Archbishop Seeks to Curb Vatican Power

In a rare and dramatic appeal for curbing the power of the Vatican, retired Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco will call today for restoring to bishops their historic role in appointing new bishops and fully participating with the pope in defining church doctrine.

At the same time, Quinn will urge the Vatican to convene a meeting of the world’s 3,000 Catholic bishops to begin a dialogue on issues that have deeply divided the church in a “turbulent age,” among them birth control, priestly celibacy, the ordination of women and problems of the divorced and remarried.

Not since the 1960s has an individual Roman Catholic archbishop taken so public and independent a stand in calling for widespread reforms in the church.

Quinn’s proposals, to be delivered in an address at Oxford University in England, comes a year after Pope John Paul II opened the door for discussion on how he or any future pope should exercise authority as supreme pontiff.

In his encyclical on Christian unity, the pontiff said he was willing to “find a way of exercising the [pope’s] primacy which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation.”

The proposals by Quinn--who retired in December after 18 years as archbishop of San Francisco and three years as president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops--come at a time of increasingly vocal requests by American bishops for a greater voice in the affairs of the church.

Over the years, Quinn said, the authority of bishops has eroded, in part because political conflicts, such as the French Revolution during the 18th century, immobilized the local religious hierarchy and required the Vatican to step in and appoint bishops.

Since then, the bishops’ power has continued to flow to the Vatican bureaucracy, known as the Curia, despite church doctrine that invests bishops with the teaching authority of the church, in concert with the pope.

Quinn called for full participation by local bishops in the appointment of new bishops. He said members of the laity and priests should also be consulted more seriously.

Currently, Quinn said, local bishops make recommendations to Rome, but they are sometimes ignored. “It is not uncommon for bishops of a province to discover that no candidate they proposed has been accepted for approval,” he said. Often, the recommendation of a papal nuncio--the pope’s representative in a particular country--carries more weight than the nation’s bishops.

The pope’s power to appoint, observers say, has been effectively used by John Paul to put into place a much more conservative hierarchy and to hold in check those who would veer from his vision for the church.

Quinn said bishops have been reduced to the role of “managers.” Often, he said, the Vatican consults with bishops only after it has reached a decision.

It is well known that bishops in the United States have chafed at such constraints. Quinn said some have been “intimidated” into silence while others say nothing because bishops are responsible for unity within the church and “do not want to create an appearance of rebellion.”

As a retired archbishop--he is now a scholar-in-residence at Oxford’s Campion Hall, a Jesuit institution--Quinn’s remarks may not be as influential as they might have been if he were a sitting archbishop.

But some theologians and church scholars said Friday that Quinn’s remarks may be viewed as more credible because he is now free to speak his mind.

Initial reaction from several church watchers was favorable.

“I have not been so excited by the remarks of a bishop since I read the reports of the debates that took place on the floor at Vatican II,” said Father Thomas P. Rausch, chairman of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. The Second Vatican Council, which began in 1962, ushered in major church reforms.

Quinn made it clear that he remains loyal to Pope John Paul II and the church.

“I am not here taking a personal position on any of these issues,” he said in his prepared remarks. “My point is simply to underline that issues of major concern in the church are not really open to a free and collegial evaluation.”

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Excerpts

Here are excerpts from a lecture scheduled for today at Oxford University by the Most. Rev. John R. Quinn, retired Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco:

On appointing bishops, a power now reserved for the pope:

“Honest, fraternal dialogue compels me to raise the question whether the time has not come to make some modifications in this procedure so that the local churches really have a significant and truly substantive role in the appointment of bishops. . . . The participation of bishops . . . must include a meaningful and responsible role for priests [and] lay persons.”

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On bishops not having a real voice in church teaching:

“There are practical instances which are tantamount to making bishops managers who only work under instructions rather than as true witnesses of faith who teach, in communion with the pope, in the name of Christ.

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On church unity:

“The bishops, if routinely and widely consulted on doctrinal . . . pronouncements, could be a better support to the pope, could help in bringing to bear the mind of the whole church on a given issue and in formulating a teaching so that the pope would not have to bear the burden all alone.

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On the need for a worldwide council of bishops:

“Many bishops feel that issues which they would like to discuss responsibly cannot come up, such as [ordination of women, priestly celibacy, divorce and remarriage]. I am not here taking a personal position. . . . My point is simply to underline that issues of major concern in the church are not really open to a free and collegial evaluation and discussion by bishops.”

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On loyalty to Pope John Paul II:

“I speak completely in fidelity to the church, one and Catholic. . . . My reflections are offered as . . . the response of one who reverences the papal office and the person of the pope, who loves the church, who was born of her womb in baptism, who received the name of Christ from her lips.”