdings since the early reign of Cardinal James F. McIntyre more than 30 years ago.

One of the first tasks of Debasa, who reported to work on Feb. 1, was to review the financially burdensome risk-management policies of the archdiocese, now spending $6 million annually for employee health insurance alone.

Mahony said that he wants “a greater information flow” on financial matters--a departure from sketchy published reports of the past--and “as much disclosure as possible . . . complete and full reports every year.”

(As a bishop, Mahony is paid $500 a month by the archdiocese, plus his ample but modest quarters and meals at St. Vibiana’s. He is also furnished a car.)

Also in the works is formation of a sisters’ council and the appointment of a vicar for women religious to oversee the sisters, or nuns.

“We need to involve women as many ways as we can in leadership,” the archbishop said. But he sees “no future” for women priests because Pope John Paul II has ruled that issue closed.

Mahony wants more parish councils, or advisory groups of lay men and women, reporting to and consulting with parish priests. Only 80 of the 285 parishes in the archdiocese now have active parish councils, Mahony said.

“Is there any chance the people (in the parishes) might have a say in who their priest is?” a woman interviewing Mahony for an article in a Catholic magazine asked hesitantly.

Mahony replied that church law requires the bishop to assign priests, but he said he is open to a shared process in which both priests and parishioners have a strong say about their preferences--an innovation that suggests how strongly democratization launched 20 years ago by the Second Vatican Council has trickled down.

“My leadership style is to involve as many people as possible,” Mahony told a meeting of the archdiocese education board the other day, as he asked the policy-making body to expand its authority and recommend pay raises for parochial teachers.

‘A Whole New Thing’

The next day, at a meeting of a task force designing parish involvement to “help Catholics think out the meaning of their church and its mission,” members noted that this was the first time lay people were being asked to set their own goals in this way: “A whole new thing,” task force member Pat Thompson exclaimed.

Mahony has even asked prominent laymen to recommend priests they consider qualified to become bishops. (Actual appointment is made by the Pope.)

And he is tapping into what he calls a vast “reservoir for talent” and financial help residing in the archdiocese’s lay ranks. “I very much want to get to know them and use their expertise. . . ,” he said.

As a child, Roger Mahony was always able to get others to do things, recalled his mother, Loretta Mahony of Orange.

When Roger was about 9, he persuaded his fraternal twin, Louis, to help him chain their older brother, Neil, to a tree and set fire to dried leaves at his feet. It was all a game of cowboys and Indians, Loretta Mahony explained, but if she had not intervened, Neil might have had his feet singed.

Loretta Mahony doesn’t remember exactly when Roger, an altar boy at St. Charles Church in North Hollywood, asked if she would mind if he became a priest.

“I didn’t think much of it at first . . . but he was very consistent. He never let up on it,” she said in a telephone interview. “He was a very determined boy; when he decided to do something, he did it.”

Roger’s late father, Victor Mahony, was a Universal Studios electrician. He also owned a small poultry processing plant on Chandler Boulevard in North Hollywood. There, young Roger shoveled manure out of chicken coops and learned some rudimentary Spanish from Mexican immigrant workers.

In 1950, Mahony entered Los Angeles College, the preparatory seminary for the archdiocese. He was in the first class at Queen of Angels Seminary in San Fernando when it opened four years later. He completed studies at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo and was ordained a priest in Fresno in 1962. Later, he earned a master’s degree in social work at Catholic University in Washington.

During his school days, Mahony was known for the same qualities of unobtrusive leadership and love of humor and adventure mentioned now by those who know him best.

“He was one of the guys who had climbed the water tower,” recalled classmate Joseph S. George, pastor of St. Paschal Baylon Church in Thousand Oaks.

Others remember the young seminarian as “prayerful” and “an electronics whiz,” an interest he still maintains with a ham radio tucked in an alcove off his bedroom in the cathedral rectory.

Mahony’s appointment to the nation’s largest archdiocese reflects a changing Vatican emphasis away from naming learned academics and intellectuals to top posts.

“Very few of the (recently appointed) major archbishops in the country have done graduate work in Rome,” Mahony said, noting that such training had once been the sine qua non for climbing the ecclesiastical ladder.

“All of us”--Cardinal Bernard F. Law of Boston, Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin of Chicago, Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York and Archbishop John L. May of St. Louis--”are from small dioceses. . . . The shift has been from Roman training and large-diocese experience to a good pastoral background.”

Mahony has worked with his predecessor, Manning, since 1967, when Manning was bishop of Fresno and Mahony was named one of his advisers. Mahony later served as bishop of Stockton from 1980 until last Sept. 5 when he was installed in Los Angeles. The Pope will likely give him a cardinal’s red hat within months or certainly several years.

Mahony frequently consults with Manning, who was known to have favored Mahony as his successor. Manning said it was a “personal joy” to welcome him and that the archdiocese was “ripe for new leadership.”

When he has time, Mahony enjoys the solitude of the Sierra Nevada, where he and two other priests own a small cabin near Yosemite National Park. Another diversion he relishes with his ubiquitous personal aide, Father Estrada, is looking for pollo (chicken) take-out restaurants.

But such pursuits must be sandwiched into a whirlwind schedule that includes calling on hospitalized priests throughout the archdiocese, counseling clergy and others, dictating letters and making calls from a mobile telephone while rolling down the freeways (Estrada at the wheel) at 70 m.p.h.

And when the rounds of Masses, speeches, press conferences, hospital calls and meetings with the humble and the mighty are done--and the archbishop and his driver are headed at last for the refuge of the rectory--they pray the Rosary aloud.