Seattle Archbishop Stripped of Authority

Continuing a crackdown on dissent, the Vatican has stripped Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of authority in five major areas, including moral issues dealing with birth control and homosexuality, the prelate said Thursday.

Hunthausen, 65, said at a Seattle press conference that Auxiliary Bishop Donald Wuerl had been given “complete and final decision-making power” in the “five areas of concern” noted in a 1983 investigation of Hunthausen ordered by Pope John Paul II.

The archbishop, whose liberal positions on the nuclear arms race, the sanctuary movement and sexual activities have drawn criticism from conservative Roman Catholics, was appointed head of the Seattle archdiocese in 1975. He revealed the changes in authority to his priests in a letter mailed Wednesday, archdiocese spokesman Russell Searce said.

Action on Father Curran

Two weeks ago, Archbishop James Hickey of Washington, who conducted the 1983 investigation of Hunthausen, announced that the Vatican had revoked the right of Father Charles E. Curran, a noted professor at Catholic University in Washington, to teach as a Catholic theologian. Curran has differed from official Vatican teachings on some aspects of sexual ethics including contraception, divorce and homosexuality for nearly 20 years.

Curran has said he will use both internal university procedures and civil law to fight his removal from the theological faculty.

In appointing Wuerl auxiliary bishop to Hunthausen last December, Archbishop Pio Laghi, the papal representative to the U.S. Catholic Church, said the Pope had investigated charges that Hunthausen had conducted services improperly and ignored church teachings by failing to condemn contraception, homosexual activity and premarital sex.

Wuerl, 45, who served at the Vatican for 10 years before his assignment as a professor and rector at St. Paul Seminary in Pittsburgh in 1979, will assume final responsibility over the tribunal, the archbishop’s court that decides on marriage annulments; worship and liturgy; moral issues; the training of seminarians and priests, and supervision of priests who are leaving or have left the priesthood.

‘Spirit of Collegiality’

Giving Wuerl, whose title is “auxiliary bishop with special faculties,” such power over basic operations of the archdiocese is unusual but provided for in church law, Hunthausen said.

Hunthausen said he and Wuerl would discuss the transition “in a spirit of collegiality.”

But Hunthausen added that he had not foreseen the extent of Wuerl’s authority when the latter was appointed and had sought clarification from the Vatican. The response was that Wuerl was to have authority over the five areas.

During the investigation, known as an “apostolic visitation,” Archbishop Hickey met with Hunthausen and more than 70 clergy and lay members of the archdiocese over a week’s time.

The liberal archbishop, considered to be well liked by a large majority of Catholics in the 360,000-member Seattle archdiocese, has been an outspoken critic of the nuclear arms race and an advocate of unilateral disarmament. He drew national attention by refusing to pay taxes on half his income to protest defense spending, resulting in his salary being garnisheed last year.

He also angered some church members in the summer of 1982 by allowing a national group of Catholic homosexuals to attend Mass in St. James Cathedral.