The Book of Bishops - The Dearden Era (Payback?)

The days of late July, 1967 in Detroit are still remembered by those who lived through them and still talked about and even studied by those hungry for some lessons in history. These were the days when the streets of Detroit erupted in anger and frustration, days of our very own home-brewed troubles.

Following these days of turmoil and trouble many leaders sought to learn the lessons needed to move forward. One such leader was the Archbishop of Detroit, John Dearden. By this time the Second Vatican Council was finished and its impact was clearly felt on Detroit's Archbishop.

One of the ideas he developed for responding to the Troubles of 1967 centered in the annual fund-raising drive, actually inaugurated years before, by his predecessor, Archbishop Edward Mooney. That was the Archdiocesan Development Fund. (ADF)

Each year in springtime this fund-raising drive swept across all parishes raising funds for a variety of purposes, all necessary and all just too expansive to be handled by any single parish. Funds were raised to purchase properties for new parishes, for enabling and enriching educational endeavors, for counseling projects and the like. And each year Catholics across the Archdiocese proved themselves generous again and again.

Until the year after those Troubles of 1967.

That year, to the mix of charitable causes already funded the Archbishop added special outreach into the Black Community, providing seed monies to enable self-help efforts at bettering lives.

But far too many were having no part of this added effort.

Too many Catholics back then were still not ready to hear the powerful message of the Gospel in terms of true outreach to neighbors.

The ADF in 1968 tanked in terms of raising designated funds.

And it continued to tank the next year and the year after that.

Recovery would be a long time coming.

Then came the surprise for me personally.

I cannot remember today exactly what year it happened but I do know that I had managed to avoid that desk job downtown, the heat was off and I was settling into my position as pastor out in Romeo.

And the call came.

Archbishop Dearden had named me as that year's priest chair for the ADF!

And he was calling on me to work closely with the newly named lay chair to strat bring a robustness back to the ADF!

Payback for letting me settle into a parish position instead of sitting behind a desk? Who knows. What I do know is that for the next two years I would be front and center as the clergy face for the ADF and I would be spending a whole lot of time in person and on the phone with brother priests convincing them to get behind the efforts and bring this important effort back to a strong, healthy life!

Oh! And that also meant having a "make-over." Seems I was one of those "with the times" and my hair back then was a bit too long and too curly.  And those glasses! The kind that would darken when impacted by sunshine! Get rid of them. Photos of me had to be of a straight-laced, clean-cut, respectable looking cleric! The pros got busy and I got that make-over.

And I got to meet and work with the lay chair of the ADF who was also the president (and I guess in today's terns CEO) of the Burrough's Corporation, at that time one of the leading local innovators in computer technology. This was back when computers occupied whole rooms and even whole floors! He introduced me to the future and shared visions of days ahead and brought me in on the ground floor of a dawning era.

And we actually did, also, turn the ADF around, hitting target once again after a number of years of falling short.

And I have John Dearden to thank for that part of my life.

But then he retired and his replacement was named - the bishop of Gaylord, Michigan, someone named Edmund Szoka!

And if we thought Dearden was Iron John when he came to Detroit, we were about to get a lesson in what Iron truly meant.

Edmund Szoka was coming to Detroit. The Szoka Era was about to begin.

And some years of real "fun" were dawning!

Watch for more in the weeks to come.

The Book of Bishops - The Dearden Era (Fact/Fiction)

 This tale is one not often spoken of, in fact so infrequently has it been told that even some close to me (including family members) have probably never been aware of it.

At least until now.

And part of it is definitely fact but there is also a part that remains and will remain questionable, uncertifiable, not able to be documented or proved due to the fact that principles involved have passed away and so leave a part that cannot be authenticated.

Let's begin with the fact part.

I had never considered myself as an "academic." True, I passed through those early grades and then college and seminary grad school rather easily. However, given the choice between settling in with some classic tome or playing a couple of games of pinochle, one could easily find me at the card table.

However, evidently others, certainly some in high places, saw things differently.

And John Dearden saw a potential need to fill.

The winds of change were clearly in the air in the Catholic Church and John Dearden was definitely impacted by them. In his wisdom he realized that work would be needed to enable the folk in the pews to enter wholeheartedly into the spirit of the dawning age.

One critical area to be addressed was that of liturgy. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council had made this the number one item on their agenda, acknowledging that reform was needed and long overdue. As a result new tools, books and documents were being prepared and needed to be studied, understood and introduced in such a way that the average Joan (or Joe) would be at home in this strange territory. (I might be inclu=ined to say"new" territory but there really was nothing new emerging. Rather, we were rediscovering our ancient roots.)

At any rate a handful from the Archdiocese of Detroit were tapped to engage in advanced studies, the plan being that this would provide a resource pool for introducing the coming books and documents to the Church of Detroit.

I was among that handful chosen and selected for liturgical studies at the University of Notre Dame.

I accepted the call with one very important and strong stipulation.

I would be allowed to remain in parish ministry.

I believed then and still do today that far too many get advanced education and then get removed from the common folk. They wind up in office jobs or teaching positions with hardly any regular contact with real people and their lives. I did not want that. I would resource the Archdiocese. I would teach when called on. I would do whatever might prove necessary but all of this just as long as I would never be removed from the daily life of a parish faith community.

Agreed!

So the assurance was given to me.

And off I went for graduate studies in liturgical theology at the University of Notre Dame (where, by the way, I decided not to ever try out for the football team!)

And four years later the mission was accomplished and I was full time back home, diploma in hand. Actually, diploma was not yet in hand when I returned home. I skipped the commencement and had the parchment mailed to me. But I was back home.

And in only a matter of days I was called Downtown for a special meeting.

And at that meeting I was informed that in a couple of months I would be receiving a new assignment. Of course, it would be an office job, heading a department Downtown.

That promise of my remaining full time in a parish? Well, forget it. There was a greater need. And I had a couple of months to get used to the idea.

But I also have at least a little knowledge of things like politics and bureaucracy and how they work.

I left that meeting, traveled across the street and down the block into another set of Archdiocesan offices. And there I asked what parishes might be open and looking for a full time pastor. My thinking? If I got a new assignment, it would be guaranteed for six years and no one could move me for that amount of time without my full agreement.

And I also figured that one department would not know what the other was doing until, hopefully, it was too late.

And sure enough!

A parish was open and looking for a pastor and I could apply even though I was still so very, very young. And I applied. When the time came, I got the phone call.

I had been appointed pastor of St. Clement of Rome Parish in Romeo, Michigan.

And by Canon Law I would become untouchable for the next six years unless I agreed to move!

And the phone call that I received shortly after getting this news was from a different Archdiocesan official who, needless  to say, was not a very happy camper. Such language! And from a cleric!

And that is the fact part of this story.

Now the undocumented part.

Well, for some time after there were still movements to undo the assignment. It was a sort of "get him out of that parish and back down here where he belongs!" situation.

And then suddenly - silence.

The movement stopped and I was left in peace.

It was only some years later, too long after these events to document or verify, that I was told, "Did you know that John Dearden intervened?" He finally stepped in and told those officials whose plans had been upset that they should just leave me alone.

"If that is what he wants, if that is what he believes he is called to, just leave him alone!"

Fact? Fiction?

Don't know.

What I do know is that it sounds like John Dearden and in the months and years after, I joined the adjunct seminary faculty, gave many a presentation throughout the Archdiocese, resourced in the area of liturgy in numerous ways, but never left parish life and the real, day to day faith community.

And eventually, someone else was groomed for that position that I managed to avoid. And life has gone on.

And we have all somehow survived!

And that is fact!

Watch for more in the weeks to come.

The Book of Bishops - The Dearden Era (I See You!)

 It was not quite four years after Iron John Dearden arrived in Detroit than he was off in 1962 to Rome for the first session of the Second Vatican Council. Sessions of that Council lasted until its conclusion in 1965, reshaping so much of the Catholic worldview.

And somewhere, somehow within that very process good, old Iron John also began to melt.

I can find no other way to describe it.

By the end of the workings of Vatican II Iron John was no more.

Instead we found ourselves dealing with a man who had, somehow (call it the working of the Spirit,) been radically transformed.

Instead of iron cold, steely, hard and inflexible, John Dearden was now warm, approachable, engaging and, well, downright pastoral.

He was actually a joy to speak with, to listen to, to learn from, to be with.

So amazing was the transformation in this man that he was the one whom his peer bishops from all of the United States elected as their first president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops! His hand would guide the Church of the United States through the often unfamiliar waters of the post-Vatican II Era.

It was this John Dearden that I finally had aa chance to meet, greet, sit and speak with and even get to know somewhat personally. Until this time my dealings with him were what might best be called remote - singing or assisting in other ministerial ways at services.

And the really up close but still frankly impersonal moment - my ordination to the priesthood. His hands anointed me. His hands rested on my head. His hands clasped mine as I was commissioned to set Word and Eucharist before God's People.

But my up close and personal meeting with John Dearden did not come until a few years later.

By this time I was in my second assignment, a parish on Detroit's Eastside. I also had a couple of years of graduate studies in liturgical theology at the University of Notre Dame under my belt. I was becoming a liturgical resource for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

And that is when my first one on one came with John Dearden.

Until that time we had never met up close. Never spoken other than, perhaps, a word or phrase of courteous greeting. To John Dearden I was just one more face in that crowd of so many who constituted a part of the Church of Detroit.

One more nameless face!

Or so I thought!

He had come to our parish for Confirmations and, as was expected, there was dinner beforehand with the clergy of the parish. (Remember, this was back in those ancient times when parishes actually had more than one priest! We had four at that time plus weekend help!)

Anyhow, after the obviously elegant dinner and courteous but general table conversation, and before  the Confirmation ceremony, much to my surprise, John Dearden took my arm and pulled me aside and said, "Let's have a chat!"

He led into a sitting room away from the gathered crowd. We sat down.

And that is when his next statement blew me away.

"I understand," John Dearden, Archbishop of Detroit, said to me,, "That you disagree with my theology of Confirmation!"

Now how could he possibly know that?

He had definitely done some serious homework before coming to the parish. And we were definitely not strangers, faces in the crowd to him - at least I certainly was not! John Dearden knew me and whatever his sources, they were good! Very good!

He knew my theological position on Confirmation!

He saw me!

And, yes indeed, I did disagree with his position. I had actually never said so in public, announced it from the rooftops or anything like that but my studies had been leading to some research and conclusions that put us sort of at odds with each other. In a word, our starting points were different and as a result, our conclusions were different.

Really,  I am not sure if I should even describe this whole moment as being at odds. Maybe if I were dealing with Iron John that would have been the case but this was no longer Iron John.

And it showed.

"Let's talk about your conclusions," he invited.

And we began a discussion on the theology of Confirmation!

And he listened to and showed respect for the sources I was citing and, when appropriate, he countered with his views tempered by candid admissions of not really having explored the actual subject in all that depth!

That evening so long ago I truly met John Dearden.

And we had a decent, respectful conversation. At its ending he concluded by saying (and I still deeply treasure this comment) "I cannot, at this time, agree with your conclusions but I will always respect your stand and if ever a guest in your parish, I will respect your theological conclusions!"

John Dearden was a pastor of the finest class!

Watch for more in the weeks to come.