Cardinal Timothy Manning

The passing of Timothy Cardinal Manning leaves a spiritual vacuum in this portion of the Lord’s vineyard that will not soon be filled. No churchman ever served California longer, knew its area better or loved its people more. He imparted a wholly new dimension to the concept of servanthood.

In the days and years ahead, writers will scramble to appraise the “Manning Era” and its place on the scale of spiritual accomplishments. Above all else, they will find that Timothy Manning was a wise and spiritual leader. He may not have been the most informed or imaginative of churchmen, but he understood himself and his people far better than most of his episcopal contemporaries.

Scholars will conclude that the sum of his rather normal parts add up to an exceptional figure. Manning’s keen sense of ecclesial vision enabled him to correctly gauge the potential of God’s people. The man was the monument; the monument was the church.

His unobtrusive style of leadership was one of quiet persuasion and personal example. He once confided a preference for letting others take the well-charted superhighways. “I prefer the back roads and alleyways where simple people like my own parents lived and worked out their salvation.”

Manning verbalized his non-directive style a decade ago in a homily preached over the founder of the Irish Christian Brothers: “The full measure of a man is to be found, not in his good works or his great achievements, but rather in the new colors and textures that come alive in other people because of him.”

Unlike other giants in the post-Vatican church, Cardinal Manning will be longer remembered for what he said than for what he did. Through his long ministry, stretching from 1934 to 1989, his God-given charisma shone brightest in the pulpit, on the podium and from the printed page.

Those who want to know him best must read his “Days of Change, Years of Challenge” and “Times of Tension, Moments of Grace,” the two volumes containing his major homilies, addresses and talks.

Therein one can understand how, more than any of his predecessors, Timothy Manning passed through 55 years of priestly ministry mostly untouched by critics, his reputation growing ever more prominent with the passage of time. An uncommon man made from common parts, he became the American church’s most eloquent mouthpiece in a time of institutional confusion and personal bewilderment.

Though himself a gifted orator, a talented writer and a degreed canonist, Timothy Manning epitomized a totally different approach, one that paralleled and extolled the relationship of Jesus with his apostles.

Though sometimes described as passive and unresponsive, Timothy Manning was acutely aware of problems, hurts and challenges. But in many cases, he simply chose to overlook them or delegate their solution to others. He was student enough of history to realize that the passage of time has always been the most effective cure for most wounds.

The flock he shepherded, the people he loved and the archdiocese he leaves behind must be forever grateful to God for sharing with them this singularly-gifted high priest. May we all strive to rest in his peace!

MSGR. FRANCIS J. WEBER

Archivist

Archdiocese of Los Angeles