Mahony to Help Brief Planners of Papal Visit

Archbishop Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and 20 other Roman Catholic bishops and officials will go to Rome next week to brief planners of the Pope’s U.S. visit in September on tensions in the American church that were engendered by the Vatican’s recent drive to enforce orthodox church views.

It was announced Monday that the meetings are to be held next Wednesday through Saturday. The briefing was suggested last November in Washington by Bishop James Malone, outgoing president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Many Catholics active in national church affairs have objected to, among other issues, the Vatican’s reduction of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen’s authority in his Seattle archdiocese, the removal of Father Charles Curran from the theology faculty at Catholic University of America, and a Vatican document on homosexual behavior that prompted church action against homosexual priests and support groups.

Evaluating Tensions

Cardinals Joseph Bernardin of Chicago and John O’Connor of New York and Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco--who will be part of the U.S. delegation to Rome--met last weekend in Menlo Park, Calif., as a Vatican-appointed commission charged with evaluating tensions in the Seattle Archdiocese. The three prelates interviewed other bishops from the Pacific Northwest as well as Seattle priests on the divided duties in the Seattle Archdiocese, which Hunthausen has called “unworkable.”

For the most part, church officials expect the 10-day, nine-city visit of Pope John Paul II, starting Sept. 10 in Miami and including Los Angeles on Sept. 15-16, to be a popular success with most Catholics.