Cardinal Leon-Joseph Suenens; Helped Modernize Catholic Church

Belgian Cardinal Leon-Joseph Suenens, who helped modernize the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s, has died. He was 91.

Suenens, who died Monday of a stroke, was one of four cardinals appointed to oversee the debate about the direction of the Catholic Church that raged during the Second Vatican Council of 1962 to 1965.

Pope John Paul II, in a telegram to Brussels-Mechelen Archbishop Godfried Danneels, remembered Suenens as being “devoted with intense apostolic ardor to the service of his archdiocese and the church in Belgium.”

“I also remember with emotion the place he held in the theological and pastoral reflections during sessions of the Second Vatican Council,” the pope wrote.

Suenens supported opening contacts between Catholics and other Christian faiths, one of the main outcomes of the council. He also spoke in favor of greater roles for lay people and women in the Roman Catholic Church.

Other suggestions of his that were put into practice included simplifying nuns’ habits and setting age limits for ecclesiastical superiors.

“The church is the visible reality, and during the 1960s we stressed changes in that structure,” Suenens told The Times a decade later during a Southern California lecture tour calling for renewal of faith. “We have to continue the discussion, but at the same time we have to stress the invisible side of the church. You can discuss all the things about a car, but you have to have the key to make it run. So now I’m stressing the key--contact with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit.” In later years, Suenens became disappointed when Vatican II reforms he had advocated appeared to stall.

Born in Brussels on July 16, 1904, Suenens was ordained in 1927. He was appointed archbishop of the diocese of Brussels-Mechelen in November 1961 and primate of Belgium in January 1962. He held that post until his self-imposed retirement in 1980.