L.A. Service Set Mahony’s Path to Cardinal Post

The naming of Archbishop Roger M. Mahony as a cardinal means more for the man than for the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

His new position will give him added stature nationally and in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as enhancing his image as spiritual head of the country’s most populous archdiocese.

Unless he had failed badly here, it was almost a certainty that he would eventually have been named a cardinal, because his two immediate predecessors held that title. Nevertheless, Mahony said he was surprised by a call from Rome at 1:15 a.m. Sunday telling him that he was on the list of 23 cardinals from around the world named by Pope John Paul II on Wednesday.

“My understanding was that there was not a final list until late Saturday night,” Mahony said at a news conference Wednesday morning, where he was flanked by all seven of his auxiliary bishops.

Observers credit the cardinal-elect--at 55 one of the youngest in the church--with doing extremely well at dealing with controversial and complicated issues among his fellow prelates in the past several years. But Mahony’s fast track to the red hat was really set when he was appointed bishop of Los Angeles in 1985 after serving as bishop of Stockton for five years.

“When the Pope is appointing bishops and cardinals, he looks for people who reflect his own views on doctrine and discipline,” said Father Thomas Reese, an expert in Washington on the church’s hierarchy. “Mahony fits that image.”

His new platform will take Mahony to the Vatican more often and add to his work, but he pledged Wednesday to continue his trademark ministry to the ethnically diverse Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which includes at least 2 million Latinos among an estimated 4.5 million Catholics.

“Mahony is very concerned about the marginalized and those who have no voice in society,” said Father Joe Fessio, editor of the conservative Catholic publishing house Ignatius Press and assistant professor of theology at the University of San Francisco.

But despite a long record of activism on behalf of Latinos and migrant laborers, Mahony has steadfastly opposed the organization of a union among gravediggers and groundskeepers in the 10 cemeteries operated by the archdiocese.

Mahony will be joined in an elaborate installation ceremony in Rome on June 28 by another cardinal-elect who will serve a U.S. archdiocese, Archbishop Anthony J. Bevilacqua of Philadelphia.

Both men share a concern for immigrants and the rights of undocumented workers. Bevilacqua was the first director of the Migration and Refugee Office for the Brooklyn Diocese, and Mahony served as chairman of the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board in 1975-76, when he was in Fresno under then-Cardinal Timothy Manning.

Mahony, however, has been much more visible within the National Conference of Catholic Bishops than Bevilacqua, who is trained as both a civil and canon (church) lawyer.

In addition to chairing bishops’ ad-hoc committees that issued statements on AIDS and on the Middle East, Mahony headed the International Policy Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops for two years, playing an important role in setting policy for the American church regarding foreign issues. Mahony was one of the most prominent religious critics of the Persian Gulf War.

In doctrine, both Bevilacqua and Mahony are considered to be cut from the same conservative cloth that John Paul desires for the 850-million-member Roman Catholic Church.

But in the opinion of Reese, the new U.S. cardinals will not take the American wing of the church on a sharp conservative swing.

“In general, they represent the same views” as the retired and deceased cardinals who preceded them, said Reese, a Jesuit and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

As a cardinal, Mahony’s most important single power will be to vote for the next Pope, assuming that he outlives John Paul II, now 71.

“While the present Pope is in good health,” Reese said, “these are the men who will elect the Pope who is going to lead the church in the next millennium.”

As members of Vatican congregations and committees, cardinals also advise the Pope on a variety of political and church issues.

“They influence church policy around the world--from liturgy to doctrine to church-state relations,” Reese said.

In addition, John Paul has several times called the world’s active cardinals to Rome to advise him directly on matters such as finances--thus adding a new dimension of power to the traditional roles these “princes” of the church play.

Mahony will also be in line to chair the important Pro-Life Activities Committee of the U.S. Catholic Conference, which has been headed by cardinals in the past and is chaired by Cardinal John O’Connor of New York. The committee deals with issues such as abortion and euthanasia, on which Mahony is an outspoken conservative.

Mahony is a champion of many women’s rights causes and he reorganized his archdiocese administratively to encourage greater participation by women. But he steadfastly opposes birth control clinics at public schools, abortion, contraception and and the ordination of women.

Last year, his appeal to elderly priests and nuns to volunteer to test an experimental AIDS vaccine raised eyebrows. While recognizing his call for compassion for AIDS patients--in 1986, he created a hospice to care for those dying of the disease and established workshops for priests to better understand the needs of homosexual Catholics--critics questioned the testing proposal because it singled out older people for such experimentation.

Mahony has already won praise among his peers for generating support for complex issues and for his pleasant manner and usually non-confrontational style. But his colleagues will not necessarily go along with his views just because he is a cardinal.

“We’re a hierarchical church, which makes a difference,” Reese said. “But at the bishops’ conference, it’s one bishop, one vote.”

Mahony will probably have to forgo the chance to serve as president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops because that job requires so much time and U.S. cardinals--already loaded with extra duties--have traditionally declined the job. Cardinal John Krol, retired archbishop of Philadelphia, is the exception, but he was an archbishop when he was elected vice president of the conference, normally the precursor post to president.

At the Wednesday news conference in Immaculate Conception Church near downtown, Mahony said he was “humbled that Pope John Paul II has chosen me to serve him and the church in this singular role.”

He said he called his mother late Tuesday to tell her the news.

“She was sound asleep, but I called her about 11:30 because I figured that I would rather have her hear it from me than somebody else,” he told reporters.

“We are just a very ordinary family raised in the San Fernando Valley in the poultry industry and so feeding chickens and scraping chicken droppings and all the rest of it is part of our background,” Mahony said. “So this is not from an elite background at all, and I think that is what is so astounding about this.

“But I really think it reflects that Jesus in the Gospels chose ordinary people to do his work,” he said.

Princes of the church do not get paid any more than archbishops, according to a spokesman at the U.S. Catholic Conference in Washington. Mahony will continue to draw his salary of less than $800 a month while he lives in the third-floor rectory of St. Vibiana’s Cathedral, next to downtown Skid Row.

But, as a cardinal, “he will get a lot of new (church) clothes and a hat,” the spokesman said.

Employees at the archdiocesan headquarters were surprised by Mahony’s elevation to cardinal--especially after he had sent three memos last week to chancery staffers denying speculation that he was on the Vatican’s list.

More than 100 employees applauded loudly when Mahony was introduced at the news conference, including 70-year-old Auxiliary Bishop John Ward, who will have served under three cardinals in Los Angeles.

“The three Ms--McIntyre, Manning and Mahony; they were each unique,” said Ward, referring to Cardinals James McIntyre, Timothy Manning and the new cardinal-elect.

Mahony speculated that “the list” of new cardinals had actually changed frequently over the last several months even as he kept getting mentioned as the likeliest U.S. candidate.

Don Mullen, the doorman at the New Otani Hotel, said Mahony comes across the street from the rectory frequently for breakfast at the hotel.

“I’m very happy to hear about his appointment,” said Mullen, a Catholic from La Puente. “He’s very deserving.” Then, in a confidential tone, “I’ll tell you something else: He could handle the job as Pope too.”

The Career of the Cardinal-Elect

Roger Michael Mahony, a native Angeleno, was named as a cardinal-elect by Pope John Paul II on Wednesday. At 55, Mahony will be one of the youngest members of the College of Cardinals. Here is a look at his career:

1950: Enters preparatory seminary for the archdiocese

1954: Enters Queen of Angels Seminary in San Fernando

1956: Enters St. John’s Seminary College, Camarillo

1958: Enters St. John’s Theologate

1962: Is ordained as priest in Fresno

1967: Is named monsignor in Fresno

March 19, 1975: Is appointed auxiliary bishop of Fresno

Feb. 26, 1980: Is appointed bishop of Stockton

July 16, 1985: Is appointed archbishop of Los Angeles

May 29, 1991: Is named to the College of Cardinals

SOURCE: Los Angeles Archdiocese

Compiled by Times researcher Michael Meyers

BACKGROUND

Members of the College of Cardinals are chosen by the Pope to serve as his principal assistants and advisers in administering the worldwide affairs of the church. In addition to electing Popes, cardinals are members of curial departments and offices in the Vatican. The title of cardinal, while symbolic of high honor, does not signify any extension of the powers of ordination. At present, the conclave that elects a Pope is limited to 120 cardinals who are under the age of 80. Pope John Paul II’s latest appointments restored that number. Archbishops who preside over large and important archdioceses are typically elevated to the rank of cardinal.

The New Cardinals

Following is the list of 23 cardinals whose appointment was announced by Pope John Paul II on Wednesday. They will be formally installed at the Vatican on June 28. Here is a look at the cardinals, by age, position and nation:

UNITED STATES Roger M. Mahony 55 Archbishop of Los Angeles Anthony Joseph Bevilacqua 67 Archbishop of Philadelphia LATIN AMERICA Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo 64 Archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico Antonio Quarracino 67 Archbishop of Buenos Aires Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez 54 Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic AFRICA Frederic Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi 60 Archbishop of Kinshasa, Zaire EUROPE Robert Coffy 70 Archbishop of Marseille, France Camillo Ruini 60 Vicar of Rome Alexandru Todea 78 Archbishop of Alba Julia, Romania Giovanni Saldarini 66 Archbishop of Turin, Italy Cahal Brendan Daly 73 Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland Jan Chryzostom Korec 67 Bishop of Nitra, Czechoslovakia Henri Schwery 58 Bishop of Sion, Switzerland Georg Maximilian Sterzinsky 55 Bishop of Berlin VATICAN CURIA Angelo Sodano 63 Italian, secretary of state Pio Laghi 69 Italian, head of Congregation for Catholic Education Edward Cassidy 66 Australian, president of Pontifical Council for Christian Unity Jose Sanchez 71 Filipino, secretary of Vatican Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples Virgilio Noe 69 Italian, head of St. Peter’s Basilica Fiorenzo Angelini 74 Italian, president of Pontifical Council for heath care workers NON-VOTING CARDINALS Guido Del Mestri 80 Italian, papal diplomat P. Paolo Dezza 89 Italian, senior Jesuit official Ignatius Gong Pinmei 91 Chinese, bishop of Shanghai, named “in pectore” in 1979

Los Angeles Archdiocese

The Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese, the most populous in the United States, covers an 8.762-square-mile area of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. The archdiocese officially has 3.4 million Catholics. However, Cardinal-elect Mahony estimates the number may be as high as 4.5 million, based on new census data. RELIGIOUS PERSONNEL Cardinal: 1 Archbishop (Justin Rigali, holds Vatican post): 1 Bishops: 7 Priests: 1,377 Sisters: 2,333 Brothers: 214 Deacons: 141 CHURCHES Parishes: 282 Missions: 10 OTHER Hospitals: 16 Orphanage: 1 Health Care Centers: 11 Day Care and Extended Care Centers: 6 SCHOOLS Colleges and Universities: 5 Seminaries: 21 High Schools: 55 Elementary Schools: 233 Non-Residential Schools for Handicapped: 4 Source: Los Angeles Archdiocese, the Official Catholic Directory, the U.S. Catholic Conference and wire reports.