RELIGION : Mahony Modernizes, Expands Powerful Chancery : Nuns, Lay People Replace Priests in Many Posts

The chancery, the brick-and-black-marble headquarters for the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese for 35 years, was a fearsome stronghold of ecclesiastical power in the past.

An erring priest would tremble when summoned to the office of Cardinal James Francis McIntyre, a stately prince of the church who was gracious with the devout and deferential but impatient with dissidents and the derelict in duty. McIntyre was once seen trying to kick a priest in the pants as the cleric, who had received a third ticket for drunk driving, fled the cardinal’s chambers.

A gentler approach was brought in 1970 by Archbishop (later Cardinal) Timothy Manning. Yet the day-to-day control over finances, priests and virtually every department of the growing archdiocese remained in the hands of an able but typically gruff administrator from McIntyre’s days, Msgr. Benjamin Hawkes, whose decisions were opposed at great risk.

When the shepherd’s crosier passed once again in mid-1985 to Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, the climate at 1530 West 9th Street started to change dramatically.

New Jobs Created

Priests have been increasingly supplanted in chancery posts by sisters and lay professionals, and new jobs have been created. Just this week, for instance, Mahony named a laywoman, Kate Lawler, as the first full-time executive director for the Archdiocese’s Justice and Peace Commission.

Chancery offices have spread into six other nearby buildings. Records have been computerized (instead of handwritten ledgers in many cases) and separate accounting systems have been consolidated into one, revealing for the first time this year a clear picture of the $285-million-a-year operation.

Today, instead of one man, Hawkes, running the archdiocese for an archbishop, Mahony has seven secretariat directors dividing up responsibilities, five auxiliary bishops heading their own pastoral regions and a chief administrator, Msgr. Stephen Blaire, presiding over this 12-member cabinet in Mahony’s absence.

“It’s more decentralized now,” said Msgr. Jeremiah Murphy, a former superintendent of archdiocesan high schools who is now a secretariat director overseeing chancery operations, among other duties. “A lot of things are done at the local level.”

If a pastor of one of the 285 parishes is the subject of a complaint now, “rather than go downtown,” Murphy said, he is more likely to talk it over in his pastoral region with one of four priests elected as deans or with an auxiliary bishop at the region’s mini-chancery.

The Catholic Church of McIntyre and Hawkes was an authoritarian one reflecting the period before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). “There is a lot less (fear) now,” said Murphy.

Bidding for Openings

“In the old days, we didn’t have personnel boards and placement boards,” he said. Priests currently may bid for pastoral openings rather than simply accept the assignments made by one man (then Hawkes) with the approval of the archbishop.

Since September, 1986, Msgr. Blaire has been chancellor and “moderator of the curia”--a combination that makes him Mahony’s right-hand man. Not surprisingly, the courteous and attentive manner of the one-time high school principal matches the demeanor of Mahony.

Mahony, 52, has fulfilled many hopes within the nation’s most populous archdiocese by increasing the advisory roles of women, lay people and minorities (at all levels of the church) and by actively expounding church positions on social issues.

At the same time, Mahony has a heavy national and international schedule with the Washington-based U.S. Catholic Conference, especially chairing the bishops’ Committee on International Policy.

Chancery officials marvel at Mahony’s tight schedule and the stream of distinctive pink-colored memos from his office. “He’s very well organized,” Blaire said.

“The organizational structure of the archdiocese is such that it enables him to truly function as an archbishop,” Blaire said. “When it comes time to give a sense of direction, he is always available.”

Financial Officer Jose Debasa said Mahony also delegates authority well. Prior to attending the month-long Synod of Bishops in Rome last year, Mahony sent a memo to all administrators, telling them to tke care of things . . . “I don’t want to come back and find a zillion papers on my desk.”

The expansion of the chancery complex to accommodate nearly 300 employees will end next April. “Then that’s it,” Debasa said, indicating that Mahony’s organizational array will be set for at least the next two years.

Some grumbling has been heard about the “bureaucratic” thicket at the chancery, officials have acknowledged.

For instance, some matters undergo greater deliberation under the new apparatus.

Msgr. Joseph Pollard, who teaches at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, was personal theologian to Cardinal Manning but now is chairman of the 14-member Archdiocesan Theological Commission.

While expressing overall pleasure in the new archbishop’s leadership, Pollard said, “I would make a decision or give my opinion when situations came up before. But if we get inquiries now, I feel honor bound to consult with commission members--unless it’s something like a medical emergency.”

The consulting and research methods of the new administration also means more surveys and letters for pastors to answer.

“The main office keeps the men in the trenches busier instead of helping them to manage their local responsibilities,” said one veteran priest who did not want his name used.

“And, why, with a hundred more employees, do we get mechanical answers?” he asked, referring to the chancery’s telephone answering machines.

Even with organizational charts, it is difficult to determine “who is doing what,” added the priest. “The regions take care of some matters but the power and money are downtown and the shots are called from there.”

Target of Pickets

That fact has long been recognized: Over the years, the chancery building has been picketed by lay Catholics seeking post-Vatican II reforms, feminists opposing the church’s anti-abortion stance, and teachers on strike.

The chancery’s more recent benevolent image didn’t deter Catholic cemetery workers from voicing labor grievances in front of the building last summer.

And only a week ago Friday, about 50 girls from Our Lady of Loretto High School chanted, “We have pride . . . We won’t go . . . We love Loretto,” in front of the chancery to protest plans to close the high school and consolidate it with Bishop Conaty Memorial High School. Dwindling enrollments at the two schools and the costs of making them both conform to earthquake safety standards were given as the main reasons for the decision.

Five years ago, the archdiocese was forced to back off plans to close another inner-city school, Cathedral High. But the recent consolidation decision reflected months of negotiations with representatives of both schools and a reversal of plans announced last January to close Bishop Conaty, according to Msgr. Aidan Carroll, superintendent of schools in the archdiocese’s Education Department.

Sister Cecilia Louise Moore directed “thorough” studies of projected enrollments, building costs and neighborhood financial support as the secretariat director for educational concerns, Blaire said. Yet, the “nitty-gritty level where things happen” in most cases is at the department level, Blaire said.

The most influential posts now at the chancery, aside from the archbishop, are held by Blaire, Debasa and Msgr. Thomas Curry, according to officials. Curry is not only the secretariat director overseeing matters pertaining to the nearly 1,400 priests and more than 2,500 sisters in the archdiocese but also will remain the “vicar for clergy” through 1990.

‘Work Stations’

To some extent, the auxiliary bishops are not the forces at the chancery they once were. They have “work stations” at the chancery rather than separate offices and some held secretariat or vicar posts only temporarily before being asked to devote full time to their pastoral regions. One consolation, however, is that many auxiliary bishops in Los Angeles have been tapped by Rome to lead other dioceses.

One who wasn’t, Bishop John Ward, 68, a close co-worker with McIntyre, Manning and Hawkes, observed 25 years as an auxiliary this month. Mahony praised Ward in one tribute for having “shifted and adjusted his own pastoral ministry to conform to the pastoral priorities of each successive archbishop.”

A subtle influence in archdiocesan affairs has been wielded by Al Antczak, 66, managing editor of the archdiocesan weekly newspaper for a quarter century--even though The Tidings has tended to reflect the teachings and personality of each archbishop.

That influence has waned somewhat in recent years. From a peak circulation of 125,000 in the 1950s, when all church activities had higher rates of participation, the newspaper presently is bought by about 47,000--within an archdiocese estimated to be much larger than the official figure of 2.65 million Catholics.

David Moore, director of the communications department, said that two committees of the national Catholic Press Assn. have studied the newspaper’s news content and business side and were about to make recommendations. Moore said he hopes to increase circulation beyond what he believes to be a generally older, conservative readership.

In keeping with Mahony’s policy of hiring lay professionals when priestly expertise is not required, a new archdiocesan press spokesman named this year was William Rivera, longtime press spokesman for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Mahony, a frequent news maker, said when he first came to Los Angeles that strengthening that position would be a high priority.

Journalists’ Complaints

Los Angeles journalists have complained for years about the difficulty of getting information from the archdiocese. Rivera’s predecessor, Father Joseph Battaglia, very visible before and during Pope John Paul II’s September, 1987, visit to Los Angeles, is currently on “inactive leave” from the church, according to Curry.

The legacy left by the old chancery is not entirely unappreciated. Debasa said that Hawkes, despite his antiquated methods (including no evidence that he ever put projected annual budgets on paper), left the archdiocese in strong financial condition.

“I never met the man, but I really admire the fact that he was able to run such a major operation by himself,” said Debasa, a Cuban-born layman who was the University of Santa Clara’s vice president for business and finance for 10 years.

The archdiocese has between $900 million and $1 billion in building and land assets, and is continuing to look for new parish sites, Debasa said.

Officials are seeking to stabilize at about $6.3 million the annual subsidies made to relatively poor inner-city parishes--a figure that has grown from $4.5 million in 1984.

The archdiocese’s financial statement for the fiscal year ending last June, to be published in The Tidings next month, shows that operating expenses of $285 million exceeded income by about $5 million, but other revenues offset that deficit.

Debasa’s office is in the process of establishing one computer system to link all the parishes. “One-quarter of the parishes already have computers, but they are different systems,” he said.

By getting a single system for all 285 churches, Debasa said, “you can buy a computer for one-tenth of what it would cost each time a pastor contacts a company on his own and tries to get a system.”

Rather than imposing chancery control on parishes, Debasa and other officials see the computerization and standardization throughout the archdiocese as providing better service and, in some cases, equity for people who work for the church.

Administration Manual

Pastors are receiving a fat, loose-leaf notebook called the Parish Administration Manual, which Debasa said attempts to answer any question that might arise as well as assure “that everyone follows the same policies.”

The chancery is “not going to take over all responsibilities; we just want to be of more service to the pastors,” Blaire said. As for complaints about bureaucracy, Blaire said, “I think that (pastors) cannot deny that many additional services are being provided.”

In 1986, through an unprecedented parish survey of 320,000 Catholics and later convention-style voting at an archdiocesan-wide convocation, priorities were established from a long list of ministries and services that parishes want from the archdiocese. Church officials admit that the day of reckoning may come now that the restructuring and expansion of the administrative hierarchy is virtually complete.

“Certainly people look for results,” Blaire said. “The No. 1 priority set by the convocation was youth. As a result, we created in the last few months the whole Office of Youth Ministry, which trains youth ministers. What the long-term effect on youth will be may be hard to measure.”

CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES ARCHBISHOP Roger M. Mahony CABINET Mahony, Blaire, auxiliary bishops and secretariat directors EPISCOPAL COUNCILPASTORAL REGIONS(headed by auxillary bishops)CURIA (secretariat directors)OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS Bishop John Ward SAN FERNANDO Bishop Armando Ochoa SAN GABRIEL Bishop Juan Arzube SAN PEDRO Bishop Carl Fisher SANTA BARBARA Bishop Patrick Ziemann MODERATOR OF THE CURIA/CHANCELLOR Msgr. Stephen Blaire EDUCATIONAL/FORMATIONAL Sister Cecilia Louise Moore PASTORAL AND PARISH Msgr. William Barry COMMUNITY SERVICES Msgr. Patrick O’Brien ETHNIC MINISTRIES Sister Lucia Tu MINISTERIAL (Priests, Nuns) Msgr. Thomas Curry BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL Jose Debasa SUPPORT SERVICES Msgr. Jeremiah Murphy Departments which also report to the Archbishop: Judical vicar and tribunal Seminary heads Special vicars General counsel Major advisory bodies and commissons More than 2.6 million Catholics are in 285 parishes in three counties: Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara. Source: Adapted from archdiocese’s organization chart.